Mikel Arteta talks about Oleksandr Zinchenko on Arsenal injury at end of season
Mikel Arteta was unable to confirm that William Saliba and Oleksandr Zinchenko will be out for the rest of the season. Arsenal have struggled with a number of issues throughout the season and the end of the season hasn’t relieved them of more problems.
Zinchenko had to be substituted against Newcastle United with a calf injury, The Athletic suspect. While William Saliba was eliminated by Sporting CP in the Europa League and has been absent since.
Despite hints that both players would miss the rest of the season, Arteta said: “We have another session tomorrow before the game against Brighton.” We are trying to recover players for that day. With William it is certain that he will not be suitable for this match and we doubt it for the next one.”
“With William, that’s for sure [he’ll be out], and he’ll have doubts for the next game.”
When Arteta was asked if the situation with off-season Oleksandr Zinchenko had not yet been confirmed, he simply replied: “No.”
Arteta has consistently avoided confirming whether players would actually be away for an extended period of time. The Arsenal boss is reluctant to leave players out indefinitely and apparently wants to continue a positive thinking process behind any recovery.
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Arteta admits he is a big fan of the ‘extraordinary’ Tottenham Hotspur manager
Tottenham Hotspur like Roberto de Zerbi and the Italian also have away admirers with Mikel Arteta waving to the Brighton manager before this weekend’s Premier League match with Arsenal.
Apart from that 5-1 hammering of an Everton inspired by Dwight McNeil, Roberto De Zerbi has just put his foot wrong since he replaced Graham Potter at Amex. Instead of tearing down the foundations of his predecessor, the former Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk manager built on top of it and gave the house Potter built a new coat of paint.
Champions League qualification seems unlikely. But Brighton and Hove Albion are still expected to bring their unique brand of free-flowing football to the European stage next season.
And Arteta will be under no illusions about the scale of the challenge for his title-chasing side ahead of Sunday’s match between the Gunners and the Seagulls at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal face tough test at Brighton
“They’re a really complicated team,” Arteta told Football London of a team that has scored three goals against Liverpool, four goals against West Ham and six goals against Wolves. “The way they play and what Roberto and the coaching staff have done is remarkable.”
According to the Daily Mail, De Zerbi is on Daniel Levy’s radar. Although he’s not one of Tottenham’s top contenders as things stand. It could have something to do with his current contract at Brighton running until 2026. While a very public row with former Spurs manager Cristian Stellini at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium didn’t really do wonders for his image.
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But with Xabi Alonso remaining at Bayer Leverkusen, with Julian Nagelsmann appearing to have doubts and with Arne Slot taking Feyenoord to the Champions League, De Zerbi could soon return to the Spurs hierarchy in the hunt for a replacement for Antonio Conte dragging on without end in sight.
“(De Zerbi is a) world-class coach,” Brighton veteran Adam Lallana told talkSPORT.
“It was never going to be easy for him to come in when we were doing so well with Graham. So the way he turned (things) around and made his mark mid-season…
“He quickly learned his methods,” added Lallana. “It’s so obvious. You really see a specific style of football. I suppose that just makes it a little more appetizing to come and see.
“I am so lucky at this stage of my career to have met Roberto.”