Sunday, December 22, 2024

The questions for Arteta before Liverpool game

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Arsenal take on Liverpool on Sunday in one of the biggest matches of the season.

The game comes at a bad time for the Gunners as they are dealing with a number of issues to key players.

Riccardo Calafiori limped off in the game against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League and is another of the issues that Mikel Arteta will have to deal with.

Arsenal are already without William Saliba, who will miss the game through suspension after being sent off against Bournemouth. And Jurrien Timber, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney are all injured.

Oleksandr Zinchenko is available but has only played 10 minutes of Premier League football and academy graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly was brought on ahead of him at left-back in midweek.

The prospect of Zinchenko coming in to face Mohamed Salah is a daunting one.

Jakub Kiwior could come in and Ben White could play centre-back next to Gabriel, but having such an unsettled backline could be problematic against Liverpool, who are top of the table under Arne Slot.

Arteta will provide fitness updates on Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard at his lunchtime news conference, but the prospect of having five potential starters ruled out for the game is far from ideal.

Come back to this page later for all the key lines from Arteta.

Follow all of Friday’s Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day’s football news

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