Mikel Arteta Hits Back at Ten Hag’s Claims Arsenal Have Had No Injury Concerns This Season

• Mikel Arteta was in no mood to entertain the notion that his Arsenal side has been lucky this season
• The Arsenal boss hit back at Erik Ten Hag’s recent claims that teams like the Gunners have not had to deal with injuries this campaign
• Arsenal have had to play a large chunk of the campaign without their key striker Gabriel Jesus, who has been out since the World Cup

Mikel Arteta has fiercely hit back at claims Arsenal have been lucky to not be injury-stricken this season.

Arsenal are currently five points clear at the top of the table and could extend their lead to eight points with a win over manager-less Crystal Palace on Sunday, March 19.

Ahead of the game, Arteta was on media duties when the question of Arsenal’s apparent “luck” came up.

The claims were brought to light by Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag, who bemoaned the fact that he has had to play without some key players throughout the season.

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According to Ten Hag, Arsenal have not had that problem as they have had a full-strength squad for most of their games.

But in the wake of Arsenal’s exit from the Europa League, Arteta went full Jose Mourinho as he hit back at Ten Hag’s claims with some stats of his own.

"We've been carrying injuries throughout the season," Arteta said as quoted on Manchester Evening News.

"We had Emile [Smith Rowe] out for four months, [Gabriel] Jesus out for four months, Alex [Zinchenko] for two and a half months, Thomas [Partey] for a month and a half, Eddie [Nketiah] for a month and a half. We had quite a lot of injuries already, but we dealt with that."

Who is right, who is wrong?

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Arteta may have a point, but Ten Hag is coming from somewhere also.

Interesting stats from Premierinjuries.com show that Arsenal players have missed a combined 79 games through injuries this season. This is the seventh lowest in the division.

For United, however, Ten Hag’s players have missed a combined 106 matches.

Saka makes Premier League promise

Sports Brief also reported on Bukayo Saka’s interesting promise to Kim Kardashian’s son Saint.

Kim Kardashian shared a video on her social media to her 348 million followers showing Saka talking to Saint, much to the delight of the young Arsenal fan

They have a brief exchange, and Saka can be heard saying "When, not "if" on the question of Arsenal winning the Premier League.