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Mikel Arteta has confirmed two injury blows for Arsenal in their Europa League defeat. The Gunners boss revealed that things did not look good for Takehiro Tomiyasu and William Saliba after they were subbed off.
The first 20 minutes of the Europa League clash with Sporting Lisbon were filled with mixed emotions for Arsenal. Tomiyasu and Saliba were taken off injured, while Granit Xhaka scored to give them the lead in the tie.
Speaking after the loss to Sporting Lisbon on penalties, Arteta confirmed that the result was a huge blow. However, he was more concerned about the injuries and said:
"A huge blow. We really wanted to go through and fight in the competition and go for it. Today, we tried for 120 minutes and the penalties, and it wasn't enough. First of all, congratulations to Sporting CP for going through. Looking at ourselves the game started difficult for us. Obviously, we lost Tomi very early in the game and we lost Saliba."
He added:
"Tomiyasu looks pretty serious, for his reaction straight away and what he said to me. Obviously, it's very early and difficult to know. William, I don't know. He had some discomfort and could not carry on, so we had to take him off."
Mikel Arteta on the Arsenal dressing room mood following defeat
Mikel Arteta admitted that the Arsenal players were disappointed after they were knocked out of the Europa League. He added that the focus is now going to be on winning the next 11 games in the league.
He said:
"Just that we are all disappointed and we have to look ourselves. There are things we have to do better to have bigger margins to win the game and not rely on the last 20 minutes or extra time or a penalty shootout to go through in the competition. Now there are 11 games and that's the only focus that we have and everybody is thinking about one thing, that's Palace, and being in the best mental and physical condition, a lot of clarity and all the energy is there for Sunday."
Arsenal are five points clear of Manchester City in the Premier League and are favorites for the title.
