Arsene Wenger has admitted the absence of Santi Cazorla has been hurting Arsenal in recent weeks, but is confident they can cope without the Spaniard.
Cazorla has missed Arsenal’s last four Premier League fixtures due to an Achilles injury, with the Gunners dropping points in three of those encounters.
They will be looking to return to winning ways against Bournemouth on Sunday and Wenger has acknowledged another tough game awaits without the 31-year-old.
“Santi is important to our technical stability in the team, to the quality of our decision-making and to our build-up from deep midfield to the high midfield,” Wenger told reporters.
“That is an important stage because it gets the ball out from the defenders. Santi is a massive player for us.
“But we have enough quality players in our side to get around that. We are good enough to find solutions despite the fact he is not there.”
Arsenal brought in Granit Xhaka ahead of the 2016-17 campaign to add some more depth to their midfield in order to be able to deal with absences such as Cazorla’s, but the former Borussia Monchengladbach man has been struggling to live up to the high expectations.
However, Wenger is adamant he is satisfied with the Switzerland international.
“I am very happy with Granit’s commitment,” Wenger added.
“I think he is developing well. Maybe he has not started enough since the start of the season but he is adapting to a different league, a different way of playing.
“Overall I am happy because every day he is focused on working hard and I am confident he will get his number of games.”
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