Mikel Arteta provides injury update on Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney after Crystal Palace setback

Mikel Arteta refused to play down speculation Kieran Tierney could miss the rest of the season following Arsenal’s damaging 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace last night.

The Gunners were comprehensively beaten by Patrick Vieira’s rapidly improving side with Mikel Arteta branding the performance of his team ‘unacceptable’.

Arsenal now trail Tottenham in the race to claim fourth place and their hopes of overhauling their north London rivals are certain to be hindered by the setback suffered by their first choice left-back.

Tierney returned to Arsenal from international duty with Scotland nursing a knee injury which ruled him out of last night’s game and the 24-year-old is set to see a specialist today to assess the severity of the damage.

Asked whether the former Celtic star would miss the rest of the campaign in his post match press conference, Arteta said: ‘He’s seeing a specialist tomorrow and we will know more about the extent of the injury then.

‘But the feeling that he had it wasn’t really positive and what the scan showed either, but we will have to wait and see what happens.’

Tierney’s understudy, Nuno Tavares, suffered a chastening evening and was hauled off at half-time, echoing the struggles he had on his most recent start against Nottingham Forest in January’s FA Cup third round defeat.

‘Today was just a tactical reason for how I wanted to do it with what Palace was doing and how we could attack and control the game much better in that position,’ said Arteta when asked to explain his decision to withdraw Tavares at the break.

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