Arsenal star Leandro Trossard was ruled out of Sunday’s north London derby against Tottenham with a minor hamstring injury.
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The Belgium international had featured prominently in each of his side’s last two games with Gabriel Martinelli having suffered a similar setback.
Trossard scored the winner coming off the bench in last weekend’s victory against Everton at Goodison Park, and was on the scoresheet again as the Gunners made a triumphant return to the Champions League in midweek, thrashing PSV Eindhoven 4-0.
The January signing from Brighton, however, was forced to sit out Sunday’s showdown with Spurs, but is not expected to be out for more than a fortnight.
‘He felt something, he felt a muscle tightness yesterday in training and he wasn’t fit enough to play the game,’ confirmed Mikel Arteta ahead of kick-off.
In Trossard’s absence, Arteta opted to field a front three comprising of Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus.
‘Gabi has played in all positions up front, he is very adaptable, he feels comfortable,’ Arteta added, hinting the Arsenal No.9 was set for a different role, stationed out on the wing.
‘He gives us different things with a striker playing wide, let’s see how he goes today.
David Raya, meanwhile, kept his place in goal ahead of Aaron Ramsdale, while Kai Havertz was relegated to the bench and Fabio Vieira returning to midfield alongside Declan Rice and captain Martin Odegaard.
‘It’s not about that, it’s trying to make the decision to play the way we want to play and the best possible way to play on the day.
Today we made some calls and left some players on the bench.
In every line-up that I do it will be like this.
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