Title-chasing Gunners rocked by fresh Miedema knee injury

Jonas Eidevall has revealed Arsenal will be without Vivianne Miedema for several weeks due to a knee injury.

Netherlands star Miedema, 27, was forced to return from international duty on Tuesday, which saw her miss the Women's Nations League clash with Germany.

She started last Friday's defeat by Spain but Gunners boss Eidevall admits Miedema, who only made her comeback from an ACL injury in October, would have required the operation regardless.

Speaking ahead of Sunday's clash with Women's Super League rivals Tottenham, he said: "Let's start with the bad news. Viv requires minor knee surgery and that is gonna have her off the pitch for several weeks.

"We will have an update on that after the surgery and when we see how she's progressing. 

"We have good communication with all the national teams we work with but we also have to have a lot of respect for the autonomy in the decision-making.

"The Netherlands were playing some really important games for them — both for a Nations League trophy and maybe more importantly for Olympic qualification — and they needed to make the decisions that were best for them.

"But what's important in all these conversations is that I always think we put the player in the forefront and we try to find solutions that are best for the player.

"She doesn't need the surgery because of those 45 minutes she played against Spain.

"She would have needed surgery anyway, so it was nothing the Dutch team did that complicated or made the situation worse.

"It was a situation that needed to be fixed anyway."

Eidevall's title-chasing Gunners host Spurs at the Emirates in a lunchtime showdown — and the Swede's side are set to be cheered on by a bumper crowd once again.

He added: "The atmosphere is phenomenal. I think that's something we can really use as a strength and make that our fortress together with our fans.

"It should be a very unwelcoming place to come as an away team and we need to create that with the way we're playing.

"Our fans need to create that with their passion and energy."