Fear for Saku and the start of the World Cup. Arteta comments on his star’s health

On the face of it, Arsenal had a great Sunday. They downed Nottingham Forrest 5-0 to return to the top of the Premier League table. But the joy was spoiled by an injury to star Buyka Saka.

The game started well for the Gunners, and so did Saka. In the fifth minute he found his strike partner Gabriel Martinelli and added his fifth assist in the Premier League. Only Kevin De Bruyne has more.

But in the first minute, Saka was fouled harshly by Renan Lodi, then was brought down again and could not continue. So in the 27th minute, Mikel Arteta had to resort to substitutions and replaced Saka with Reiss Nelson.

It was a brilliant substitution from the team’s point of view. Nelson scored two goals in the 49th and 52nd minutes, added an assist in the next five minutes and became the star of the match with a 2+1 record.

However, the fear of Sako’s injury overwhelmed the joy of the big win. And not only for Arsenal, but also for the England national team. The World Cup in Qatar is just around the corner.

The Spanish coach of the Gunners was asked at a press conference whether an injury to Saka could deprive him of the championship, whereupon Arteta tried to inject some optimism into the fans’ veins.

“Hopefully not,” the Spaniard replied. “He got hit hard right at the start of the game, he was limping a bit. But hopefully it shouldn’t be anything serious,” Arteta added.

England national team coach Gareth Southgate must hope that Arteta’s pronation is correct and the injury is not really serious. Arsenal will have to do without Saka for at least Thursday’s game against Zurich.

Source