Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has revealed that Gunners captain Martin Odegaard will be missing for “a number of weeks” with a knee injury.

A perfect week for Arsenalsaw them beat Newcastle and West Ham in the Premier League, while they also overcame Olympiacos in the Champions League.

Their results in the Premier League saw them jump above Liverpool into first placeas the Reds had a nightmare week in which they lost all three of their matches in all competitions.

Arsenal did suffer one blow with the news that Odegaard had picked up a medial collateral ligament injury and now Arteta has confirmed a potential timeline.

Arteta told a press conference on Friday:?“It will be weeks.?No definite date for his return, but he’s evolving well. Very unlucky, what’s happening with him and his injuries this season. But yeah, I think he will be back in a few weeks.

“We’ll have to see how he progresses, how the knee is healing, how he manages after the next steps in his rehab. So, too early to give an answer.”

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Viktor Gyokeres has had a mixed start to life at Arsenal with three goals in his first seven Premier League matches but Arteta has been “very pleased” with the Sweden international.

Arteta added:?“He brings so much to the team. Watching the games back, I’m very pleased with what he is bringing to the team.

“I told him, in our first meeting ‘the nine that I want is a nine that when he doesn’t score for six or eight games he can handle that. If not, you have to go somewhere else.’

“The pressure is going to be there, the expectation is going to be there, if you put the number nine shirt on for Arsenal, you have to be able to say, six games I don’t score am I different player? Do I act in a different way?

“I want more of the same of what he is doing. When we have the opportunities put it (in the net), I’m sure it is going to happen.”

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Asked about Declan Rice claiming his role has changed this season, Arteta replied:?“I think he is adapting to the qualities that we have, we have certain chemistries and certain relationships that you notice. With eight new players in the squad different things emerge. We are trying to maximise his qualities and relationship with others to give the team the best capacity to perform.”

On the positives he has seen from his side this season, Arteta continued:?“A lot of things. There have been two very different blocks. In the second block, because of some issues that we had, we had to increase our availability in the squad. That was one of the main things to do.

“The impact that anybody could have in the game, whether he was playing or finishing, or he wasn’t even in the squad. I think we did that really, really well. And then we have evolved a few things that we wanted.

“To be more unpredictable, to threaten more the opposition, to be super consistent in all the defensive aspects of the game as well. And we’ve gone to a different level. And after that, in the next block, can we sustain a lot of those things and increase others? That’s the objective.”

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