Arsenal's international break nightmare after three injuries severely hamper title bid
Arsenal started the season as one of the favourites for the Premier League title, but injuries have severely hampered their early season form and left Mikel Arteta with a major issue
It's fair to say that the 2024-25 campaign has not exactly gone to plan for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners were once again fancied to challenge - and in some cases even beat - Manchester City to the Premier League title after coming agonisingly close to doing so last year. But injuries have decimated the Londoners in the first quarter of the season.
Arteta has already had to cope without some significant players for big fixtures. And some of those injury issues have come during international breaks, which will only rub salt in the Spaniard's wounds.
Leandro Trossard became the latest Arsenal player to pick up an issue this week - but the tone was arguably set way back in September when Martin Odegaard left the pitch in tears during a Norway match.
The Gunners captain sustained an ankle injury in the fixture against Austria at the start of September and missed several big games before finally returning to action earlier this month.
Arteta then saw one of his other most influential players in Bukayo Saka limp off during an England match in last month's international break.
And although Saka's issue was not as serious as Odegaard's, the injury forced him to miss out against Bournemouth : a match where Arsenal would fall to their first defeat of the Premier League season.
While Saka returned to the fold after that, both he and Declan Rice withdrew from the latest England squad over injury concerns and it remains to be seen if either will be fit enough to feature in the meeting with Nottingham Forest this coming weekend.
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And Trossard is also now a major doubt to feature against Nuno Espirito Santo 's side - who have made a flying start to the season - after he trudged off the pitch during the first half of Belgium's match with Israel.
He will now potentially join defenders Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Riccardo Calafiori and Kieran Tierney on the sidelines ahead of a fixture which could have major title repercussions even at this early stage of the season.
Arteta was, at least, boosted by the fact that Odegaard was able to withdraw from Norway duty this week after only just returning from injury. Explaining the decision, the playmaker said:“I got through the match at the weekend, but it was a rather abrupt transition from the last nine weeks.
“In this kind of process, you don’t just go from being injured to suddenly being completely healthy. You tend to have a reaction to what happens, and then it’s about how you react to it. Together with the NFF’s medical team, we’ve looked at it and agreed that it’s better for me to go back and make a full recovery.
“We have had an open and nice discussion. I have been talking to Ståle ever since I was injured, and of course more intensively in recent weeks. This is not about what Arsenal has said, or what Ståle has said. It’s about what my situation is.”
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