Arsenal assessing four key injury worries after new quadruple scare in Crystal Palace win | OneFootball

Gunners’ latest hard-fought victory to extend title lead appeared to come at a cost for Mikel Arteta

Arsenal are assessing Declan Rice, Gabriel Martinelli, Riccardo Calafiori and William Saliba after all four players suffered injury scares.

Martinelli finished the game but was seen limping down the tunnel after the full-time whistle at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal are next in action on Wednesday night, when they host Brighton in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

The injured quartet will be assessed before then, with Arsenal next training on Tuesday and manager Mikel Arteta holding his pre-match press conference.

The Gunners are unlikely to take any risks with the four players if they are struggling for fitness.

Arsenal travel to Burnley on Saturday and have two more away games next week, at Slavia Prague in the Champions League and Sunderland in the top-flight.

Forced off: Declan Rice was among the Gunners quartet who sustained knocks on Sunday

Action Images via Reuters

Arteta is expected to rotate his side for the visit of Brighton, having made nine changes for the trip to Port Vale in the last round of the Carabao Cup.

Kepa Arrizabalaga is set to start in goal, while defender Piero Hincapie will hope to make his full debut. Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera and Myles Lewis-Skelly should all come into the defence.

Ethan Nwaneri and Mikel Merino are likely to start in midfield, as could Christian Norgaard.

There could also be minutes for 15-year-old Max Dowman, who got half an hour off the bench at Port Vale.

Bukayo Saka is likely to be rested after he had a disrupted build-up going into Sunday’s win over Palace, which put Arsenal four points clear at the top of the Premier League.

“He’s been ill, he hasn’t trained really,” Arteta said of Saka. “So we didn’t know whether he was going to be fit.

“He made a big effort to be available today. The doctor was brilliant as well to guide us, to give us the best opportunity to be in the best possible condition.

“So he’s managed to play a few minutes, but the longer the game went he was going to fatigue and risk an injury. And we didn’t want to take that risk.”