Mikel Arteta enjoyed a “beautiful” goalscoring comeback from Bukayo Saka in Arsenal’s 2-1 victory against Fulham in the Premier League but felt the gloss come off the evening as Gabriel Magalhães and Jurriën Timber sustained injuries.
Saka scored Arsenal’s second on 73 minutes, having come off the bench in the 66th minute for his first action since he ruptured his hamstring on 21 December. He ran over to the bench to celebrate with one of the club’s performance coaches, Sam Wilson.
Related: Saka’s Arsenal return sinks Fulham but Gabriel and Timber add to injury crisis
But with the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid looming, the last thing Arteta needed were more fitness issues. Gabriel was forced off with a hamstring problem while Timber could not finish the game because of pain in his knee. Arteta saw Riccardo Calafiori damage his knee on international duty with Italy, while he reported that Ben White also had a knee injury. The first leg against Madrid is next Tuesday at the Emirates Stadium.
“It was a beautiful moment to see how much our people love, respect and admire Bukayo,” Arteta said. “The best example is his reaction. Immediately after scoring a goal, what does he do? He goes and says thank you for all the hard work that all the sports science guys, physios and everybody involved in the recovery have done for him. He lifted the stadium.
“The downside is Gabi and Jurriën. We don’t know how they’re going to be. We’ll be assessing them tomorrow to understand better how we are with those two. There are two players in this team that never want to come off and it’s those two, probably. Gabi felt something in his hamstring. Jurriën was already struggling very early in the game. He managed to continue [but] at some point he couldn’t.
“Calafiori, Ben White, Jurriën and Gabriel Magalhães – you can imagine [how I feel] with those four players in the defensive line in one week. We have still another four that are so bloody willing that they will do their job.”
Arteta said he had never known a worse season for injuries. “The good thing is that it’s been like this the whole season. You see [Gabriel] Martinelli today … we missed him for three months. You see Bukayo, Kai [Havertz] four months. Gabi Jesus, almost the whole season ... it’s what it is. We want it so much that we’re going to give it a real go and we are very excited for the next week.”
