Former Arsenal striker Alan Smith believes Mikel Arteta has ‘plenty of quality options’ when it comes to replacing Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice in the North London derby this weekend.
The Gunners travel to arch-rivals Tottenham on Sunday with both sides looking to pick up three vital points to keep up with early pace-setters Manchester City and Liverpool.
However, Arsenal will be without the suspended Rice, who was shown a controversial second yellow card against Brighton prior to the international break.
Odegaard, meanwhile, has been photographed leaving international duty with Norway on crutches after picking up an ankle injury. The extent of his problem is not yet clear, but he won’t feature against the Lilywhites this weekend.
With new signing Mikel Merino also injured, Arteta now faces serious headaches regarding his midfield line-up for this crucial clash.
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Although the situation looks bleak, Smith is quite optimistic that Arteta has more than enough quality at his disposal to solve the problem and is helped by the versatility of some of his players.
“Jorginho has been on the bench for the first three games of the season so you’d expect him to potentially slot into the midfield against Tottenham, especially with the experience he has,” the Sky Sports commentator said.
“Kai Havertz has also played back in midfield before for the Gunners and he can do that job if Gabriel Jesus is fit to lead the line.
“Oleksandr Zinchenko can perhaps feature in the middle of the park and even Leandro Trossard has played in there too.
“There are plenty of options for Mikel Arteta but Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard have been so important for Arsenal. Particularly in a derby, you’d want those sorts of characters in the team, but there are still plenty of quality options in that Arsenal squad.”