Arsenal are without a win in their last three matches and welcome Tottenham Hotspur to Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night.
The second North London Derby comes at a difficult period for both clubs, with Spurs very inconsistent and currently 12th in the Premier League. The Gunners go into the clash having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester United on penalties, despite dominating large periods.
“Incredible how you don’t win that game, that’s basically to sum up,” Mikel Arteta said afterwards. “The dominance, the superiority in relation to the opposition and everything that we did to try to win the game and that’s it we didn’t get what we deserved clearly.
“But there is an element that is about putting the ball in the back of the net that we did once and the amount of situations, chances, penalties that we had we didn’t. We go home extremely sad but I cannot be prouder of my players, the team, the individual collectively what they produced on Wednesday against two top teams it’s incredible. But we haven’t got rewarded and that’s the downside too.”
With plenty of first team regulars playing the full 120 minutes, Arteta may need to make a few changes to his side for the clash at Tottenham. The squad will likely have just the Tuesday to train together ahead of the derby and much may depend on how players react in the coming hours.
One star who looks set to miss the game is Gabriel Jesus. The Brazilian was stretchered off in the first half and looks to have picked up a fresh knee injury. “Big worry, that’s my feeling,” Arteta said on the striker. “He had to come off on a stretcher with a lot of pain, touching his knee. It’s not looking good.”
The Gunners now face an anxious wait to find out the extent of the damage. It could mean one of Leandro Trossard or Raheem Sterling comes into the starting line-up, with both players coming off the bench against Man Utd on Sunday.
Arteta may also make two changes to his midfield. Declan Rice and Thomas Partey did not make the starting line-up against Ruben Amorim’s side but could replace Mikel Merino and Jorginho’s in Arteta’s midfield three.
