William Saliba missed Arsenal’s Premier League game against Aston Villa on Saturday with a hamstring injury.
The absence of the France international represents yet another setback for Mikel Arteta who is already without a clutch of first team players.
Encouragingly, however, Arsenal have described the 23-year-old’s injury as ‘minor’ and will hope to be able to call on him in the coming weeks.
Saliba has made 30 appearances for club and country this season and his defensive partnership with Gabriel Magalhaes has gone from strength to strength.
The former Saint-Etienne star will, however, miss only his second Premier League game of the season this evening after he appeared to tweak a hamstring during the closing stages of Wednesday’s win over Tottenham.
Saliba wasn’t spotted in training in the pictures released by Arsenal on Friday and the Gunners are refusing to take any risks with one of their key players.
‘He felt something before the match, something muscular,’ confirmed Arteta in his pre-match interview.
‘I don’t think it’s too much, but he could not train yesterday. He wasn’t feeling good enough to play so we have to assess the situation.’
Jurrien Timber will shuffle across to fill in at centre-half, meaning Thomas Partey must again fill in at right-back with Riccardo Calafiori still unavailable.
Mikel Merino returns to the starting line-up in central midfield, while Gabriel Martinelli regains his starting berth from Raheem Sterling who drops to the bench.
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