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Mikel Arteta has warned that Arsenal’s growing injury list could threaten their bid for the Premier League title after Declan Rice and Cristhian Mosquera were forced off in Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over Brentford.
Goals from Mikel Merino and Bukayo Saka secured a fifth-point lead over second-placed Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium, extending Arsenal’s unbeaten run to 18 matches and marking their eighth consecutive home win.
However, Arteta’s defensive issues were compounded when Mosquera, deputising in the absence of injured centre-backs Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba, went off just before half-time. Rice also appeared to pick up a calf problem, leaving the midfielder unable to continue with 10 minutes remaining.
“Obviously it’s never good news. Declan had to come off. We don’t know yet—we’ll see tomorrow,” said Arteta, who is already without Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard. “Declan can walk but he cannot play. He’s played a lot of minutes, and now we have a match on Saturday morning as well.”
The Gunners had rotated their squad after a hectic week, including victories over Tottenham and Bayern Munich and a draw against Chelsea, but Saka, Jurrien Timber, and Eberechi Eze were eventually needed off the bench. Arteta lamented the congested fixture schedule and called for greater consideration of player welfare ahead of Saturday’s early kick-off at Aston Villa.
“We had a very demanding week and played with one less recovery day than them,” he said. “A little more time to recover would make it easier to look after the players’ welfare.”
