Mikel Arteta reveals why Martin Odegaard missed Arsenal's FA Cup win and confirms two new injury problems

Odegaard started the midweek 1-1 draw at Brentford on the bench but replaced Eberechi Eze for the second half at the Gtech Community Stadium. The Gunners took a well-deserved lead on the hour mark in the London derby as Noni Madueke headed Piero Hincapie's cross past Caoimhin Kelleher.

The Bees responded well, however, and were level 10 minutes after going behind through Keane Lewis-Potter after Michael Kayode's long throw was flicked on by Sepp van den Berg for the 24-year-old to power a header past David Raya.

However, the Arsenal skipper suffered a knock during the Brentford goal, and there were concerns he'd be forced off shortly after his introduction. Odegaard saw out the stalemate in the capital but sat out the FA Cup triumph entirely as Arsenal blitzed Wigan in the opening 45 minutes courtesy of goals from Noni Madueke, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus, as well as a Jack Hunt own goal, to secure their spot in the fifth round of the competition.

And Arteta has revealed why Odegaard was missing on Sunday, admitting that the midfielder sustained a knock in during Lewis-Potter's goal.

Speaking after the game, Arteta said: "Martin we'll have to wait and see. He picked that knock on the action when we conceded the goal [against Brentford] and he wasn't fit for today."

Not only did Odegaard miss the win over Wigan, Arteta was handed two further injury concerns during Sunday's FA Cup triumph. Defender Riccardo Calafiori was set to start at the weekend but was replaced by Bukayo Saka in the starting XI after pulling up in the warm up.

Additionally, Ben White was forced off late on to take some of the gloss off what was an impressive afternoon for the north London side.

"[Calafiori] and Ben are the only doubts," Arteta added. "We have to wait and see in the next 48 hours how things develop."

Arteta is already without Kai Havertz due to a muscle injury, while Mikel Merino is also absent following foot surgery, and in a race to be fit again to feature this season, leaving Arsenal short of midfield options.

"Before it was the strikers, then it was the defenders, now it's the midfielders," Arteta continued. "But we are still coping with that, but we need some players back and fit, to give us as well not only numbers but different options in relation to the opponents that we have. So the quicker the better."

Even so, Arteta praise his side's desire against Wigan, who told the official Arsenal website: "It was great. Straight away you could see that things were clicking. Players were really alive, really sharp. And yeah, we caused a lot of damage to them.

"Very happy we are in the next round. That’s what we wanted to achieve and I think the manner that we’ve done it as well, making a lot of changes. But the team showed a real desire first of all, which is the most important thing when you play these kinds of teams in the competition.

"Then cohesion, which normally is not there from the beginning because of the amount of changes that you’ve made. But the team, I think, played with a lot of intensity, great intentions to play forward, to constantly threaten the opposition, and we scored some incredible goals in the first half. That made a difference."

Arsenal will hope to use the resounding win over Wigan as a springboard to go seven points clear at the top of the table in midweek. The Gunners travel to bottom side Wolves on Wednesday night as they look to follow up Sunday's 4-0 victory with another win to pull clear of Manchester City.

Wolves, like Arsenal, booked their spot in the next round of the FA Cup on Sunday as they edged out Grimsby, a result that ended a five-game winless run.

Rob Edwards' side are rooted to the foot of the Premier League table and find themselves 18 points off safety with 12 games to play.