Arsenal hit by injury crisis with FOUR players ruled out of West Ham clash as Arteta gives update

MIKEL ARTETA opened up on Arsenal’s injury struggles ahead of Sunday’s clash with West Ham.

The Gunners were missing a number of first team players for the London derby.

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Mikel Arteta has opened up on Arsenal’s injury problems[/caption]

Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus and Emile Smith Rowe all missed out with injury, with Takehiro Tomiyasu also absent.

Arteta was also forced to drop Jorginho to the bench after he revealed the Italian hasn’t trained all week following his performance against Liverpool last weekend.

The Arsenal boss said via the club’s official X account: “Alex [Zinchenko] is not fit, Jorginho hasn’t trained almost all week as he’s been carrying an issue and it took him a while to recover on top of that.

“Gabi [Jesus] is not available in the squad and Emile turned his ankle in training so he’s not fit to play.”

Takehiro Tomiyasu was also missing from the matchday squad after only recently returning from international duty with Japan at the Asia Cup.

Fans were left nervy about the absences as Arsenal have already been on the wrong end of a defeat to West Ham TWICE this season.

One wrote: “We’ve literally got nothing on the bench!”

While another added: “We have a lot of injury prone players for my liking.”

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A third commented: “What happened to Smith Rowe again?!”

And a fourth simply asked: “Where is everyone?”

Famous Gooner Piers Morgan also weighed in on the team news and was fuming to see that Jorginho hadn’t made the starting XI.

He took to X to complain that the former Chelsea man should have started the game after his top showing against Liverpool.

He wrote: “[This is] My preferred front three, but benching Jorginho after his man of the match performance vs Liverpool is ridiculous.

“Arteta’s love for Havertz is a massive blind spot.”

Ultimately there was no need for anyone to panic as Arsenal hit the Hammers for six in a stunning 6-0 victory.

West Ham fans began pouring out of the stadium BEFORE HALF TIME after going 4-0 down in the first half.

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Gabriel Jesus remains out for Arsenal[/caption]

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Jorginho has made the bench despite not training all week[/caption]

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