Gabriel Jesus is a doubt for Arsenal's trip to Leeds United on Sunday, while Mikel Arteta only foresees his side's fixture pile-up getting worse after the World Cup.
Inspired new signing Jesus had played in all 11 of Arsenal's matches this season before missing the midweek win over Bodo/Glimt due to a knock sustained in last Sunday's victory over Liverpool.
But a rare break on Thursday while his team-mates were in Europa League action was not necessarily enough to see Jesus return at Leeds.
Arteta looked ahead to the Leeds match after full-time in Norway, at which point he was still unsure of his striker's status for the game at Elland Road.
"I don't know," Arsenal manager Arteta said of Jesus. "Obviously he has some discomfort after the game against Liverpool, and that's why we decided not to bring him in [to Norway].
"So, let's see how he is."
After Leeds, Arsenal host PSV in a match that was postponed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II last month.
That will be the third of five consecutive Thursdays on which Arsenal have Europa League commitments, with each game followed by a Premier League fixture on the Sunday.
But that gruelling schedule is unlikely to ease any time soon, with the Gunners beginning their involvement in the EFL Cup and FA Cup either side of the World Cup, as well as having two more postponed games to play in the Premier League.
Were Arsenal to finish second in their Europa League group, they would have even more fixtures to squeeze in due to a play-off round.
"I think [the fixture congestion] is already here," Arteta said, "but I think after the World Cup, it is going to be even worse, so I think it is good preparation for what is coming."
The mood at Arsenal remains positive, though, as Arteta's side lead the Premier League and could stretch their advantage to four points ahead of Manchester City visiting Liverpool later on Sunday.
That prospect was put to the Gunners boss, but his focus was only on Leeds.
"The trick is how are we going to prepare for Leeds, mentally and physically," he said. "It's going to be a battle.
"We know the way they play and how intense it is going to be and the crowd that they have, so it's going to be a challenge. We have to be at our best again to win there."
Wales defender Ben Cabango limps out of Swansea’s win over Norwich
Swansea centre-back Ben Cabango has given Wales boss Rob Page another injury worry after he limped out of his side’s 2-1 home win over Norwich in the Championship.
Wales are already without Aaron Ramsey and Brennan Johnson for the vital Euro 2024 qualifier with Croatia on October 15 and Swansea boss Michael Duff confirmed Cabango suffered a hamstring issue after he went off in the second half of his club’s victory on Wednesday night.
“Ben did the right thing in coming off. He felt something in his hamstring in the first half and then again later on,” said Duff.
“If he isn’t fit for the weekend, then I don’t think he’ll be able to go off to play for Wales during the international window.”
The win gave Duff’s new-look side a haul of 10 points from a possible 12 in their last four Championship matches having failed to win in any of their opening seven games in all competitions.
“I was delighted with the result and the performance. We started with real intent and the first goal came from a high press,” said Duff.
“Then their goal came from us getting our press wrong. In the second half we defended our box well and got the winner.
“Norwich are one of the best teams in the league and we finished very strongly against them. The fans really got behind us in the added six minutes at the end because our lads were out on their feet.”
Norwich boss David Wagner was “very disappointed” after seeing his side fail to press home their advantage in the second half.
“We didn’t do our job properly in each box, goals change games and we didn’t take our chances,” said Wagner.
“That’s three away defeats in a row now and we lost a game that we could have won. We have to be better in both boxes.
“After two away defeats in a row we knew we had a chance to pick up some points in an important game. It was there for us, but we didn’t do our job.
“Obviously the result is very disappointing. Performance-wise, first half we were not good, second half we were much better.
“Second half we have to kill the game. We had enough very good opportunities until 75-80 minutes.
“After that they put pressure on us with set-pieces. If you don’t kill the game, then one situation can cost you.
“It’s very frustrating that we were not clinical in both boxes today and have not won a game we had opportunities to win at 1-1.”
Mark Robins proud of brave Coventry win over Blackburn
Mark Robins praised his brave Coventry side after they earned a narrow 1-0 victory over Blackburn at the CBS Arena.
Record signing Haji Wright nodded in on 85 minutes after Yasin Ayari’s effort had rebounded off the crossbar.
