Martin ard's injury for Norway on International Duty could have repercussions for Arsenal in their title race hopes with the Midfield star set to miss the north London Derby against Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend and potentially a huge away trip to Manchester City next week and journalist Martin Hardy has stated that although there are positive noises of a quick return it is a massive blow to Mikel arteta's men in a busy month in their campaign aard was crocked with an ankle injury in the second half of North Way's two to1 win over Austria on Monday before being photographed boarding a jet on crutches to leave Gunner fans sweating over the possibility of missing out on their star playmaker for the next few weeks and whilst he hasn't broken any bones to rule him out for the long term Hardy still thinks it is a massive blow for Arsenal speaking on the Sky Sports Back Pages podcast Hardy stated that despite positive Whispers of a return for igard in the coming weeks the reports citing good news are suggesting that the play maker has picked up ligament damage and that will only set igard back at least for a couple of games and without doubt for the north London Derby he said ard's influence cannot be overstated for Arsenal not only is he one of the Premier League's best creative Sparks throughout the entirety of the campaign but he rarely misses games through injury and in that sense it's unusual for Arsenal to head into a topf flight game without their Norwegian Skipper the midfielder has registered 23 goals and 17 assists in his previous two full seasons in the Top Flight which is an extraordinary return alongside playing a key role in attacks where he doesn't end up with a goal contribution and that cannot be spoken about enough with Arsenal's key Creator across the season being ruled out of action Kai havertz is likely to feature in his role for the Tottenham game and whilst the German has found luck in a new striking role as the Gunners went on a title run last season he is still somewhat lacking when playing as a creative midfielder and so the chances that Arsenal get in the north London Derby could be less frequent nonetheless ard's return will be of huge importance to Etta and there is enough attacking talent to Rally around his loss Leandro trossard can play in any of the attacking roles and Raheem Sterling's signing means that he can feature UPF front if needs be alongside Gabrielle jezus who has slipped down the pecking order at the Emirates Stadium in recent months