“Huge Blow” – Arteta Bemoans Duo’s Injuries, Says It’s Hampering Arsenal’s “Versatility”

Arteta missing Timber and Partey…

Mikel Arteta has been without Jurrien Timber and Thomas Partey for most of the season with the boss stressing that their absence is hampering the team’s “unpredictability”, The Evening Standard reports.

Speaking to the press ahead of our FA Cup tie against Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, Arteta’s thin squad was the topic of discussion. While Partey was left out of Ghana’s AFCON squad, the 30-year-old will also not be available for the foreseeable future.

Timber has been missing since the season’s opening game after the Dutch international suffered an ACL injury and is still some way from returning.

Interestingly, Arteta started Timber at left-back in the two competitive games the 22-year-old featured in which may have spelled the end of Oleksandr Zinchenko as an automatic starter.

Partey started the first three games of the season at right-back, with Arteta flipping the side of the pitch he requires a defender to invert into midfield and give us an extra man.

“It was a huge blow,” Arteta said when asked about how Timber’s injury has affected his plans.

“Everyone could see from day one what he was going to bring to the team. “The versatility, the quality, the leadership. And an ability that we did not have in the backline. It was a huge blow. 

“It was a huge blow as well losing Thomas. We had other plans as well with him, to become very versatile and unpredictable in our way of playing. 

“We have not had them and that is difficult. We have them in the building, which is a joy. But we have not had them on the field as much as we wanted,” the 41-year-old added.

The frustrating aspect about the aforementioned duo’s injuries are that, as of yet, we don’t have a timescale for their recovery.

Having said that, they will return one day which certainly puts into perspective the January transfer window and suppressing the urge to bring in a short-term replacement.