Arsenal will be without key defender William Saliba when they host Chelsea on Tuesday night but luckily for the Gunners their opponents are enduring a dry patch in front of goal. The Frenchman has been out of the side for nearly two months after injuring himself against Sporting CP in the Europa League.
During the time he has been away the season has somewhat crumbled. With no win in four and 15 goals conceded since he last played, Arsenal go into the game second for the first time in 15 matchdays. The Blues are far from a scary sight though, on a run of five losses in a row and without a win in eight.
The lack of Saliba will still pose questions for Arteta, who has struggled to replace his main keystone at the back and will have to guard against the pace of Mykhailo Mudryk at the Emirates Stadium. Although hope still remains of a Saliba return this season, Arteta has no good news on that front.
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"He's not going to be involved tomorrow," Arteta said ahead of the game.. "We will have to wait until the next game to see where we are." Arsenal are away at Newcastle next week before playing Brighton, Nottingham Forest and Wolves to finish the season.
At the back, things only get worse too with the timeline for Takehiro Tomiyasu taking another step backwards. The right-back has also been away since mid-March and was quickly ruled out for the season after surgery. He could be hard pressed to recover even in time for pre-season, though.
"Tomiyasu out for three-and-a-half months, maybe now six months," Arteta said, delivering a hammer blow for the defender. This would take him up to the start of next season if it is a worst case scenario.
The only other injury concern for Arsenal is Mohamed Elneny, the midfielder, who might have played his last game for the club, is also out until the end of the campaign following surgery on his own knee injury.
Meanwhile Chelsea themselves will be heavily depleted with Kalidou Koulibaly, Mason Mount, Reece James and Marc Cucurella all ruled out of the game. The initial three names will all face a battle to play again this season. Kai Havertz could return after missing the defeat to Brentford with illness.
Marcus Bettinelli is also out injured whilst Armando Broja is out until next season, another casualty to damaging knee setbacks.
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