Leeds United set non-negotiable objective for Emirates clash with Arsenal despite injury woes

It's always a worry for a club manager when you let your players go for international duty and they come back injured.

This is what Leeds United and Javi Gracia have experienced over the past weekend, with two players who have been incredibly influential for us.

Max Wober was only signed in January but he's looked really solid at the back and proven to be another character and leader for us out on the pitch. Willy Gnonto has been a bright spark and given us something extra, with important goals and creativity.

For these two to come back injured is a hell of a double blow and we'll hope that the problems aren't too serious because they're players we were relying on and players we need.

There's always two ways to look at it though because when a player gets injured there's a winner and a loser, thanks to the opportunity that arises for someone else to come in.

In Wober's position we have our club captain Liam Cooper who has been working back from injury or Pascal Struijk and we could potentially push Luke Ayling inside and play Rasmus Kristensen, so recently praised by his manager, at right-back. There are options for Gracia in the backline.

When it comes to Gnonto we have exciting wingers Luis Sinisterra and Crysencio Summerville who can provide cover while he's out, so the better half of this news is that the squad gives Gracia some room to manoeuvre. When you think back to periods of last season, losing key players like this put us in a lot of trouble. This time around we're better placed to cope.

I like the look of Summerville this season. What he's got as a young player is such good composure and confidence on the ball. A lot of players in tight areas don't like to play quickly or their composure doesn't quite allow them to but Summerville is very happy to take the ball under pressure. He has the ability to get out of those areas with great skill. I've heard lots of good stories about him on the training ground, people last year were saying 'wow this kid has great ability' and he hadn't quite transferred that onto the pitch but this season we're seeing him in the first team. He's clearly got something about him and we're seeing what it is.

Looking at that Arsenal team they really are on fire, playing with a lot of confidence and they have a great balance about them. When Mikel Arteta first came in there were a lot of question marks over him, his team and individual players. But recruitment has worked for them, they've got one hell of a squad and he has them playing some wonderful football.

I look through the side to see where the weaknesses are and I struggle to see any. They have dangerous attacking threats, Bukayo Saka is in incredible form and has been superb against us previously. He's taking his game to another level right now and on the other side Gabriel Martinelli is doing a similar thing.

So it's plainly going to be tough, a massive challenge against a side on a great run but every run comes to an end at some point and we've got to try and believe that we can be the ones to end it. Why not? We'll give it a go. To look at either scenario, picking up a win or taking home a point, we're going to have to play extremely well to contain them. At times, no doubt, they will get through and that's when Illan Meslier will have to come up big with one or two saves. Hopefully we can still come out on the right end.

Any kind of positive result will be massive given what comes after. I don't like looking ahead to games further down the weeks but you can't help it because Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest at home are enormous, absolutely enormous. That's why at Arsenal this weekend we have to put in a performance. What that means in terms of points, it just is what it is. Whether it's none, one or three, we still need some sort of performance to take momentum into games against teams in and around us down there in the bottom half of the Premier League table. It’s not a must win, because of who it’s against, where it is, where our fight really lies in the Premier League table, our current position and how many games are remaining, but it is a must perform game. That’s the challenge for us.

This is the moment when we could secure the results that really say we're going to be in the Premier League next season and it's got to start at Arsenal with a performance.