Mikel Arteta described the injury Thomas Partey sustained at Selhurst Park on Monday night as “a big concern” to compound a disappointing night for his Arsenal side.
The Gunners were comprehensively outplayed by Crystal Palace in a 3-0 defeat which left a dent in their ambitions to reach the Champions League next season.
Arsenal are now fifth in the table behind north London rivals Tottenham, albeit with a game in hand over the in-form Spurs, who thrashed Newcastle 5-1 this weekend, and Partey’s injury will only further damage their run-in.
Arteta told the Arsenal website: “I don’t know, but he [Partey] felt something in the same area that he got injured previously, so it’s a big concern. It’s what we have, it’s the numbers that we have. We’ve lost Kieran [Tierney] and we’ve lost Thomas now and that’s it.
“With the players that we have we will keep trying like we have since the start of the season, but we never had a big squad so we can’t find any excuses. Today we have to look at ourselves and I’m the first one because I repeat myself, it wasn’t good enough.”
Victory for Palace moved them up to ninth and extended their unbeaten run to seven matches ahead of their trip to Wembley in a fortnight for an FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
Eagles manager Vieira said: “It was a really good performance. I think from the first minute we wanted to put pressure on them and not allow them time on the ball. We did that well.
“I think there is more belief in the team, players understand better each other and start to really know each other as well. There is a clear idea of how we want to play and today we scored those goals in really important moments of the game. I also think the way we managed the game showed that we are growing up as a team.”
Vieira spent nine years as a player at Arsenal and won three Premier League titles at Highbury. Asked if he felt sorry for damaging his old club’s hopes of a Champions League return, he replied: “No, our main focus was to win the game.”
