The Arsenal team news for Newcastle United tonight is relatively and potentially grim.
Well, defensively anyway.
Arsenal have a massive Premier League visit to St James’s Park later today and should they fail to win, Tottenham Hotspur would become massive favourites to qualify for the Champions League ahead of them, after edging past Burnley in North London on Sunday.
Spurs hammered the Gunners last Thursday in a game which saw Rob Holding sent off, Gabriel Magalhaes limp off the field.
Oh, and Ben White wasn’t deemed fit enough to come off the bench, either.
No Rekik
Mikel Arteta has major concerns in terms of centre-back options tonight – and arguably the best makeshift option is in Spain on holiday.
Omar Rekik, at 20, is one of Arsenal’s most promising young central defenders and trained with Arteta’s senior squad as recently as last month.
But according to Football London, Rekik is sunning himself in Spain after being granted permission to leave for the summer after the Gunners’ Under-23 campaign finished.
Arteta made light of the situation recently, responding ‘it’s a good question!’ when asked if White and Gabriel are going to be available, with Holding obviously suspended.
At the very least, someone like Jonathan Dinzeyi – another Under-23 player – could be named among the substitutes as a covering option for what looks a horrendous situation for the Spanish manager to contend with right now.
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