Arsenal boss Unai Emery has spoken out on his plans at left-back after Ainsley Maitland-Niles suffered a leg fracture which rules the youngster out for up to eight weeks.
Maitland-Niles started against Manchester City at the weekend but the 20-year-old was forced off after only 35 minutes of Arsenal’s opening Premier League match of the 2018/19 campaign.
Summer signing Stephan Lichtsteiner came on to replace Maitland-Niles at left-back and Emery is considering starting the experienced Swiss against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Another option for Emery is Nacho Monreal who missed the Gunners’ 2-0 defeat to City but rejoined his team-mates in training this week after returning from a knee problem.
Sead Kolasinac is also unavailable with a knee injury and the Bosnian is expected back in October.
‘It’s clear that we don’t want to have injuries in the team. When you want to play and be competitive, they can arrive,’ Emery said when discussing Arsenal’s injury concerns at left-back.
‘The first injury with Kolasinac was important because I think he was playing well in pre-season. But we needed to play with another player like Ainsley [once Kolasinac was injured].
‘His performance can improve, he can get better in his career in the team. Maybe not especially at left-back, but he was playing well in the first 25 minutes on Sunday.
‘After this injury, I tried with Lichtsteiner, who is a player with experience. He can play at left-back but his position in the team is more at right-back.
Emery is hoping for a ‘good response’ from his players at Stamford Bridge following the side’s defeat to City.
‘First, we want to build a competitive team,’ the Spaniard said.
‘We are going to play away but we need to keep our personality, keep our mentality, because I think on Sunday against Manchester City, the team kept their ideas, kept their spirit in the game for the full 90 minutes, even when we were losing, and didn’t let [their heads] go down.
‘That was a good thing, [despite] us losing 2-0. I want us to continue with this work and to be competitive for 90 minutes, but with a better performance than on Sunday, both individually and collectively.