13 August 2023 , 09:45
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Jurrien Timber has given Arsenal fans hope by suggesting that he'll be 'back soon' after suffering an injury during his Premier League debut.
The Dutch defender, signed from Ajax in a transfer deal worth £38million last month, limped off just five minutes into the second half as a result of what looked to be a calf issue picked up earlier in Arsenal's hard-fought 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest. Post-match, manager Mikel Arteta confessed that he was 'worried' about the extent Timber's injury but the 22-year-old himself appears to have already allayed fears of a lengthy layoff.
In a celebratory Instagram post, Timber wrote: "A win to begin," alongside emojis which read 'back soon'. Fans in the comments section pleaded for him to give a timescale on his absence, but Arteta has already explained that the Netherlands international will firstly need to be assessed by Arsenal's medical staff.
"I need to speak with the doctors and understand what happened, but he had a really weird movement as soon as he came on the pitch," the Gunners boss told talkSPORT. "So, I don't know."
Arteta had received criticism for not taking Timber off at half-time, a decision which the Arsenal manager defended during his post-match press conference. "The doctors looked at him and they were happy for him to continue, he was as well," Arteta explained.
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"Straight away in the first action of the second half he made a movement and it was a bit funny. We took him out straight after and now we have to assess him and see what he has."
Have your say! How should Arsenal replace Jurrien Timber in the starting XI? Give us your verdict in the comments section.
At least the Gunners could be positive about picking up three points, as a well-taken goal from Eddie Nketiah and Bukayo Saka 's screamer ensured that Arsenal got their league campaign off to a winning start, despite Taiwo Awoniyi's late consolation strike. "We were super dominant, we deserved to win the game, there's no question that we deserved to win the game," Arteta affirmed.
"But when you are 2-0 up and you have some chances to kill the game we didn't and then we gave a very sloppy one away after being there and having the corner and having a chance on the corner.
"Straight away from two passes you concede a goal, when that happens in the league it's game on, every team has the resources, the quality to create issues, and it was more about the feeling of what happened, because the reality is we didn't concede anything. Running the clock down, in this league, that's a very dangerous thing to do but overall I'm very happy."