Arteta on Saka injury and defeat to RC Lens

Bukayo Saka suffered a “muscular” injury while trying to backheel the ball in Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to RC Lens, Mikel Arteta has said.

The Gunners winger was forced off before half-time in his side’s Champions League defeat as goals from Adrien Thomasson and Elye Wahi handed Arteta’s side defeat despite Gabriel Jesus’ opener.

Saka was also forced off with injury in Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Bournemouth on Saturday but recovered in time to play against Lens, and Arteta says he is unsure of the severity of his latest setback.

“He tried to backheel a ball in the first half and he felt something,” Arteta explained.

“It was muscular. He was uncomfortable and we had to take him off.

“We don’t know anything more than that. It was big enough not to allow him to play the rest of the game and that is a worry for us.”

The loss means sit second behind Lens in their Champions League group on three points, having beaten PSV Eindhoven on the opening day of the competition.

“The difference with the PSV game was in the boxes,” Arteta said of the defeat.

“We had four very big chances, and we didn’t defend the box well enough to win the game.

“When you get there, you have to put the ball in the back of the net and defend much better than we did.”