Europa Cup: Mikel Arteta informs about the injuries after the win over Zurich
Mikel Arteta's team would have been forced into the Europa League playoff round if they had placed second in their group behind PSV Eindhoven, who also defeated Bodo/Glimt on Thursday to earn all three points
Arsenal’s Europa League group stage has to go down as a great success.The Gunners entered their final Group A match knowing they had to match or surpass PSV's result, as the Dutch club was only two points behind them, and they did so.
Arsenal advanced directly to the round of 16 with a 1-0 victory over Zurich at the Emirates Stadium in their last Europa League Group A match on Thursday.
Both teams began the match aggressively by sending men forward. Zurich adopted a courageous strategy, knowing that a loss would result in relegation to the Europa Conference League.
Arsenal dominated the first half of the match, outshooting Zurich 12 - 4 and spending most of the time in attack.
Kieran Tierney's magnificent goal gave Mikel Arteta's team the lead after just 17 minutes, while Arsenal began to settle into the game.
Fabio Vieira had a shot that was stopped and then cleared, the ball rebounded to Tierney just outside the penalty area, and the Scotland international fired it home with his first attempt.
After the game, Mikel Arteta addressed the media and remarked that the mission was accomplished, albeit not in the 'prettiest' manner.
Mikel Arteta praises Kieran Tierney and clears the air on Takehiro Tomiyasu
Mikel Arteta was delighted by Kieran Tierney's performance and was not shy to talk about it,
"He was really good. Kieran is showing a lot of maturity. He has respected certain decisions we have taken. He has played a lot of minutes, and today he scored a great goal. That's what we demand of the players: to be ready to make a difference."
"Everybody has to be ready and is important because we don't have the biggest squad. They have been important in the league and the Europa League."
Later, Mikel Arteta shared his thoughts on Takehiro Tomiyasu as well.
"We don't know," Mikel Arteta admitted he had no clarity on Takehiro Tomiyasu's injury. "He had some muscular issue and we didn't want to take any risk. We'll assess him in the next 48 hours."
Arsenal will now go to west London while sitting atop the Premier League table, with Mikel Arteta's squad dropping just five points from 12 games.
Other than that, Mikel Arteta should be in good shape to make the journey to Stamford Bridge because Mohamed Elneny returned to the matchday squad for Thursday's Europa League clash with FC Zurich and Bukayo Saka recovered from the knock he suffered against Nottingham Forest last weekend.