Arsenal’s injuries are piling up after Riccardo Calafiori was forced to depart their victory against Shakhtar Donetsk midway through the second half with a problem Mikel Arteta described as “not great news”.
An otherwise routine night’s work, the win secured by a first-half own goal from the Shakhtar goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk, was clouded when the left-back came off in visible discomfort with what appeared to be a knee injury. Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard and Jurrien Timber were among those who missed the game and all may still be absent when Liverpool visit the Emirates Stadium for a crunch Premier League fixture on Sunday.
“He had to come off because he felt something,” Arteta said of Calafiori. “I don’t know the extent of it, so in that sense not great news.” On the prospect of a return this weekend for Saka, who has sat out the past two games with a hamstring injury, the manager replied: “He wasn’t able to train yet so that’s unlikely.”
Arteta could at least confirm Ben White, who was replaced at half‑time following an unsteady first half in which he was booked, had not joined their injury list. “It was my decision to take him out,” he said. “He had a yellow card and we’ve played enough with 10 men in recent periods. [Shakhtar] had a lot of density on that side, a lot of players on that side, so I didn’t want to take any chances there.”
Arsenal laboured for much of the night against the Ukrainian champions, although they missed a string of chances and saw Leandro Trossard fluff a late penalty. “We should have put the game to bed with the amount of dominance and territory that we had,” Arteta said. “We looked tired.”
Such a weary performance after the break was little surprise to Arteta but he has no concerns about his available players’ condition to face Liverpool, who lead the top flight and sit four points above Arsenal.
“I was expecting a bit of a drop off,” he said, referring to the proximity of the game with Bournemouth last Saturday and the recent international break. “And the fact that we put so much in the first half and didn’t get the distance in terms of the scoreline, I think we paid a bit for that. But we have now four days. Believe me, come Sunday we’ll be flying.”
The Shakhtar manager, Marino Pusic, whose team were denied a late equaliser by a superb David Raya save, was delighted with their application. “I said to my players I am very proud of how they showed up tonight and what they did,” he said. “You can imagine it is not easy to play against such a tremendous team. I think we deserved an equaliser for sure.” — Guardian
