Arsenal are due to be without Bukayo Saka for a number of weeks, with manager Mikel Arteta working out a plan to keep winning without the England star.
Saka was forced off during the first half of Arsenal’s win at Crystal Palace on Saturday, where Gabriel Jesus scored two of the team’s five goals. “It’s not looking good, he’s going to be out for many weeks,” Arteta told reporters ahead of the team’s next match against Ipswich.
“I’m putting some ideas together [to deal with the absence],” he added. “I haven’t got there yet but I have a few. I want to speak with them as well and take it in a positive way.
“It means we’re going to be different. We went through the period with Martin [Odegaard] and the period with five, six defenders missing. We’re looking at it with positive energy.”
An absence of a few weeks can mean different times at different stages of the season, but this just so happens to be one of the busiest periods for Arsenal. If Saka is absent until the end of January, that will mean he misses 10 games in all competitions.
The first three of those all fall within the space of eight days around the turn of the year. Ipswich visit the Emirates Stadium on December 27, with Arsenal kicking off 2025 with trips to Brentford on New Year’s Day and Brighton three days after that.
After that comes a pair of cup ties. The first leg of Arsenal’s Carabao Cup semi-final with Newcastle falls on January 7, with an FA Cup third round match against Manchester United five days later.
Arsenal will then return to Premier League action with a big one, taking on Spurs in the second North London Derby of the campaign on January 15. Aston Villa visit the Emirates Stadium on the 18th, with Champions League Dinamo Zagreb finishing off that run of five home games in succession.
Mikel Arteta’s side will round off January with trips to Wolves in the league and Girona in Europe. They’ll hope to have Saka back after then, though, as February begins with a home match against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City.
With Raheem Sterling also injured, Arsenal will need to decide whether they need to dip into the transfer market. They’ve already come through a period without Martin Odegaard, with the captain missing two months through injury in the autumn, but Saka’s absence could prove problematic in a very different way.
Matches Bukayo Saka could miss in December and January: Ipswich (H) – December 27. Brentford (A) – January 1. Brighton (A) – January 4. Newcastle (H) – January 7. Manchester United (H) – January 12, Tottenham (H) – January 15, Aston Villa (H) – January 18, Dinamo Zagreb (H) – January 22, Wolves (A) – January 25, Girona (A) – January 29