Sporting CP dump Arsenal out of Europa League as defensive injuries add to Mikel Arteta's woes
CBSN
William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu limped out early as Arsenal crashed out on penalties
LONDON -- There will be no Budapest showpiece for Arsenal. Instead, what lies in wait for Mikel Arteta's side is 11 more finals, the games that will determine whether this is a season of far greater glory for the Gunners than anything the Europa League has to offer.
Frankly, they could have hardly tuned up for them in a more debilitating fashion. It was not the nature of their performance in a 1-1 draw with Sporting CP where the Portuguese side emerged victorious after Gabriel Martinelli's missed spotkick. Rather it was everything that they had to put in over two hours to get that far. Even those who had not played the full 120 minutes departed the Emirates Stadium bruised, drained and soaked to the bone from their clash with Ruben Amorim's rambunctious side. Most concerning of all, William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu fell to injuries that will have Arteta sweating on their availability beyond the visit of Crystal Palace on Sunday and the international break that follows.
An improbable title challenge -- one that will define this season far more profoundly than anything they achieve in the continent's second-tier competition -- had been fired by Arteta's ability to name a largely unchanged side on a weekly basis. Arsenal have not, as Erik ten Hag claimed on Wednesday night, had a "totally available" squad. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Thomas Partey have missed out on the starting XI in 15 Premier League matches between them. Gabriel Jesus' start tonight was his first in any competition since Nov. 12. Arteta has not had to make changes with the frequency of his Manchester United counterpart because he has not seen players go as spectacularly off the boil as Harry Maguire and Antony. Why change a formula that so consistently delivers wins?
