Mikel Arteta refused to play down speculation Kieran Tierney could miss the rest of the season following ’s damaging 3-0 defeat at last night.
The Gunners were comprehensively beaten by Patrick Vieira’s rapidly improving side with Mikel Arteta branding the performance of his team ‘unacceptable’.
Arsenal now trail Tottenham in the race to claim fourth place and their hopes of overhauling their north rivals are certain to be hindered by the setback suffered by their first choice left-back.
Tierney returned to Arsenal from international duty with Scotland nursing a knee injury which ruled him out of last night’s game and the 24-year-old is set to see a specialist today to assess the severity of the damage.
Asked whether the former Celtic star would miss the rest of the campaign in his post match press conference, Arteta said: ‘He’s seeing a specialist tomorrow and we will know more about the extent of the injury then.
‘But the feeling that he had it wasn’t really positive and what the scan showed either, but we will have to wait and see what happens.’
Tierney’s understudy, Nuno Tavares, suffered a chastening evening and was hauled off at half-time, echoing the struggles he had on his most recent start against Nottingham Forest in January’s FA Cup third round defeat.
‘Today was just a tactical reason for how I wanted to do it with what Palace was doing and how we could attack and control the game much better in that position,’ said Arteta when asked to explain his decision to withdraw Tavares at the break.
‘We wanted to put another attacking midfielder with Emile in that space and that was the only reason. I’m sorry that it was Nuno again, but we had to do it.’
A thoroughly miserable evening for Arsenal was compounded by the injury sustained by influential midfielder Thomas Partey.
The Ghana international has been a pivotal figure this term after his first season with Arsenal was hampered by a series of groin injuries, but the former Atletico Madrid star appears to have suffered another similar setback.
‘I don’t know, but he felt something in the same area that he got injured previously, so it’s a big concern,’ added Arteta.
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