Arsenal leave O’Hara red-faced as Gunners edge closer to title

Arsenal V Leeds United: Pictures

Jamie O’Hara’s damning take that Arsenal are ‘two injuries away from disaster’ isn’t holding up well. The Gunners remain eight points clear at the top of the Premier League table and were able to turn over Leeds on Saturday afternoon despite missing key players, Bukayo Saka and William Saliba.

Arsenal were excellent once again as they beat the Yorkshire side 4-1 at the Emirates with goals from Granit Xhaka, Ben White and Gabriel Jesus twice. The latter made his first start in the Premier League since being side-lined by a knee injury for four months.

And the north Londoners have hardly had an exemplary injury record this season. Emile Smith Rowe has also been out of action for the majority of the campaign while they have also had to do without Thomas Partey, Kieran Tierney and Mohamed Elneny for long stretches as well.

But speaking back in October of last year, ex-Tottenham midfielder O’Hara was confident their fine run of form would come to an end as soon as the medical room began to fill up.

 “They’re two injuries away from disaster though, in my opinion,” he told Laura Woods on talkSPORT. “I mean if [Gabriel] Martinelli gets injured and if [Gabriel] Jesus – I mean Jesus wasn’t great yesterday, but he’s still massively important.

“If he gets injured, [Eddie] Nketiah’s not good enough to come and step in and carry on that title charge. So if they can keep them 11 players fit, I think Martinelli, [Granit] Xhaka’s been good, [Martin] Odegaard, [William] Saliba, if you can keep all these players fit, you are title contenders. If one of them gets injured, Manchester City have just got a better squad.”

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Although, O’Hara did admit that it wouldn’t be a ‘walk in the park’ for title contenders Manchester City, who continue to chase Arsenal.

He added: sidelined“Arsenal are a good side, I said October was a massive month for Arsenal. They had the north London derby, they had Liverpool, they had Leeds away. The Manchester City game obviously got postponed, Europa League fixtures, Thursday nights, you’re going to have to change and rotate the squad. But they’ve come through every game unscathed at the minute, so that says a lot about what Arteta is doing.”

Promising updates have been provided on Arsenal’s missing links on Saturday, Saka and Saliba. The former is expected to return to training next week after overcoming his illness. Meanwhile, the Frenchman is ‘progressing well’ with his recovery from a back injury according to Mikel Arteta.

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