Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes hang in balance

English Premier League side Arsenal are currently left in one competition, the League which they will have to fight tooth and nail to win to wind down their impressive season.

This is after the Gunners were shockingly knocked out of the Europa League by Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon.

The game ended 2-2 in Portugal and coming to the Emirates either side knew what they had to do.

Despite a strong start from the visitors, Arsenal found the back of the net through Granit Xhaka.

Sporting Lisbon however equalized in the second half through a beautiful goal by Pedro Goncalves from halfway the pitch.

Both sides tried looking for a winner but found none going to extra time.

The two teams had to go for a penalty shootout to find out which team progresses to the round of 16.

It was Brazilian, Gabriel Martinelli‘s spot kick which was saved sending the Portuguese through on a 5-3 win.

However, Arsenal will be more worried about the injuries they got in the game.

Takehiro Tomiyasu was the first to be subbed off under just 9 minutes.

He was replaced by Ben White. French defender William Saliba was also forced off in the first half.

Fears arose in the Gunners fans when Mike Arteta subbed off Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus in the half time break.

He was replaced by Belgian attacker Leandro Trossard.

Initially Gabriel Jesus who hadn’t started a game since his injury in the World Cup last year was to last 60 minutes.

Arteta has however revealed that the change was a tactical one.

“We decided to do that because we had to manage the subs. Thank God we did take him out especially after the two windows that we had to use in the first half. That was the plan.”

“Leo [Trossard] is coming from an injury as well and we knew the game could go to extra time and we had to manage that. He looked OK.”

He also talked about the other concerning injuries of Tomiyasu and Saliba.

“Tomiyasu looks pretty serious from his reaction straight and what he said to me, but obviously it’s very early. Willy [Saliba] I don’t know, he had some discomfort and could not continue so we had to take him out.”

Arsenal now shift their attention to the Premier League as they take on Crystal Palace on Sunday.