Kai Havertz has been given the nod to lead the line for Arsenal in the north London derby with Gabriel Jesus ruled out.
It was confirmed earlier this week that the Brazilian striker ruptured his ACL in Sunday’s loss to Manchester United in the FA Cup, with Jesus now likely to miss the remainder of the season.
He had been in rich vein of form since returning to full fitness. But with the former Manchester City man now unavailable for the foreseeable future, Havertz will play up front against Tottenham.
The German was deployed on the right of Arsenal’s front three with Jesus central at the weekend. But it’s Raheem Sterling who comes in on the right for Arsenal in order to enable Havertz to move into the No.9 position.
While Havertz is seemingly poised to lead the line for Arsenal in the short-term it remains to be seen if they will try to sign a new striker in the January transfer window.
They had been tipped to potentially do so before Jesus’ injury after opting to keep their powder dry back in the summer.
And Arteta has so far refused to rule anything out in terms of bringing in a new No.9, saying: “We have very clear ideas of the players that we want, yes. It was before Gabi and it was with Gabi injured right now and we have to wait and see how things develop.
“Obviously we are losing two very creative, very important, very unpredictable players for us [Jesus and Saka] so that has an impact on the team. That’s for sure. Not for now, it is from the start of the window and before the window we were actively looking at what we can do to plan and improve the squad, impact the squad, if we can.
“Obviously the news of Gabi, that takes the scenario to another dimension as well because the time frame will be longer.”
Arsenal are currently seven points behind Liverpool at the Premier League summit and they could yet be tempted to make a big move in January with Manchester City out of the running for the domestic crown.
Arsenal line-up: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Trossard, Sterling, Havertz.
Tottenham line-up: Kinsky, Pedro Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Spence, Sarr, Bissouma, Bergvall, Kulusevski, Solanke, Son (c).
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