Arteta on Calafiori injury, and Ben White substitution

Yesterday at 06:09 PM

Mikel Arteta spoke to the media after Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Shaktar Donetsk this evening in the Champions League, and addressed concerns over a couple of players.

Riccardo Calafiori went off in the second half after an awkward slip which seemed to jar his knee. Despite trying to carry on after treatment from the physio, he had to be replaced by Myles Lewis-Skelly and is now a doubt for Sunday’s visit of Liverpool.

On Ben White, who was taken off at half-time, Arteta explained, “This was my decision to take him out. He had a yellow card, and we have played enough with 10 men in recent periods.

"They had a lot of density on that side, a lot of attacking players on that side, and I didn't want to take any chances.

“With Riccy it was something different. He had to come off because he felt something. I don’t know the extent of it, but in that sense, not great news.”

So, we’ll keep everything crossed it’s nothing serious for the Italian, particularly with an in-form Liverpool side coming to town.

In general though, Arteta was happy enough with the result, although he acknowledged it was a ‘tired’ performance, particularly in the second half.

“There were two very different halves,” he said. The first we were dominant,  we created four big, big chances, that obviously we should have converted and put the game to bed.

"The second half was very different, we looked … tired. We lacked that sharpness, with and without the ball to regain the ball in the right areas.

"We had two big chances again, we missed a big penalty obviously, and that emotion was difficult to overcome, so we had to dig in.

"Credit to them, they are a good side, but overall it's Champions League, get the win, clean sheet, let's move on."

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