‘Never good news’ – Arsenal boss gives injury update on Declan Rice and Cristhian Mosquera after Brentford win | OneFootball

Arsenal returned to winning ways on Wednesday night as they beat Brentford 2-0 following goals from Mikel Merino and Bukayo Saka.

The Gunners drew 1-1 at Chelsea last weekend, but bounced back against the Bees to move five points clear at the top of the table. 

Arsenal are now unbeaten in their last 18 matches across all competitions. 

However, the victory came at a cost for the Premier League leaders as Cristhian Mosquera and Declan Rice were forced off with knocks. 

Mikel Arteta is already without William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes due to injury issues. 

Mosquera partnered Piero Hincapie in defence, but he came off just before half-time and was replaced by Jurrien Timber.

Rice also appeared to damage his calf late on and had to be taken off. 

Arteta said: “It is never good news – Declan had to come off. We don’t know we will have to see tomorrow what he has got.

“He could not carry on playing – we have to wait and see what happens. He can walk, but he could not play.

“He is playing a lot of minutes. Now we play on Wednesday night, and we have to play Saturday morning.

“We can play minutes, but if they can please give us just a little more time to recover and to make the welfare of these players a little bit easier, that would be great.”

Rice has been a regular starter this season, while Mosquera has proved himself to be a capable back-up for Saliba. 

Arsenal will hope they are available for Saturday’s away fixture with Aston Villa. The Gunners are already without Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard.

However, Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres have returned after recent injuries. 

Stats from Transfermarkt.