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Emery issues update after Arsenal star suffers injury ahead of Leicester trip

By mac14 on November 7, 2019

Unai Emery is hoping Dani Ceballos hasn’t suffered a serious injury after the midfielder limped out of Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Vitoria on Wednesday evening.

Ceballos was one of only three players to keep their place in the Arsenal starting eleven yesterday following last weekend’s draw with Wolves as Emery rotated his squad once again in the Europa League.

The Spaniard started alongside Joe Willock in midfield against Vitoria but struggled to influence things in Emery’s re-jigged 3-4-3 formation as Arsenal were outnumbered in the middle of the park.

It turned in to a night to forget for Ceballos as he then pulled up early in the second half after appearing to do his hamstring. Weirdly, he was allowed to carry on for a few minutes but Ceballos was clearly in discomfort as he was barely able to jog around the pitch.

Eventually he was replaced by Matteo Guendouzi in the 54th minute and Emery confirmed after the game that Ceballos will be assessed by Arsenal’s medical team today. However, the good news is Emery says the early signs suggest it’s only a minor injury.

Emery told Arsenal.com last night:

Yes, we are going to wait for the analysis tomorrow but at the beginning I think it is a small injury.

It was crazy of Ceballos to try and shake-off a hamstring injury and it was even more ludicrous that the Arsenal staff allowed him to but let’s hope he hasn’t made the problem worse than it was by carrying on.

The injury is a concern as Arsenal have a huge game against Leicester City this weekend and Ceballos must now be considered as a major doubt for the trip to the King Power on Saturday evening.

With Granit Xhaka unlikely to feature after being stripped of the captaincy and not being involved since his bust-up with the fans, Emery will have limited options in midfield if Ceballos is ruled out.

Saturday’s game has huge importance as defeat would see us fall nine points behind Leicester so a top four finish would be extremely difficult this season. Let’s hope the players put in a much improved performance as last night’s display was horrendous.