Mikel Arteta defended his decision to play Bukayo Saka as the Arsenal winger limped out of their Champions League defeat to Lens.
The Gunners had taken the lead through Gabriel Jesus but Adrien Thomasson levelled following a David Raya error before Saka hobbled out of the game.
Lens would go on to win 2-1 courtesy of a second-half strike from Elye Wahi but it was the injury to Saka that will have concerned Arteta more.
Reigning Premier League champions Manchester City visit the Emirates Stadium in five days and Saka’s involvement is now in doubt with the England forward having been forced off in the last three games.
Asked if he regretted picking Saka following his issues against both Tottenham and Bournemouth, Arteta replied: “No. It was a knock that he had the other day and he was perfectly fine. It was a back-heel, an action that can produce that kind of injury.
“Let’s see what the extent of it is and afterwards it’s too late. The last few were more knocks than anything else.
“He hasn’t really missed games. We gave him a break against Brentford (in the Carabao Cup) last week and that was all.
“He tried to backheel a ball in the first half and felt something muscular. He felt uncomfortable to carry on so we had to take him off.
“We don’t know anything more. It was big enough not to allow him to continue to play the game and that’s a worry for us.
“He was really looking forward to playing like every player. It was a big Champions League night. I painted a picture and the type of scenario we were going to face today and they all knew about it.
“But this Champions League is so difficult to win away from home. Today we take a big lesson.”
The defeat ended a forgettable 24 hours for Arsenal after bad weather grounded Arteta and his players at Luton airport for five hours on Monday as their journey to France was delayed.
Now their hopes of avoiding a bumpy ride in qualifying for the knockout stages have also suffered a setback after a turbulent night at a rocking Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
“No, let’s not put excuses,” Arteta said when asked if the preparations for the game had impacted on a poor team performance.
“First of all, congratulations to Lens. They are a really good side. Really well coached. We knew it was going to be a really tough match.
“In the boxes we had four or five chances we didn’t put away and we didn’t defend the boxes well enough.
“It’s true there were moments in the second half we struggled to be more threatening in the final third and find spaces.
“They defended with those numbers really good. That’s something to take for the next game.”
Lens had started the season slowly but won their two Ligue 1 games leading into a first Champions League home game in 21 years and defender Kevin Danso was delighted with the outcome.
“We gave it our all today in front of our own fans,” he said.
“It was a difficult game, Arsenal had a lot of quality and made us sit back really deep, but we kept defending and kept our concentration. Luckily we won the game.
“At home we know how strong we are, in front of our fans. That’s what we always try to do: win at home. I’m a bit gutted about the clean sheet, but we’ll take the three points definitely.”
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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