Arsenal keep winning, which is the good news. The less pleasant part is familiar, key players are missing, more are carrying problems, and Mikel Arteta is once again being asked to balance momentum with damage limitation.
The 2-0 win over Everton kept Arsenal level with Manchester City at the top end of the Premier League table. It was comfortable enough, and Arteta would have taken that without hesitation after a demanding spell. Yet the conversation quickly shifted away from the result and back towards the treatment room.
That is where Arsenal are right now. The team are collecting points, but every selection decision comes with a calculation, who can be protected, who can be pushed, and who simply has to play.
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Bukayo Saka injury remains biggest concern
Start with the obvious one. Bukayo Saka is the issue that matters most, because Arsenal do not have another player who gives them what he gives them in terms of ball progression, end product and sheer reliability. When he went down against Bayern Munich, there was immediate concern. There was no challenge of note, no obvious impact, just a player signalling that something had gone wrong.
Arteta later confirmed it was a quad issue, and the wording around it has done little to calm nerves. “We have to wait. It will be weeks,” Arteta said before Arsenal’s win over Everton. “I think in a week or ten days we’re going to have another scan because there’s so much fluid at the moment.
“So the picture is not that clear to give you an exact amount of time. But it looks like it’s going to be weeks.”
That tells you enough. Arsenal do not yet have certainty, and when a manager is talking about fluid obscuring the picture, nobody is putting a firm date on anything. The current expectation points towards a return in December, potentially for the home game against Manchester United on December 20. Until then, Arsenal will have to patch the right side together and hope others can absorb the…
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