Mikel Arteta admits he is facing a sleepless night ahead of Arsenal ’s title showdown with Liverpool.
Gunners boss Arteta says he normally “sleeps like a baby” even the night before a big game when he knows his starting line-up. But Arsenal face Arne Slot ’s Premier League pace-setters with major injury doubts over Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber while William Saliba is suspended and Riccardo Calafiori is set to miss out.
However, Arteta still backed his players to make it a “beautiful day” rather than worry about a defeat which would leave them seven points behind Liverpool at the top.
Arteta said: “Normally I prefer to go to bed with the line up in my head so I can sleep like a baby. But sometimes it can not be as you have to wait for the next day. Sometimes two days before. Or just three days before you already have the idea ‘against this team this is what I am going to do’ but when you have uncertainty with injuries that is tricky.
“But when it comes down to reacting against a difficult situation, we don’t feel sorry for ourselves – we face it.”
Saka is a doubt with a knee injury but Arteta says he has done “some training on the grass” while Timber is recovering from a muscle problem but has not been ruled out. Calafiori’s knee injury is not serious but he is set to miss Sunday.
It could mean that Arteta is without two members of his first choice back four and could have to draft in Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jakub Kiwior to face Mo Salah and Co.
But Arteta said: “But the possibility is tomorrow – let’s have a beautiful day on Sunday when we really perform.
