Saka out as Arsenal fear long layoff before Everton visit the Emirates

Arsenal will face Everton at the Emirates on Saturday without Bukayo Saka, and the bigger worry for Mikel Arteta is how long the list of games he misses turns out to be. The winger limped off after 10 minutes of Wednesday's 2-2 Champions League draw at Bayern Munich, and the club are now waiting on scans before putting a timeframe on his absence.

Kick-off is at 3pm UK time. Arsenal go into the game second in the Premier League behind leaders Manchester City, chasing a seventh straight home win, according to the club's official match preview.

"Not good signs" for Saka

Arteta did not hide his concern at his Friday news conference. "He's got another MRI this afternoon because he had quite a lot of fluid in the area, so it was difficult to understand the extent of the injury," he said, as quoted in the full transcript on Arsenal.com.

"Obviously when a player has to walk off the pitch, he's struggling to walk without any pain, he's restricted to movement, they are not good signs."

He asked for patience until specialists have given their opinions. The BBC reports that the club fear a quadriceps problem that will keep the 25-year-old out for at least six weeks, and possibly up to two months. That would rule him out of a run of key fixtures and England's Nations League games against Croatia and Spain.

Another setback, then, in a stop-start period for Saka. Last season he had Achilles, hip and hamstring problems, and his game time was managed at the World Cup, the BBC notes. He had scored four goals in 11 appearances this term before the injury.

Asked whether Saka was losing his robustness, Arteta admitted his availability "has certainly been different in the last year or so", before pointing to the schedule. "There are less than 66 or 67 hours between games, and every hour is important," he said.

Who fills the gap

Arsenal's wide options are thin. The BBC points out that the club failed to land a world-class forward in the summer, and that Christos Tzolis is also injured. That leaves Noni Madueke, Eberechi Eze and 16-year-old Max Dowman as the main alternatives.

Eze came on for Saka in Munich and scored to put Arsenal ahead. "I'm extremely happy with how Ebz reacted to the previous game and the impact that he had on the team," Arteta said. Madueke, meanwhile, came off the bench to score the only goal at Nottingham Forest last weekend, the third league win in a row decided by an Arsenal substitute, according to BBC Sport's key stats.

Dowman has a history with this fixture. He became the Premier League's youngest ever scorer against Everton at the Emirates last season, and Arteta promised that "for sure he's going to have minutes".

There was better news in defence. Piero Hincapie has trained and is available, while William Saliba (back) remains out, as Football London reports.

Moyes and an Emirates hoodoo

Everton arrive eighth with 10 points. They were unbeaten in the league until last weekend's 2-0 home defeat by Chelsea, and all three of their away games this season have ended level: 1-1 at Bournemouth, 0-0 at Tottenham and 2-2 at Hull City, per Arsenal.com.

History is not on their side. Everton have won one of their last 30 Premier League away games against Arsenal, and under David Moyes they have never won at Arsenal in 13 league attempts, both the BBC and the club's preview point out. Arsenal have conceded only five league goals, and have faced fewer shots on target (21) than any other side.

Moyes, who managed Arteta during his Everton playing days, would not be drawn on team news. He said Everton have "our fair share of bits and pieces" and declined to comment on Jarrad Branthwaite, who was hurt in a collision with Chelsea goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, the BBC reports.

Christian Norgaard, the former Arsenal midfielder, is "a little bit further away than we'd hoped".

"I thought we did really well against them down at the Emirates last season," Moyes said. "I look back at the team we had and we were pretty threadbare. I hope we can do the same again."

Arteta returned the respect. "It's no coincidence they didn't lose before their last game," he said. "They have a really good team."

The Opta supercomputer makes Arsenal heavy favourites, winning 69.5% of its simulations. With three games in six days ahead, Arteta's message to Saka was simple: be the first one in the building with "a good spirit and energy", because the team cannot afford to dwell on it.