Mikel Arteta is without a number of first-team regulars for Arsenal’s clash with Nottingham Forest today.
The manager has finally confirmed that both Gabriel Martinelli (ankle) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (calf) will miss the rest of the campaign, having already lost William Saliba, Mohamed Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyasu.
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In their absence, Jakub Kiwior and Leandro Trossard start, but Kieran Tierney once again has to settle for a place on the bench as Granit Xhaka starts at left-back.
“[Martinelli and Zinchenko] are both out for the rest of the season,” said Arteta on Friday.
“Gabi is a pretty nasty injury, we need to assess in the next week how long he’ll be out for, but it will be at least weeks.
“With Alex it’s a calf issue and he won’t be available to play the next two games.”
Thomas Partey returns to the side and starts alongside Jorginho for the first time, and it is a very youthful Arsenal bench.
The Gunners are set to miss out to Manchester City in the race for the Premier League title and Pep Guardiola’s side will be crowned champions if Arsenal lose in Nottingham.
Starting XI: Ramsdale, White, Kiwior, Gabriel, Xhaka, Jorginho, Partey, Odegaard, Saka, Jesus, Trossard.
Subs: Tierney, Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Holding, Vieira, Turner, Bandeira, Cozier-Duberry, Walters.
