LONDON -- Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw by Sporting Lisbon on Thursday, but that was enough to qualify them for the Europa League knockout stage. The game was overshadowed by Danny Welbeck suffering a potentially serious lower-leg injury in the first half, with the striker carried off on a stretcher after collapsing in pain. Images showed Welbeck's right ankle bent at an unnatural angle, and he immediately waved for medical attention as he writhed on the ground.

Otherwise there was little of...

In a season of considerable flux further up the pitch -- a campaign of tweaked formations, uncertain positions and half-time substitutions -- Arsenal's defence has been surprisingly consistent under Unai Emery. It has proved either resistant to shiny new signings like Bernd Leno or Stephan Lichtsteiner or, in the case of Sokratis Papastathopoulos, the back four has congealed around an influential new face who will be sorely missed if his absence is confirmed this weekend.

In the Premier League,...

Arsenal's first signing of the Unai Emery era was a 34-year-old, no-nonsense defender in Stephan Lichtsteiner. Their second, if a deal for Sokratis Papastathopoulos goes through imminently, will be an almost-30-year-old, no-nonsense defender. It is a recruitment strategy that has the feel of electric shock treatment after two decades of Arsene Wenger.

But then, as he stretches his feet out under his desk at London Colney, the new head coach faces a very different scenario to that which greeted...