'Many, many weeks' - Mikel Arteta issues double Arsenal injury update after Ipswich Town win

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has issued another injury update after his side’s narrow win over Ipswich Town. Kai Havertz’s first-half strike was enough to see off the Tractor Boys, who failed to register a single shot on target at the Emirates Stadium.

It was a vital win for the Gunners, who are looking to remain in the title conversation, although they are already some way behind, currently six points behind Liverpool having played a game more. The concern for Arsenal is the loss of star man Bukayo Saka, a player they rely on for much of their attacking spark.

It has already been confirmed that Saka will be sidelined for an extensive period after requiring a procedure to repair his hamstring, and in a fresh update, Arteta has said: “I would prefer to leave that to the doctor himself. But he had a procedure. Everything went well. But, unfortunately he will be out for many, many weeks.”

The Spaniard then added: “I said many weeks, so I think it will be more than two months. I don't know exactly how much longer, I think it will depend, you know. How the scar tissue starts to heal the first week or so. The mobility of that. Let's see. It's very difficult to say.”

One player who is set to return is Raheem Sterling, with Arteta saying: “Yes, the news with Raz, I think it's better. We have to see this week how he evolves. But we expect it, the knee injury to probably take longer than actually the way the knee is evolving in the last few days. So, hopefully that's good because we need him.”

With Saka such a key part of Arsenal’s game, Arteta must come up with new ways to ensure his side to remain an attacking threat. “Well, it's always important because as well with Bukayo that doesn't mean that we're going to score three or four goals every game,” Arteta added after the 1-0 win. “So we have to rely on the team. That's the biggest strength of us. We never rely on an individual scoring 25, 30 goals and we have managed to be very, very competitive still and we're going to manage to do that.”