Mikel Arteta is facing a selection headache in defence with both Jurrien Timber and Ben White major doubts for Arsenal ’s game against Southampton.
Timber was taken off at half-time with a muscle problem during Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League. And White, who missed that match, has not trained this week as he recovers from the groin injury he aggravated against Manchester City.
Riccardo Calafiori played the second half against PSG as an emergency right-back despite being naturally left footed, and with Takehiro Tomiyasu yet to feature this season and Oleksandr Zinchenko also out, Arteta could be forced to improvise again.
“(Timber) was unbelievable in the first half but he felt something muscular and he wasn’t certain,” he said. “I didn’t want to take any risks. He’s been out for a year and he’s played a lot of minutes, probably more minutes than we would have wanted in the past few weeks and we have to manage him.”