Arsenal's lack of squad depth has an ongoing issue throughout the 2022/23 season amid the congested schedule due to the World Cup taking place this month. The Gunners have suffered countless short and long term absences this campaign and is an issue Edu and Mikel Arteta are fully aware of.
The Gunners were busy in the summer transfer window as five new players were added to Arteta's side in hope of improving on last season's fifth placed finish. Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko were brought in from Manchester City, Fabio Vieira joined as one for the future from Portuguese champions FC Porto and American goalkeeper Matt Turner replaced Bernd Leno as Aaron Ramsdale's back-up.
Whilst Arsenal have enjoyed their best start to a season in the Premier League-era, there has been plenty of downfalls with injuries to Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny and Emile Smith-Rowe stripping Arteta's squad to its bare bones. And last week, there was a major scare when Bukayo Saka was forced off after 27 minutes against Nottingham Forest.
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The England international has been one of the north Londoners' shining stars this season with 10 goals contributed in 18 games and looked all but certain to be included in Gareth Southgate's squad for the tournament in Qatar. Saka did return to action in mid-week against FC Zurich in the Europa League and could feature in tomorrow's derby against Chelsea.
However, former Gunners striker Ian Wright has discussed his concerns about the 21-year-old's fitness ahead of the World Cup and voiced his apprehension over the lack of players available for Arteta to select this season. "It was sad to see, you look at Arsenal and people are already saying he should have been rested by now," he said on The Kelly and Wrighty show.
"‘It was an awkward fall he had [against Nottingham Forest], he opened his knee up, the sign is always when someone is coming off how angry they are, how despondent they are, we saw with Varane how he was, Saka came off with a little bit more of anger, he was really disappointed, he looked really vexed about it.
"I think if Emile Smith Rowe was fit, he [Saka] would’ve got more of a rest. We just haven’t got the depth, we still haven’t put teams away enough in the Europa League to be able to rest, we have to play him, whereas you probably would’ve thought he’d get rested against Zurich.
"He’s so dangerous now. He’s getting fouled a lot, he’s getting a lot of bodies around him, you always worry about him.
"It is a worry because we’re not a million miles away from the World Cup, and more importantly he’s in good form which is what Arsenal need at the moment".
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