The Sky Blues had already hit the woodwork twice through Matty Godden and Bobby Thomas, while James Hill’s thunderous effort came back off the woodwork in the first half for Blackburn.
It meant back-to-back wins for the first time this season for Coventry, who beat QPR 3-1 at the weekend thanks to a brace from Ellis Simms.
“We started the brighter of the teams, had loads of energy, tried to execute what we wanted to do and did it pretty successfully to start with,” explained Robins.
“They got control in the second half of the first half and had a lot of possession and they can do that to you.
“You’ve got to be brave, work really hard to try and play through them and if you can do that and the first pass is a really good pass, then you can take out the majority of the team.
“With the pace of Ellis and Haji you can cause them problems and it looked that way. We had the spell in the second half when we created a lot more chances.
“The header is a brilliant header from Haji and he gets a lot of power on it and just waits for the right moment and the timing is perfect.
“It gives us a lead, having conceded a goal at the other end I thought he was going to give. Ben Wilson has got the ball in both hands and he has kicked the ball out of his hands by Moran.
“They are a good side and they will probably get fed up of hearing it, because they have played some really good teams now.
“I think they are a really good team and we’ve done really well to get the three points. Back-to-back wins for the first time this season which is really welcome.”
Blackburn head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson was defiant after his Rovers side suffered a fourth loss on the bounce, as well as seeing a goal disallowed when Andrew Moran was adjudged to have kicked the ball out of Ben Wilson’s hands before tapping in.
“Disappointed with the result of course, I actually saw a really good team, great spirit and togetherness against a good opponent in an away game,” said the Dane.
“I think we were quite solid in everything we did with the ball, without the ball, we created chances and we had big moments where we probably should have done better.
“We need to be more clinical in the box to get results but I think the boys have played an excellent game so if we keep on doing this then we will get some results.
“From my distance it was a strange situation wasn’t it? The referee had no clue if it was a goal or not, the linesman did nothing and after a short chat suddenly it was a free kick.
“I haven’t seen it back, then after that we have an extremely big moment, maybe one or two against one with the goalkeeper, then we are leading 1-0, but a good performance from my players for sure.
“We are doing a lot of good things, we have been giving too easy goals away, I think we were quite solid today mostly and we have created plenty of goal chances to win games, but of course we need to score.”
Daniel Farke praises Leeds’ ability to win without producing fireworks
Leeds boss Daniel Farke was pleased to see his side grind out a 1-0 victory over QPR in the Championship.
Crysencio Summerville coolly slotted in the only goal of the contest after nine minutes to move the Whites into the play-off places.
The hosts missed chances to kill the game off against a QPR side who had goalkeeper Asmir Begovic sent off in stoppage time, but Leeds held on as they returned to winning ways following Saturday’s defeat to Southampton.
“I am really happy and pleased,” Farke said.
“I told the lads I am proud because you can be on a great spell like we were on before Southampton and after one bad result, the next game is very difficult.
“The confidence is not there like it was before and to grind out a result it’s never champagne or football fireworks, it’s always hard work.
“To bring this tight lead over the line and be there again with a clean sheet, a win, is fantastic and in this type of game you have to be there to be able to celebrate.”
Leeds missed a handful of chances in the second period which could have put them out of sight and Farke admitted it started to get more nervy as the game wore on.
He added: “When you don’t score the second goal the opponent believes there is a chance.
“Because you don’t score a second goal it gets more nervous. We dominated every stat, but one scruffy situation in the second half saw a ball go through and thank God (goalkeeper) Illan (Meslier) was in the right position.”
QPR slipped to their sixth league defeat of the season and are without a win in five, but boss Gareth Ainsworth took heart from the performance.
“We’ve had a couple of collapses in my time so resilience wise I’m very proud of the boys,” he said.
“They gave everything, I asked for a bit more output, bit more of the committed work rate, I haven’t seen enough of that this season and we have that tonight. I think we will finish way higher than what people think.”
Ainsworth disagreed with the decision to send off Begovic, who saw red after fouling Patrick Bamford outside his area.
“He (Begovic) does not touch him (Bamford). I’ve had verification from both players that there’s no contact,” Ainsworth said.
“Patrick’s a great lad and he’s just jumped out the way and the referee has seen it as he thought he caught him. We may be able to get it overturned, I don’t know.”
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