Arsenal team news update: Arteta confirms major injury blow

Arsenal desperately need to get back to winning ways when they take on Southampton at St Mary’s on Saturday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Mikel Arteta has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference today and he’s provided a team news and injury update which included the latest on the fitness of Thomas Partey and Alexandre Lacazette.

Partey missed Arsenal’s defeat to Brighton last weekend after aggravating a thigh injury during the loss at Crystal Palace six days earlier. The Ghana international was initially ruled out for a ‘few weeks’.

However, the midfielder has undergone further assessment and it appears the injury is worse than first thought. Arteta says the club now fear Partey won’t be able to play again this season, which would be a huge blow for the Gunners.

Arteta also provided an update on Alexandre Lacazette, confirming the striker has been unable to train this week due to ‘private reasons’. However, the Frenchman is expected to be available for the trip to Southampton tomorrow.

Arteta is quoted as saying by football.london:

Arteta on Partey

The news that we got after having another assessment was not great.  It is not looking very positive [for] his availability this season, but we will have to wait and see.

He is trying to get back as quick as possible, but at the moment we are not very optimistic about it.

Arteta on Lacazette

There are private reasons that I can’t comment on but I have no other team news apart from the guys we discussed. We will see if he’s available. It’s a good possibility that that’s the case.

Elsewhere, Kieran Tierney remains on the sidelines after the Scottish international was ruled out for the rest of the season having undergone knee surgery last week.

Takehiro Tomiyasu will also miss the trip to Southampton as he continues to recover from a calf injury. The right-back is scheduled to resume full training on Monday so could be back in contention to face Chelsea next week.

Arsenal head to the South Coast off the back of two league defeats which have left them sitting three points behind Tottenham in fifth place. Spurs could widen the gap to six points if they beat Brighton in Saturday’s early kick-off, so the pressure is on Arsenal to get back to winning ways at St Mary’s.