Arsenal’s injury and suspension worries are far worse than the ones facing Paris Saint-Germain before their Champions League clash at Emirates Stadium next Tuesday.
Both teams have drawn league games this week with PSG conceding a late equaliser away to Nantes while the Gunners were twice pulled back by Crystal Palace, 24 hours later. Achraf Hakimi was one noticeable absentee for Luis Enrique in that game while Mikel Arteta was without Mikel Merino and Ben White.
The PSG right-back was only rested but Merino and White look to have suffered minor issues, as revealed by Arteta. “Yeah, we’ll have to wait and see,” he said when asked if the duo could be fit to face PSG in a press conference. “They weren’t able to be in the squad today.”
Arteta has seen his squad heavily impacted by both injuries and suspension this season with that continuing before two semi-final legs against PSG. One unexpected benefit of some fitness problems in attack, is that Merino has been superb up top with 10 goal contributions to his name in the last 13 appearances.
Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli are just a few of the forwards to have been absent at points but it was the injury to Kai Havertz which resulted in Merino’s move further forward. Thankfully, his absence was likely just precautionary as he was captured doing some indoor work at London Colney earlier this week.
Some key players have also missed games due to suspension with Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard and William Saliba all sent off this season. Thomas Partey is the newest player set to serve a ban as an accumulation of Champions League yellow cards means he will be suspended for the first leg.
There are several other Arsenal players that will miss both PSG games and beyond that due to long-term issues. Gabriel Magalhaes underwent hamstring surgery while Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Jesus needed knee operations while Jorginho may not play again this season.
