Coach Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal’s refusal to let their English Premier League title challenge be ruined by injuries after they survived another debilitating 24 hours to beat Brighton 2-1 on Saturday. Arteta’s side was rocked by an injury to Dutch defender Jurrien Timber in training on Friday.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Italy full-back Riccardo Calafiori joined Arsenal’s growing list of walking wounded when he picked up a knock during the pre-match warm-up before the Brighton clash. Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera were also ruled out, so Myles Lewis-Skelly came in at left-back and England midfielder Declan Rice started at right-back.
Another gritty win
Despite their fitness problems, Arsenal ground out their third successive victory by a one-goal margin in the league to reclaim first place from Manchester City, who beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 earlier. Hailing Arsenal’s spirit and togetherness in adversity, Arteta said: “What I like is that we are having a lot of issues and we are dealing with it in an incredible way. Yesterday we lost Jurrien and today we lost Calafiori.
Mikel Arteta
Declan had to play right-back and you see the performance that he put in. That is the spirit and that is how much our players want it. You speak to Declan and tell him he has to play there and he said ‘Ok. I am up for the challenge.’ This attitude is great to witness.” Arsenal have struggled considerably with injuries over the last 18 months, with forward Gabriel Jesus recently returning from almost a year out of action. Kai Havertz remains sidelined, while centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes came on as a second-half substitute to boost Arteta’s defensive options in his first appearance since early November.
Arsenal were cruising after Martin Odegaard netted his first goal of the season (14th minute) before Georginio Rutter’s own goal doubled their lead (52nd min).
Raya’s vital late save
Diego Gomez reduced the deficit in the 64th minute for Brighton, but David Raya then made a fine save from Yankuba Minteh to preserve the victory.
Six
No. of Arsenal players currently injured; joint third-highest among all 20 EPL teams
Three
No. of times Arsenal have won by a one-goal margin in their last three games
42
No of points accumulated by league-leaders Arsenal after 18 games (13 wins)
