Arsenal take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday and it seems that Unai Emery’s time at the club is getting bad to worse.
When Unai Emery was brought in as the new manager of the club, everyone thought this was the start of the revival at the Emirates.
But the manager failed to bring in any star players during the summer transfer window and then went on to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of Manchester City during the opening game of the Premier League.
And now to make matter worse the manager has a major selection issue 24 hours before the London Derby.
According to the latest reports, Arsenal might go into the match without a recognized left-back in the squad.
Their first choice left-back Sead Kolasinac is ruled out for two months with an injury and even Nacho Monreal has just returned to training after recovering from his injury setback.
And this left-back crisis was evident against Manchester City too when Emery had to play Maitland-Niles in that position even though he is primarily a midfield.
But thing went even more downhill after Maitland-Niles injured himself during the game and had to be replaced by Stephan Lichtsteiner who is a right-back.
And since then reports were suggesting that the knock which Maitland-Niles took during the City clash had actually resulted in a fractured fibula which might rule him out of action for six to eight weeks.
Arsenal have since then confirmed the news on their official website saying:
“Ainsley has sustained a small fracture to his left fibula and will be out for six to eight weeks.”
While Maitland-Niles absence might not be a very long-term issue for Unai Emery but right now it is a major problem since Nacho Monreal might not be 100 per cent to face Chelsea on Saturday.
While the manager has claimed that Monreal is in contention to play but multiple sources claim that it will be right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner who will once again play in that unfamiliar position of left-back.
Read: Unai Emery drops selection hints before the Chelsea game and also goes on to claim that he has one big headache.
Read: 4-3-2-1 Chelsea’s predicted line-up vs Arsenal.
Read: 4-3-3 Arsenal’s predicted line-up vs Chelsea.
