Mikel Arteta admitted Gabriel Jesus’ knee injury was a ‘big worry’ for Arsenal following the side’s FA Cup third-round defeat to ten-man Manchester United.
Arsenal, 14-time winners of the competition, dragged themselves back into Sunday’s thriller as Gabriel Magalhaes cancelled out Bruno Fernandes’ stunning opener just moments after Diogo Dalot was sent off at the Emirates.
Altay Bayindir denied Martin Odegaard from the spot later on in a breathless second half and the two teams could not be separated after 90 minutes and extra time, with defending champions United prevailing on penalties.
It’s proven a tough few weeks for Arsenal, with the club wintless in their last three matches and forced to cope without star man Bukayo Saka and Ethan Nwaneri.
The sight of Jesus being carried off on a stretcher towards the end of the first half came as a further blow to the Gunners, with Arteta’s attacking options becoming increasingly thin on the ground.
‘Big worry, that’s my feeling,’ the Arsenal head coach told reporters when asked about Jesus’ injury at his post-match press conference.
‘He had to come off on a stretcher with a lot of pain, he was touching his knee. It’s not looking good.’
Jesus appeared in some discomfort as he lay in a heap on the turf in north London and Arteta confirmed the Brazilian was in serious ‘pain’ before being replaced by Raheem Sterling.
Asked whether Jesus had damaged the same knee he had injured at the 2022 World Cup, Arteta replied: ‘No, I think it’s the other one.
‘But the worrying factor is the feeling he had when he had to come off and the pain that he was in.’
Arteta was at a loss to explain how Arsenal had failed to advance through but stressed that he ‘could not be prouder’ of his players for the efforts they had put in against United.
‘It’s incredibly how you don’t win that game,’ the Spaniard added.
‘That’s basically how you sum up the dominance, the superiority in relation to the opposition and everything that we did to try to win the game.
‘That’s it, we didn’t get what we deserve, clearly, but there is an element that is about putting the ball in the back of the net.
‘With the amount of chances that we had, we didn’t and we go home extremely sad.
‘But I could not be prouder of my players, individually and collectively, for what they produced on Wednesday against Newcastle, against two top teams.
‘They did incredible but they haven’t got rewarded and that’s the downside to it.’
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