Xhaka harm might have been a lot worse, says Arsenal’s Arteta

Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka was fortunate to flee harm to his cruciate knee ligament in the course of the 3-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur on the weekend, supervisor Mikel Arteta advised reporters on Thursday.
Xhaka, who limped off after 82 minutes on Sunday following a problem from Lucas Moura, faces as much as three months on the sidelines after struggling a big harm to his medial knee ligament.
Arsenal, nonetheless, have mentioned that the Swiss worldwide wouldn’t require surgical procedure. “He probably escaped an even worse injury because that action for a cruciate injury is a tricky one… he’s a big loss. We’re going to lose him for a while. We’ll try to keep him as close as possible to the team,” mentioned Arteta.”His mentality is high and he’ll use this time to give attention to different issues. We are right here to assist him and I’m certain we’ll discover some methods round it as a result of we now have some actually good gamers who can do the job.”
Arteta added that Ainsley Maitland-Niles could possibly be one of many potential replacements for Xhaka when his facet tackle Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

🎙 Hear each phrase from the boss forward of our journey to the south coast this weekend 👇#BHAARS
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 30, 2021
Arsenal’s victory within the north London derby was their third straight win within the league following defeat of their opening three video games, with Arteta being nominated for the Premier League Manager of the Month award earlier on Thursday.
“It’s the beauty of this sport. We all know that perspective changes quickly in both ways so you always have to be on your toes,” he mentioned.

Brighton have been in nice type themselves, having misplaced simply as soon as this season, and sit in sixth place with 13 factors, 4 factors forward of Arsenal in tenth.”It will probably be a very tough recreation. They’ve been on a very good run. We know the significance of it,” added Arteta.

Arsenal centre again Ben White, signed for 50 million kilos ($68 million) from Brighton in the summertime, will return to his former membership for the primary time. Arteta mentioned he was impressed with how the 23-year-old had dealt with all of the strain to date.”I’ve been very impressed with… how he handles the scenario of coming by way of the Euros, the large price, the composure and the calmness that he exhibits. We all actually take pleasure in him collectively and we now have to proceed like that,” the supervisor added.