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Arsenal are “really worried” about the status of Bukayo Saka’s hamstring, Mikel Arteta has acknowledged, as an injury to the Gunners’ forward threatened to mar a sizeable win for Arsenal at Crystal Palace.
Saka limped out in the 24th minute of an impressive 5-1 win, the England international clutching his hamstring as he made his way to the Selhurst Park dressing rooms. Hamstring issues have lurked in the background for Saka in recent months, forcing him to withdraw from international duty in October and also flaring up in a game against Chelsea. Subsequently Saka was pictured leaving the ground on crutches.
“He felt something in his hamstring, he could not continue,” Arteta said in his post-match press conference. “He will have to be assessed, but we are pretty worried. They have tested him inside but it’s difficult to say how bad it is.”
Without any sense of a timescale, Arsenal will be hoping for the sort of swift recovery that rarely comes with hamstring issues. Saka has proven to be something of an iron man for his club, featuring in all bar four Premier League games since the start of the 2021-22 season. Missing the visit of Ipswich to the Emirates Stadium on December 27 may be no great challenge for Arsenal, but after that the Gunners travel to Brentford and Brighton. The games really take a step up then with the first leg of their EFL Cup semifinal against Newcastle, an FA Cup third round meeting with Manchester United and home Premier League games against Tottenham and Aston Villa.
Saka is not the first key attacker to go down with major injury in what has often seemed like a Premier League season where anything that can break against Arteta has done so. Martin Odegaard missed over two months after injuring his ankle on international duty with Norway in early September, a period where Saka carried an enormous strain in attack. He did so exceptionally and exited the field the league’s leading assist provider on 10, with a further five goals to his name.
Much like Odegaard, Arsenal do not have anything like a comparable back up for Saka, not just their most dangerous goal threat but also by far their most effective means of progressing the ball into dangerous areas. However, Arteta does have options, some of which have only emerged as vaguely intriguing in the past week.
In that time Gabriel Jesus has scored five goals against Crystal Palace, excelling as a center forward after a long barren spell. The Brazilian has been trusted by Arteta on the right flank too, most notably in a win against Manchester City early last season, but would be entitled to expect to retain his spot at the point of the Arsenal attack. When Saka came off today it was Gabriel Martinelli who switched out to the right, scoring in the second half and driving to the byline in the move that resulted in Kai Havertz netting his side’s third.
Neither are at the level of Saka, but that is no great surprise. No team has one of the best three or four players in the Premier League as a back up. Arsenal will have to hope that this is only a fleeting absence.
