Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has addressed Bukayo Saka’s injury after the winger was forced off during the Gunners’ 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby, Soccernet.football reports.
The Gunners recorded a narrow victory at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Sunday thanks to Gabriel’s powerful header. Arteta’s side managed without crucial duo Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard, earning all three points from the keenly contested encounter.
The victory will however leave a bitter-sweet taste at the back of Arteta’s throat as his side may have been dealt yet another injury blow. Saka was forced to leave the pitch late on, with 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri coming on in place of the winger.
“I made two changes with the front players and suddenly he’s down,” Arteta told reporters after the game when quizzed about Saka’s injury.
“So I looked at the bench and the options that we had, so we had to adapt. I don’t know exactly what it is, but he could not continue.”
Speaking on the win and what it meant to the club and the fans, the Spaniard continued; “Well, I’m super happy, obviously. We know what it means to our club, to our people to win a London derby, and we have the power to try to make them very happy.
“So hopefully we have achieved that and that makes it very special. On the performance we had moments in the game, some really good ones, some others that we have to suffer. We suffered because we have to adapt a little bit the plan because of the players that we had available.
“I loved it because since the day that we started to get by, the team got hungrier and hungrier to play the game and that’s a big compliment to everybody at the club to behave in a certain way.
“It’s a tough week that’s coming up, and instead of finding any little excuses or arguments to do that – the opposite, face the challenge, play with courage, acknowledge our qualities and what we have to be able to do to win a game, and we’ve actually done it.”
Arteta will be hoping Saka’s injury is nothing serious, with crucial matches against Atalanta and Manchester City in the Champions League and Premier League respectively, on the horizon.