Jurrien Timber has discussed Bukayo Saka’s absence and how Gabriel Martinelli can help to fill the gap in the squad over the coming weeks and months.
After undergoing surgery on his hamstring, Bukayo Saka is expected to be unavailable for selection for at least the next couple of months.
That obviously presents Mikel Arteta with a major obstacle to overcome, considering Saka’s importance to Arsenal over the last few seasons. In the current campaign alone, Saka is the Gunners’ top assist provider and second top scorer in all competitions.
The club evidently don’t have a like-for-like alternative to their best player, but Gabriel Martinelli appears to be the preferred option to fill in on the right-hand side – at least until Raheem Sterling returns from an injury of his own.
Right-back Jurrien Timber will be playing alongside Martinelli for the time being, and he spoke over the weekend about the prospect of linking up with a right-footed player now.
“Yeah of course it is a bit different,” Timber said. “I think Martinelli has shown already a couple of times he can play both sides and of course, he’s different than Bukayo, but I think he’s a big threat for every defender and he’s going to show it as well.
“Everyone knows how important Bukayo is for us, what he’s done for us in the last couple of years for Arsenal. We’re waiting for him to come back but it’s a nice challenge for the team, we need to step up.”
As well as helping Arsenal to adapt to Saka’s absence, Martinelli will hope that this switch can help to kickstart his form as an individual.
The 23-year-old made an encouraging start in the Crystal Palace match, scoring Arsenal’s fourth goal and causing some problems down the right. But his start against Ipswich Town was a little more subdued, so the jury is still out on whether this will be an effective solution.
Arsenal now have a couple of tricky away games coming up against Brentford and Brighton, so there will be no option to ease into the new setup.
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