Arsenal suffer fresh injury blow with defender sidelined for two months

Arsenal have suffered a fresh injury blow with Ainsley Maitland-Niles likely to miss upto two months of first-team action.

The Englishman suffered a minor tear to his left fibula during the league opener against Manchester City and he could now be sidelined until mid-October at the least, Standard Sport reports.

With the injury, the Gunners are now with just one fit left-back in the form of Nacho Monreal, given Sead Kolasinac is out for a similar timescale after he sustained a knee injury during pre-season.

Monreal has recently joined his teammates in training after recovering from a minor injury of his own and Unai Emery has a key decision to make whether he would start the Spaniard in the London derby this weekend.

Aside from Monreal, Emery could depend on the services of Stephan Lichtsteiner, who was impressive versus the Citizens despite playing in a rather unfamiliar left-back role.

Arsenal are currently lying in the bottom end of the standings after a disappointing 2-0 defeat to the reigning champions but they will be hoping to bounce back against Chelsea on Sunday.