Calafiori insight, Merino spotted and Arsenal excitement at Man City miss - Inside the Emirates

This week's edition of Inside the Emirates gets the reaction from Manchester City's draw and some injury hints for the future

Arsenal recorded a late win over Leicester City on Saturday afternoon, requiring two goals in added time to confirm the points. It was an afternoon that promised far less than it ended up delivering with a 2-0 half-time scoreline giving a sense of formality to the proceedings that were rudely ripped up by Steve Cooper's side.

Mikel Arteta has been forced into several decisions in recent weeks due to injuries to players such as Martin Odegaard and Ben White. David Raya was thankfully passed fit for the match and Leandro Trossard returned from his midweek suspension.

As usual, I was in attendance for football.london and as is now tradition, ready to bring some of the behind-the-scenes takes from inside the Emirates. From injury hints to celebratory moments before a ball had even been kicked, here is this week’s insight.

Manchester City drop points

Ahead of the game, when sitting in the press lounge enjoying this week's food offering, a lovely chilli and nachos, the television screens were understandably displaying the clash at St. James' Park. Inside the lounge are, as always, the usual print and broadcast media and this generates quite the atmosphere at times when games of significance happen to be on.

I arrived just after Josko Gvardiol had scored with an almost predictable acceptance that Pep Guardiola's side were on their way to a customary win. However, as Anthony Gordon went through and was brought down in the penalty area, there was a feeling of excitement - perhaps mainly from myself - as the spot kick was converted, which would eventually give Arsenal the boost ahead of the afternoon's game.

The injured few

As usual, standing in the mixed zone waiting for an interview - this week it was with Declan Rice, which you can read here – some of the players not available walked through. Ben White came through early and looked to be moving comfortably despite the issue that caused him to miss the last two games.

READ MORE: Declan Rice proven right after Arsenal backing of star teammate in honest post-match analysis

READ MORE: Arsenal receive surprise triple title boost after dramatic Leicester win sees star emerge

Mikel Merino was smiling, signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans at the end of the tunnel. He too looked very comfortable, as did Takehiro Tomiyasu, who came through and Mikel Arteta has recently explained that the defender is progressing well toward a return.

Riccardo Calafiori

Having seemingly suffered an innocuous issue during the celebrations of Leandro Trossard’s stoppage-time winner and earlier in the game, Calafiori was seen in the mixed zone with compression round his left knee. This sparked quite the online panic on Monday evening when speculation was rife.

However, despite Arteta admitting the Italian was emotional after the game with Leicester, he described him as being in contention for the game. In his stead, Jakub Kiwior could be an option for the left-back position.

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