Mikel Arteta admitted he is “very concerned” about William Saliba's injury after the defender missed the draw against Aston Villa.
The Gunners surrendered a 2-0 lead in their 2-2 draw against Unai Emery's side and lost ground on leaders Liverpool, who are six points clear with a game in hand.
Since the start of the 2022/2023 season, Arsenal have conceded 0.8 goals per Premier League game when Saliba played (85 games), compared to 1.7 per game when he did not play (13 games).
Their winning percentage also drops from 71.8% with him in the squad to 38.5% without, with him earning just 1.5 points per game when he misses.
Arsenal already have a long list of injuries, including Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus, while they were also without Riccardo Calafiori, Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu on Saturday.
Arteta, who said before the Villa match that Saliba was missing due to a “little problem”, admitted he does not know the full extent of the Frenchman's injury.
“I think [on Sunday] we will have more information, we will do another test on him and we will be clearer about that,” Arteta said.
“Of course [there is concern]especially considering the numbers we have in the squad and when we look at our bench, very concerned.”
0.8 – Since the start of the 2022/23 season, Arsenal have conceded 0.8 goals per Premier League game when William Saliba was playing (85 games), compared to 1.7 per game when he wasn't playing (13 games). Integral. pic.twitter.com/6DT8ybbOQA
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Given their current injury problems, Arteta was frustrated with the current squad size. She lamented the fact that he could not call on more players from the bench after Villa had drawn level.
He compared their situation to title rivals Liverpool, who made five changes against Brentford earlier on Saturday, including a call on Darwin Nunez to score a stoppage-time double to seal a 2-0 win.
“There are moments, and of course there are [Liverpool] managed to do that [win]said Arteta. “They made the substitutions, and the substitutions had the impact and changed the game.
“On our side it was the opposite, even after we got the two goals very close. The danger was that I knew half the team could go downhill because we were physically exhausted.”
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