Arteta may make late call on Arsenal centre-backs
The Gunners may be without any centre-back for the battle against Newcastle United, with the club manager still looking for a solution.
Mikel Arteta
is eager to concentrate on the future that than his side’s loss at the hands of
Tottenhamin midweek but the match has left him without a centre-back.
lost the game against the Spurs 3-0 on Thursday, putting them only one point above their neighbors in the search for a top four finish and there are only two matches left.
The first clash is against
Newcastle Unitedon Monday and the Gunners may go into that game without any centre-backs. Rob Holding was sent off in the game against Spurs and is suspended, whereas Gabriel Magalhaes sustained an injury. Ben White is also not fit enough to be on the game.
"We will have to modify certain positions to try to make it work because we don't have more defenders,"
Arteta said.
"And even though we have academy players, they haven't experienced those positions a lot because they are not specified central defenders. It's something we'll try to find a way [to solve]."
Arteta added:
"Tomorrow [Sunday] will be the day when we will have better answers [on Gabriel and White] – probably not the answers that we want on matchday, but hopefully better answers.
"We'll probably know more tomorrow, so we wanted to extend this period as much as possible to understand how they are recovering, how they are feeling, assess them, and tomorrow we'll probably know more about how they are."
Meanwhile, the Arsenal boss was not keen on talking about their loss against Tottenham.
"Forwards,"
he said.
"I said it after the [post-match] press conference, I just look forward."
Even when Antonio Conte’s claims were mentioned, Arteta was not interested in responding.
Quizzed what he would tell Conte, Arteta replied:
"That I'm fully focused on Newcastle."
Notwithstanding his frustration at how that game went, Arsenal is eager to lift his side’s spirit, reminding them that their display has out them in pole position.
"That [result] was a possibility,"
Arteta said,
"and we knew that to get into the position that we are in today, a lot has happened in the past.
"We've been through it, we have experienced it, and hopefully that can help us again on Monday."
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