Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to five points with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Brentford on Wednesday night, but the mood in the camp has been soured by fresh injury blows to Declan Rice and summer signing Cristhian Mosquera.
The Gunners were already without key centre-backs William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães when Mosquera, who has been filling in admirably at the heart of defence, was forced off just before half-time after landing awkwardly in an aerial duel with Kevin Schade. The Colombian received lengthy treatment on the pitch but was unable to continue and was replaced by Jurrien Timber.
.jpeg?trim=0,0,0,0&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1000)
Then, with seven minutes of normal time remaining, vice-captain Declan Rice pulled up clutching his calf and immediately signalled to the bench. The England midfielder was also withdrawn, leaving Mikel Arteta to sweat over two more potentially serious problems ahead of a demanding December schedule.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Arteta did not hide his frustration:
“Yes, obviously it’s never good news,” the Arsenal boss admitted. “Declan had to come off, we don’t know yet. We have to see tomorrow what he’s got. And Mosquera is the other one that is out.
“We already have Gabriel and Willy out as well. So we have to adapt.”
On Rice, Arteta offered a small glimmer of hope but underlined the intensity of the fixture list: “He can walk. He cannot play. The thing is playing a lot of minutes, but also when. We play Wednesday night and now Saturday morning. If they can please give us a little bit more time to recover and make the well-being of these players easier, that would be great.”
The outlook for Mosquera appears less certain. “We have to wait and see,” Arteta said. “It’s probably part of the knee or ankle, we don’t know. He couldn’t really tell us exactly how it was, but he wasn’t able to continue.”
Arsenal travel to Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime (12:30 GMT) before hosting Ipswich Town next Tuesday and Brentford again in the Carabao Cup quarter-final the following week. Arteta had been hopeful that Saliba would return “in a matter of days,” but the fresh absences of Rice and Mosquera have turned what looked like a deepening defensive crisis into a full-blown injury nightmare.
On the pitch, goals from Mikel Merino and a stoppage-time Bukayo Saka strike sealed the three points, yet the sight of two more players limping off has cast a long shadow over an otherwise positive evening at the Emirates.
Arsenal fans will be holding their breath for Thursday’s medical updates. With the title race heating up and a brutal run of fixtures ahead, the last thing Mikel Arteta needed was another “never good news” bulletin from the treatment room.