David Luiz injured in his first match since March

On the day that the

defeated Newcastle with

Elneny

and

Aubameyang’s

goals,

David Luiz

left the pitch in pain and spoiled Arteta’s perfect afternoon.

He was experiencing his first game after six weeks of absence. His last appearance for Arsenal was in March, and Arteta doesn’t know if he will have the Brazilian defender back before the season ends or not.

Asked if the Brazilian will play again this season, he said:

“We don’t know. He felt something in his hamstring, so it’s not good news.

“He’s put such a shift to be back for the team for the last few weeks after the knee surgery and it’s a real shame.

“Apart from David’s injury, I think that’s all we wanted [this afternoon]. We wanted to keep the team fresh, the players with the right attitude to play this game and be able to focus just on today and I think we had a really strong performance.

“From the beginning, we dominated the game and we got the three points that we needed and it helped for Thursday as well.”

The bright side for Arteta and the Gunners was seeing Aubameyang score after he struggled with fitness in the recent weeks.

“We thought that he wasn’t going to manage that,” he said. “On Thursday and the days before he was really struggling, he could only manage to play 10 or 15 minutes, but the days after he started to feel better and it’s good to see that he was fine today.

"He performed well, he scored a goal, so it’s a real boost.”

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