Wenger: Arteta injury ´serious´

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed Mikel Arteta sustained a severe ankle injury during his side’s shock 2-1 defeat to Wigan on Monday.

The midfielder had to come off during the first half and Wenger said the problem was a ‘serious one’ immediately after the match.

“He had to come off. It’s an ankle problem. It looks quite a serious one,” Wenger told Sky Sports.

“We have to scan it tomorrow, it’s too early to say tonight. But it doesn’t look like a little ankle sprain. It is a serious one.”

Arsenal found themselves two goals down after just eight minutes at Emirates Stadium, with Franco Di Santo and Jordi Gomez scoring within a minute of each other for Wigan, and although Thomas Vermaelen pulled a goal back, Wigan held on for a stirring win.

“We defended horrendously on the first and second goal, everyone included,” Wenger said.

“On top of that, we conceded the second goal with 10 men on the pitch. It took us too much time to change, that was absolutely unbelievable. We concede the first goal with Arteta out, and we can’t even put the player on because he’s not ready.

“When a player is injured, if he stays on the pitch you have time to bring (the sub) on. It was a misunderstanding, but the moment he walked off, Ramsey was not ready. The players think that in the first half they do not come on, so he was not ready.

“Basically we played with 10 men which should not be the case when the player is injured.”

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez, meanwhile, was understandably delighted as his team moved five points clear of the relegation zone.

After defeating Manchester United 1-0 at home in their last game, Martinez’s men followed that up with a gritty triumph over Arsenal to take a further step towards safety.

“I’m so so satisfied because that wasn’t an accident,” Martinez said.

“In eight days, to have to play Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal is such a big task, but today the manner that we coped physically and tactically everyone at Wigan Athletic should be very proud.

“The manner that we played and obviously we were a little bit disappointed at half-time because we couldn’t keep the ball well enough.

“I thought we had to defend well on the counter-attack we were a real threat but we can play a lot better than that.

“A well-deserved three points, and to say that speaks volumes of the performance of the players.”