Mikel Arteta has admitted that Arsenal’s injury crisis is giving him sleepless nights ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Liverpool.
Arsenal could be without seven players due to injury and suspension this weekend. Kieran Tierney, Martin Odegaard and Takehiro Tomiyasu are all definitely sidelined, while William Saliba is suspended.
Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori are all doubts and could also miss Sunday’s huge game between Premier League title rivals at the Emirates Stadium.
And Arteta said on Friday: “Normally, I prefer to go to bed with the lineup in my head so I can sleep like a baby.
“But sometimes it can not be as you have to wait for the next day. Sometimes two days before. Or just three days before you already have the idea: ‘Against this team, this is what I am going to do’ - but when you have uncertainty with injuries that is tricky.
“For me, the stress comes from two things. First, when you don’t have options, what do you do?
“And then, you get in the shoes of the players and every time you make a decision it is a positive one for somebody and not so positive for one. That’s what causes a little bit of tummy ache if anything.
“But that happens every week, the process of choosing the lineup and understanding how everyone will feel about it.”
Arsenal would fall seven points adrift of Premier League leaders Liverpool if they lose on Sunday, but Arteta is thinking positively.
“That’s the way we try to behave every single day,” he said. “If we could be four points ahead, that’s still not going to change the season because we’ve been there in that situation as well. We can probably learn from it.
“But the possibility is tomorrow - let’s have a beautiful day on Sunday when we really perform. We are who we are and we will demand the game in the manner that we want. This has to be entrenched in our team.
“We went to [Aston] Villa, one of the hardest grounds, we won there and went to [Manchester] City, played 55 minutes with 10 men. We did it.
“This is another opportunity and the team has done it. That’s the good thing. They have already experienced it, they believe how good they are and that’s really important.”
