Mikel Arteta Issues Cristhian Mosquera Injury Update After Chelsea Win
· Yahoo Sports
Mikel Arteta does not believe the injury which kept Cristhian Mosquera out of Arsenal's win over Chelsea is a major one.
The defender was absent from the squad at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon after being forced off during the 1-0 victory at Aston Villa last Monday.
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Arsenal are still waiting to see how quickly he is able to return to the squad.
“Yeah, so we had a muscular issue and we think it's not too much but we need to wait and see in the next few days how this evolves.”
Mosquera had started both of Arsenal's opening Premier League games ahead of the London derby.
He was alongside Gabriel for the opening 3-0 win over Coventry City and kept his place at Villa Park, with Arteta making no changes to the team which had begun the season.
Ezri Konsa replaced him late in that game. At the time, Arteta had described Mosquera's withdrawal as precautionary. He was due to be assessed again ahead of Chelsea but did not make the squad, leaving Konsa to start against his former club's London rivals instead.
It was only Konsa's second appearance for the Gunners since signing for the club. Stepping in to the starting XI to face a Chelsea side that had scored seven goals across their first two games.
Arteta had been cautious about putting him straight into the team following his move from Aston Villa, particularly with only a handful of training sessions behind him, but Mosquera's absence and William Saliba's continued recovery left him without much of a choice against Chelsea.
Konsa played the full 90 minutes alongside Gabriel as Arsenal won 2-1.
There was one second-half challenge on Morgan Rogers which brought a huge response from the Emirates, something Arteta joked afterwards was a “very English tackle”.
The rest of Konsa's afternoon impressed him just as much.
“He played 11 minutes, he had five or six training session, the way he played tonight against this opponent playing man-to-man against Joao Pedro it was phenomenal.”
Piero Hincapie also featured from the bench, replacing Riccardo Calafiori in the second half.
That gave Arteta another look at one of his summer defensive additions, although Mosquera had been the one trusted from the beginning of the league campaign.
Arsenal did not concede during his time on the pitch against Coventry or Villa.
The first league goal against them came after 77 seconds on Sunday, with Morgan Rogers putting Chelsea ahead before Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard turned the game around.
The defensive situation now carries into Arsenal's first Champions League week of the season.
Saliba remains unavailable and there is not yet a return date for Mosquera. Arteta's update offered some encouragement over the severity of the problem, but no guarantee that he will be ready immediately.
Arsenal travel to Napoli on Wednesday as they kick off their Champions League campaign.
Whether Mosquera is able to make that trip will depend on how the muscular issue responds over the next few days.