Graham Potter confirms huge West Ham injury blow in significant boost to Arsenal | OneFootball

Graham Potter has confirmed that Lucas Paqueta will miss the game against Arsenal on Saturday after suffering an ankle injury in training.

The Brazilian midfielder could also miss West Ham’s following game against Leicester but Hammers boss Potter hopes to have him back soon.

“It was a training incident,” Potter explained. “It was an innocuous one.

“He went over on his ankle and there was a little bit of a collision with Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

“He’s rolled his ankle and he’ll be missing for the game, probably Leicester as well, so we’ll see how it is but it’s swollen up a bit.

“It’s just swollen up so we’ll take it day by day but I imagine it will be a week or two that he’s away.”

Potter also confirmed that Vladimir Coufal and Crysencio Summerville are also again set to miss out against Arsenal through injury.

“Apart from the team news is pretty much as we were,” he continued. “Coufal still has a bit of a feeling so I think the game will come too quickly for him but he has an outside chance for Leicester.

“Summerville is making progress but is a similar timeline, we’re looking at probably the other side of the international break more for him.

Arsenal also go into the game with injury problems, particularly in attack with Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus all still unavailable.

But Potter says despite that, West Ham have to be prepared for a very difficult game and praised the job Mikel Arteta has done with the Gunners.

“They’re a really strong and top team,” Potter said.

“Mikel has done a great job of developing the club and developing the team.

“They are competing at the top end of all the competitions.

“My experience tells me there is never a good or a bad time (to play a team), it’s just the time you have and we can’t control that.

“Whoever they play, they’re going to be extremely competitive because they’re so well organised, well coached. It’s a strong group, of course it is, which is competing at the top end of the Premier League and the Champions League.

“We know it’s a tough game and we have to respect that. Then it’s about what we can bring to the game ourselves.”