Mikel Arteta has been dealt another major injury blow during Arsenal’s clash against Newcastle United in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final. Toward the end of the first half at St. James’ Park, Gabriel Martinelli appeared to suffer a hamstring injury.
The 23-year-old winger fell to the ground, clutching the back of his thigh. The Gunners boss wasted no time in making a change while 3-0 down on aggregate, bringing on Ethan Nwaneri, who scored a brilliant goal against Manchester City a few days ago.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the clash, Arteta was quizzed on Arsenal not making any signings in the January transfer window. The Spaniard said: “Yeah, there are two separate things. One, obviously I think we talk very openly from my side of the club perspective about the intention to improve the squad.
“We have the capacity to do it and most importantly to keep improving the team, to keep improving the individuals within the team because it’s the ones that we have and we love and that’s it. And for now, there’s no discussion about it and we focus in the things that we have continued to do even though the window was open.”
Then, on the ‘gamble’ of not adding to his squad over the winter period in light of serious injuries to Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka, Arteta said: “It’s not a gamble, it’s reality. I think we have to face the reality as well that we have. We have the players that we have, some of them are on loan.
“We’ve never had a squad of 35, 40, 45 players. So many other clubs, they have 45 players in their list. We don’t have that size at the moment. It’s our reality. We have to do so much in the last few years that’s where we are.”
The Arsenal boss added: “So we’re going to have to evolve there as well and have more and have more players from the academy and the ones that are here to be fitted longer. That’s a job that is permanent and it keeps evolving and we need to be on our toes.”
On if he’s worried that Arsenal don’t have the squad size to compete for silverware, Arteta said: “No, now I focus on the numbers that we have, how to maximise them, how to make the best out of them and listen with all the problems that we already had in February. “I think it’s remarkable what the team has done so I have full faith in them.”
Arsenal are currently 1-0 down against Newcastle and trail 3-0 in the tie. Alexander Isak thought he’d opened the scoring but his goal was offside, though Jacob Murphy put the visitors in front shortly afterward.
They return to Premier League action when they play Leicester City on February 15.
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