Another painful injury blow for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal ahead of Brighton clash

Mikel Arteta's Arsenal will look to hit back from last Monday's 3-0 loss at Crystal Palace as they welcome an out-of sorts Brighton to the Emirates Stadium.

The Arsenal boss however has a number of injuries to contend with and is without both Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney for Saturday’s clash.

The pair will be out for some time after Partey injured his thigh in Monday’s 3-0 loss at Crystal Palace, Tierney having missed the defeat after suffering a knee injury which required surgery.

Takehiro Tomiyasu (calf) is also expected to miss out with Mikel Arteta’s slim squad being pushed to the limit.

“It is a little bit ambiguous but he has a significant injury and we’ll have to keep assessing him but he will be out for some weeks,” he said.

Asked if Partey could play again this campaign, Arteta added: “It could be but it could not be the case – because it is an area where he had a previous injury as well and he felt it straight away and he is not fit.”

Tierney went under the knife after picking up a knee injury while on international duty with Scotland – with Arteta casting doubt on whether the left-back will return in time to feature in their World Cup play-off fixture with Ukraine in June.

“I don’t know yet, he just had a surgery yesterday,” added the Spaniard.

“So it is very early to understand how everything is going to develop, he’s going to be out for the period that we estimate but to know what condition he will be after that period, I think it’s too soon to to be able to say something.

“I think the player has to do the maximum that he can to be in the best possible condition as quick as possible.

“I’m sure Kieran will do that and once he’s there, let’s see if he’s able to compete and with what kind of risk or not but I’m sure he will do that.

“Our responsibility is to look after them when we have them here.

“We lost two big players, really important players for us in the team for sure."