Mikel Arteta has admitted that Thomas Partey 's injury is a "big concern" for Arsenal heading into the all-important run in.
The 28-year-old, who has been a pillar for the Gunners this season across his 24 Premier League appearances, limped off in the 75th minute of their shock 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on Monday.
With the pre-match news that Kieran Tierney could be ruled out for the rest of the campaign and will undergo surgery on his knee, Arteta's misery was compounded due to the loss of Partey, with Arsenal already limited in midfield.
"I don't know, but he felt something in the same area that he got injured previously, so it's a big concern," the Gunners boss explained post-match.
"It's what we have, it's the numbers that we have. We've lost Kieran and we've lost Thomas now and that's it. With the players that we have we will keep trying like we have since the start of the season, but we never had a big squad so we can't find any excuses. Today we have to look at ourselves and I’m the first one because I repeat myself, it wasn't good enough."
Having starred for Ghana over the international break, helping them qualify for the World Cup via the play-offs, Partey returned to north London hoping to fire Arsenal back into fourth place after rivals Tottenham Hotspur leapfrogged them on Sunday. But the Gunners' Champions League hopes were hit with a blow at Selhurst Park, as Jean-Philippe Mateta, Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha did the damage in a comprehensive win for Patrick Vieira and co.
The former Atletico Madrid midfielder, who joined the Gunners in October 2020 for £45.3million, has so far made 59 appearances for Arsenal and scored two goals. But now Partey will join Tierney on the sidelines, just as the Gunners prepare to enter their final 10 games of the term, beginning with the visit of Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
The deeply-frustrated Arteta revealed when asked about the Scottish left-back's condition: "He's seeing a specialist tomorrow and we will know more about the extent of the injury then but the feeling that he had it wasn't really positive and what the scan showed either, but we will have to wait and see what happens."
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On his team's under-par performance, the manager added: "First of all, congratulations to Crystal Palace for winning the match and the way that they performed, but we weren't at the races today, especially in the first half. We were late to every ball, we were soft in the duels and we didn't earn the right to play, and when we did a little bit we were sloppy on the ball.
"We didn't have any dominance or sequences of play when we could take control of the game and we conceded two poor goals as well, so overall it's unacceptable. We need to put our hands up, apologies, regroup, and tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity to prepare for the game against Brighton."
