Another Arsenal injury blow! Ben White subbed within 30 minutes of Wolves clash after aggravating hamstring problem

Arsenal have been hit by injuries to William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Cristhian Mosquera, among others, this season, and just when the former returned to the starting lineup on Saturday, the north London team have lost White to injury. The former Brighton man, who had started his fourth game in a row for the first time in a year after a spell of injuries, was replaced around the 30-minute mark by Myles Lewis-Skelly after appearing to hurt his hamstring. It remains to be seen how serious this issue will be.

The former Leeds United loanee was praised by Arteta earlier this month following Arsenal's 2-0 win over Brentford. White, who has played second fiddle to Jurrien Timber at right-back for much of the campaign, was named man of the match in that game. That led Arteta to praise his defender. 

"Personally, I’m very, very happy for him as a human being," said the ex-Everton player. "I think the rest of the team is the same because he’s [White] a player who has always played for us, and sadly, because of the right reasons, he wasn’t playing that much because Jurrien [Timber] was excellent, and he was out for a while, and then he needed to earn his place. But his attitude has been so positive, so good. Then when you are ready and you’re given the opportunity, you take it like he did today. So I’m very happy that we have him back in the best version of himself as well, and we’re going to need him because he’s a tremendous player. The first thing as a defender is he defends, and defends with that purpose and with that determination and efficiency. He’s done that today. Then if he can add the value that he can add with the ball through his passing, through his movement and through the deliveries that he can put in with the quality that he has, so be it, and today I think he’s done both very well."

Arsenal have been hit hard by injuries this season, with Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, and Leandro Trossard also having spells on the sidelines. Manager Mikel Arteta said that the Gunners are caught in a "really dangerous circle" with these setbacks but denied it was a result of overtraining. The Spaniard, however, did point to the sheer number of games that his players are playing as a factor.

He said last week: "No, because we don't train. We don't have time to train. So training is not there but obviously the fact that you are missing players, you are loading other players more [as] a consequence. It's a really dangerous circle that one. Some of the players have played over 150 games in two seasons so it starts to get overloaded. You start to ask them again and again and again to do that [and] at some point they will break down. It's something that we are constantly looking at. We have played a lot of games with a lot of players missing that puts a lot of stress and then more injuries but we are on it. I'm really happy what we're doing in terms of the medical stuff and everything that we are trying to bring together, but sometimes as well we need some things to go on our side."

After this Wolves game, Arsenal have a relatively longer break than they have had in recent weeks, as their next match is on December 20 away at Everton. But they then face Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, and Brighton and Aston Villa in the Premier League before the end of December.