Mikel Arteta has hinted he may drop Granit Xhaka or Mohamed Elneny into defence for Monday night’s trip to Newcastle as a result of having no fully-fit senior centre-backs available. Ben White was fit enough only for the bench on Thursday but may be forced to return alongside one of Xhaka or Elneny, who have both played in defence before but as part of a back three.
Mikel Arteta said: “We will have to modify certain positions to try to make it work because we don’t have more defenders. And even though we have academy defenders they haven’t experienced a lot those positions because they are not specified central defenders. It is something that we will try to find a way.”
