Mikel Arteta made no attempt to conceal his concern over the quad injury that forced Bukayo Saka out of Arsenal’s 2-2 Champions League draw at Bayern Munich, saying it did not “look good at all”.
The manager was delighted with the fight that his players showed, Declan Rice earning a deserved point with an 82nd-minute equaliser. Arsenal had led through Eberechi Eze, who came on in the 10th minute for the stricken Saka, before Harry Kane took centre stage. The Bayern striker set up Alphonso Davies for 1-1 before giving his team the lead from the penalty spot.
It was Saka’s setback that provided the sour note for Arsenal. He collapsed to the turf after a routine battle with Davies and walked off slowly after treatment. Saka was still moving in a very limited way as he left the stadium.
“It doesn’t look good at all but we have to wait and see,” Arteta said. “They [the medics] are a bit concerned. A player who has to come off with a really sharp pain is never good news. Bukayo did not start the game against Lille last Tuesday, then he started at Nottingham Forest on Sunday and it happened very early in this game. The level of intensity that this game requires, as well, is something incredible.
“You could see it on Tuesday night, the PSG-Barcelona game, what happened [with players getting injured]. This is man-to-man for 96 minutes in every action. There’s no breathing. The stress, the quality, the intensity, the level that you need … it’s unbelievable. It’s the highest level. And those things happen, unfortunately.”
Arteta insisted that he wanted more than the draw. “We take it, although that doesn’t mean we are really happy about it as we prepared to win,” he said. “You could see that right from the beginning – the mindset, the purpose and the intention that the team has, to be very dominant, to come here and cause problems to Bayern. To press them and attack them. That’s certainly what we’ve done. We were the better team in the first 25 minutes, we got the goal … unfortunately we also got the injury of Bukayo, which was a big setback.
after newsletter promotion
“The team showed incredible composure, the spirit to keep going, to attack them. The finishers came in and made an impact, as well. After scoring the goal [for 2-2], you see the reaction of the team. We wanted to take the ball and go and attack them again to come and win the game.”
Leave a Reply