Eight Arsenal injury revelations, Mikel Arteta admits 'it's true', Viktor Gyokeres dilemma

Mikel Arteta has provided the latest Arsenalinjury news ahead of tomorrow evening's Carabao Cup fourth round tie against Brighton & Hove Albion.

The Gunners will be looking to progress past the fourth round of the competition for only the second time in five yearswhen they take on Fabian Hurzeler's side. Arteta's men are on an eight-game winning run after beating Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Port Vale were defeated in the previous round of the Carabao Cup, with Newcastle, Olympiacos, West Ham, Fulham and Atletico Madrid all beaten since.

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On Tuesday, Arteta was asked about the latest team news ahead of the midweek game with questions posed to him about Saliba, Rice, Gabriel Martinelli and Ricardo Calafiori. So with that in mind, football.london has rounded up the key points from his chat with the media;

Arsenal injury latest

After failing to complete the 1-0 win over Palace at the weekend, Saliba and Rice come into Wednesday's cup game with fitness concerns. Unfortunately for Arsenal, Saliba has been confirmed as an absentee.

Asked what the latest on the Frenchman was, Arteta replied: "He's out," before adding: "We're assessing him, but he won't be involved in this match."

Martinelli has also been ruled out after playing for half an hour against Palace. "Yeah, it looks as well that he's going to be out," Arteta said. "We have to again do some more tests and see the extent of the injury, but this game is going to be two different."

In better news, Rice and Calafiori are available, as is Bukayo Saka.

Xhaka agreement

Plenty has been made of Arsenal's reliance on set pieces this season, something that some have dismissed. On Tuesday, Arteta was posed with a quote from Granit Xhaka back in 2022.

"I love the comment from Micah Richards, when he says when it's Arsenal, everyone has something to say," he said. "This is true, this is the reality."

After admitting he did not know who said that, Arteta was told it was his former midfielder and asked if he agreed with it. He replied: "I don't know. I don't think it... Well, probably it is true, because it's such a big club that obviously we make a lot of noise with it, whether it's good or bad, whatever.

"But that means that people are paying attention to that. We know our history and that's very normal. Hopefully we make noise for the good things.

Gyokeres problem laid bare

Since joining the club from Sporting CP in the summer, Gyokeres has featured in all 13 of Arsenal's games this season - starting 12. His only substitute appearance came against Port Vale in the previous round, where he replaced Mikel Merino.

Injuries to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus mean Arteta has just Gyokeres as an out-and-out centre-forward. Asked if it's harder to rotate the Sweden international, the Gunners boss said: "Yeah, in the front lines especially.

"That's where we have more difficulties as well with Noni out, with Kai out, with Gabi Jesus out, with Gabi Martinelli out as well. So that's the area that we have to be more careful as well, more conscious, because there we don't have that many options.

!So as I said, we're going to try to manage the load as good as possible to make sure that the players are fresh, they can compete really well and the team can maintain the level that it's shown."