Arsenal will be facing without 2 star players for their Champions League clash against Sporting Lisbon, as Mikel Arteta gave the latest team news and injury updates as well in his pre-match press conference. Just a few weeks back, Arsenal were looking to achieve a quadruple, but fast forward to the present, they have suffered 2 shock losses against Manchester City and Southampton respectively in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup respectively. Arteta's side were big favourites in both the games, and thus it was a shock to see them get knocked out from both tournaments out of nowhere.
Now, the pressure is on Mikel Arteta and his men to get their season back on track and avoid a complete collapse of the season as they'll be travelling to Portugal for the first-leg fixture of UCL quarter-final game against Sporting.
Mikel Arteta confirms 2 Arsenal starting eleven players are ruled out for the Champions League clash against Sporting Lisbon
The following is what Mikel Arteta said in his press release when asked about Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka being available for the game:
"No, they're having trouble, they're not ready yet. Let's see, hopefully they're going to be ready for the weekend, if everything goes well, and that's a massive boost because in recent days we've lost so many important players and that's something that we need to change immediately."
This means that both Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber won't even be a part of the bench for the UCL game against Sporting, which is undoubtedly a huge blow for the Gunners.
Our thoughts
Although the Injury issues for Timber and Saka are a minor one and they are expected to be back for the Premier League weekend, their absence is undoubtedly a huge blow for an Arsenal side that are struggling like anything at the moment. Considering how poor Arsenal have been in their past 2 fixtures, it can't be said that the game against Sporting would be a walk in the park for Mikel Arteta's side, and we'd even argue that it wouldn't be biggest shock if Sporting end up getting a huge result from the game in the end.
Mikel Arteta's Arsenal have been notorious in the past few years for choking in high-pressure situations during the peak end of the season, and this is why they have been labelled as bottlers for the past few years. The Gunners have one of the best squad depths in world football though, and thus they are able to survive without Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka to win this game.
We expect Noni Madueke to fill in for Saka in the wing, while Ben White is most likely to replace Jurrien Timber in the starting eleven. Let's wait and see if Arsenal or Sporting will have the upper hand after the first-leg fixture.
