Johnny Phillips: Early doors, but Gunners are facing a crunch week

Arsenal’s challenge in the Premier League this season could all rest on the next two games – both of them away from home – against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.

After dropping points against Brighton and Hove Albion in their last league fixture a fortnight ago, Mikel Arteta’s side simply cannot afford to allow City to gain any further ground so early in the season.

Aside from that rash moment from Declan Rice, when the England midfielder was sent-off against the Seagulls, Arsenal have looked a commanding and fairly complete unit in the opening month of the season. They need to be, because City – with a rejuvenated Erling Haaland in attack – just do not look like dropping points.

Without the suspended Rice for tomorrow’s North London derby against Spurs, Arteta is going to have to find an alternative to bolster up his midfield in what is sire to be a firecracker atmosphere.

An obvious replacement, Mikel Merino, fractured his shoulder in training immediately after his arrival from Real Sociedad so he is also ruled out. And then there is the injury to playmaker Martin Odegaard to factor in, with the early signs suggesting he has returned from international duty with Norway requiring some time on the sidelines.

There are no available like-for-like replacements for either Rice or Odegaard who spring to mind so the balance of Arteta’s side is going to change considerably.

There is unquestionably plenty of talent waiting in the wings, such as Leandro Trossard and Raheem Sterling, who could walk into the side without any difficulty. But neither man brings the steel in midfield of Rice or the link-up play that has made Odegaard one of the Premier League’s outstanding players of recent seasons.

After the derby, Arsenal will then immediately focus on Europe. They open their Champions League campaign away to Atalanta on Thursday, which leaves a turnaround of under 72 hours before the trip up to the Etihad Stadium.

Arteta will not need reminding that his opposite number, Pep Guardiola, has an extra 24 hours with no additional travel to prepare for this league meeting.

City begin their European adventure a day earlier at home to Inter Milan. All in all it is a relatively straightforward week for Guardiola, beginning with a home fixture today against Brentford. Nothing should be taken for granted, but that makes Arsenal’s week look doubly difficult.

Arteta’s summer signings added much needed depth to a squad which the head coach could not rely on to rotate as much as his rivals did last season.

Merino’s absence for the games against Spurs, Atalanta and Manchester City – and possibly beyond – is worrying.

Another new signing, Riccardo Calafiori, turned his ankle while away with Italy last week and is a major doubt for the Spurs game, although he was unlikely to be in from the start for tomorrow.

One ray of sunshine has been the return of Justin Timber, who has slotted seamlessly into the starting line-up after a year out with an ACL injury. To all intents and purpose, Timber effectively counts as a new signing.

Arteta will need to make use of his whole squad this time around and there is a delicate balancing act to be judged when it comes to his priorities if he is to find a path through these next three fixtures with the results he requires.

Beyond the City game, the fixture calendar offers some respite to Arteta in terms of the strength of opposition at least, but the games still come thick and fast. Arsenal have seven games in 21 days to negotiate. A Carabao Cup tie on 25 September will, in all likelihood, see the entire team changed from the previous league game.

That is one of four home games in a row. A Champions League clash with Paris St Germain is then sandwiched between two league matches against Leicester City and Southampton.

But before those games can come under consideration, Arteta must negotiate one of the most difficult weeks of his managerial career at Arsenal.

If the Gunners can get through tomorrow’s derby and next weekend’s clash with the title holders with four points or more, then no harm done. Anything less will leave Arteta’s side with a huge uphill battle for the remainder of the season.