Three ways Arsenal can immediately solve Bukayo Saka injury blow vs Everton

Saka clutched the top of his left leg as he swept the ball across the pitch, falling to the ground in a heap. The Hale End graduate was forced to come off, making way for Eberechi Eze inside the opening 10 minutes or so.

Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Mikel Arteta provided an update on Saka. The Arsenal boss said: "They are a bit concerned. A player who has to come off with a really sharp pain is never good news, but we have to wait and see."

Then, in his post-match press conference, Arteta added: "It’s his quad. It was early in the game, and the level of intensity his game requires is something incredible.

Make sure you never miss the latest Arsenal news and opinion by making Football London one of your Google preferred sources.

"The quality, strength and attention you need has to be at the highest level, and those things happen unfortunately. It doesn’t look good at all, but we have to wait and see."

As it stands, the severity of the injury remains unclear until Saka undergoes further tests and medical assessments. But, due to the nature of the problem, it was quite clearly a concern for his gaffer.

So, with that being said, football.london has looked at what Arteta could do in the absence of Saka.

Noni Madueke will likely inherit responsibilities on the right wing for Arsenal. The 24-year-old winger, who's generally struggled to make an impression since swapping Stamford Bridge for the Emirates Stadium in a deal worth £50m, will want to prove that he's more than capable of shouldering such a great workload for a Premier League title contender.

If Arteta would rather keep his powder dry and catch David Moyes off guard, he could always trial a new formation on Saturday afternoon. The Arsenal boss could rip up the script and deploy a two-striker-narrow setup, almost like a diamond.

In doing so, the Gunners would be able to overload the middle of the park and funnel the opposition build-up down the wings, where they would face some of the best full-backs in the Premier League.

The only problem is that Everton probably wouldn't mind tackling such an approach, with great crossers of the ball in the squad and a chance magnet, Thierno Barry, ready to battle the centre-backs for every half-chance.