Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber was substituted at half-time in the win over Paris Saint-Germain, with Mikel Arteta joking that “hopefully he feels more positive tomorrow”.
The Dutchman has been a revelation for Arsenal since joining in the summer of 2023 from Ajax for £38.5m, although that was the value according to his release clause after he wanted to move to north London.
Timber made a promising start at Arsenal before a nightmare debut that saw him stretchered off the field after just 17 minutes against Nottingham Forest last November, finally succumbing to an ACL injury that ended his season.
He returned to full fitness in time for the beginning of 2024/25 but was limited to just five starts in Arsenal’s impressive campaign before leaving to join up with the Netherlands squad last November.
Upon returning, Timber started again for Arsenal in their 2-0 win over Thomas Tuchel’s PSG in the final Europa League group match, resuming his role as a de facto right-back after Ben White’s injury over the weekend against Everton.
Bearing all of this in mind, Arsenal fans will have been disheartened to see their saviour from Tuesday evening’s win last just one half of football, being subbed off at the interval for Jakub Kiwior.
Asked what the problem was to the press, Arteta said: “He was unbelievable in the first half but he felt something muscular and he was uncertain and I didn’t want to take any risks. I was planning to start Kiwior regardless if we had the final result, but he was unbelievable in the first, so hopefully he feels more positive tomorrow.
“He’s been out for a year, he’s played a lot of minutes, probably more minutes than we wanted in the last few weeks and we have to manage him.”
Arsenal will be hoping Timber can come through this unscathed and that he will be fit and firing for the visit of Southampton to the Emirates on Saturday in the Premier League.
