Arsenal fans are worried about Riccardo Calafiori possibly sustaining an injury during the game against Leicester, as the defender was seen wearing knee support at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners survived a second-half scare to win 4-2 over the newly promoted Foxes, with Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz hitting the target before Wilfred Ndidi’s late own goal.
Calafiori, Arsenal’s £42million summer signing from Bologna, made his second start in the English top flight and remained on the pitch for the full 90 minutes in north London.
But Calafiori went down in a heap as Arsenal’s players celebrated Trossard’s goal on the stroke of half-time and the Italy international later landed awkwardly when competing for a header with Odsonne Edouard.
Television cameras captured the left-back clutching his left knee, the same knee he injured back in 2018 which kept him sidelined for the best part of a year.
Arsenal play host to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League in just two days’ time and the sight of Calafiori wearing a knee compression sleeve – while signing autographs for fans – may be a cause for concern.
Mikel Arteta will likely provide an update when he speaks to the media in his post-match press conference on Monday.
Riccardo Calafiori signing autographs after the game #ArsenalFanaticsNews pic.twitter.com/oWBf1H9f8V
— Arteta’s Red Army #ArsenalFanaticsNews (@Arsenal23Wenger) September 29, 2024Watch Calafiori after landing, he felt something pic.twitter.com/pH4ynan4Hz
— A (@aliftbll) September 29, 2024There were doubts over the fitness of David Raya, Jurrien Timber and Ben White ahead of Arsenal’s win over Leicester, with the trio all nursing injuries in the build-up to Saturday’s clash.
Raya and Timber both started and finished the contest but White did not recover from his groin injury in time and was unable to play a part.
Oleksandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Mikel Merino and club captain Martin Odegaard are all still absent with injuries.
While Arsenal surrendered a two-goal lead, Arteta insisted he was ‘pleased’ with his side’s overall display.
‘I am really pleased with the performance, the way we played, the chances we created, how we dominated the game and after 2-0 the result should have been much bigger,’ the Spaniard told reporters at his post-match press conference.
‘But this is the Premier League, the quality of the opponent, the quality of Leicester, they scored two goals and I’m even happier how we dealt with that situation afterwards.
‘It was emotionally superb, in control, very clear in what we have to do, how consistent we have to be to attack the spaces and continue to do a lot of the things we were already doing, I think we fully deserved to win the game.’
On Arsenal throwing away their 2-0 lead, Arteta added ‘Very worrying especially in that scenario and with the performance that we produced, in theory, you should never get to this point but this is football and it’s the beauty of it in relation to many other sports.
‘Then we have to earn it in a different way and we did it with unbelievable support from our supporters, they were unbelievable again.’
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