Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta delivers a largely positive update on his squad’s injury situation ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Leicester City.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has delivered a largely positive update on his squad’s injury situation ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Leicester City.
The Gunners return to top-flight duty on the back of a 5-1 demolition of Bolton Wanderers in the EFL Cup third round, where two-goal man Ethan Nwaneri was one of four teenagers to start.
Arteta had no choice but to beef up his ranks with academy graduates due to Arsenal’s current fitness crisis, as 16-year-old goalkeeper Jack Porter became the youngest man to start for the Gunners in a competitive match.
Porter earned his historic opportunity thanks to injuries to David Raya and Tommy Setford alongside Neto‘s ineligibility, and while the latter could make his debut against Leicester, Arteta was non-committal when asked about Raya’s fitness.
“We have to wait 24 hours to see if he is looking good or not that good,” the Spaniard told reporters at Friday’s pre-game press conference. “It’s not risk, it is about a player being fit or available or not. We will make the decision tomorrow.”
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However, Arteta had better news to share on defensive duo Ben White and Jurrien Timber, both of whom missed the EFL Cup thrashing of Bolton due to recent knocks but are set to return on Saturday.
White was dropped to the bench against Manchester City last weekend before being thrown on for the second half with his side down to 10 men, while Timber took a whack during that game and was nowhere to be seen on Wednesday.
Arteta is confident that both men will be fine for the visit of the Foxes, though, adding: “Jurrien was able to take part in training today so he will be available in the squad and Ben hopefully as well.”
With Leandro Trossard also returning from his ban, Arsenal are set to be working with five guaranteed absentees for the visit of Leicester in Martin Odegaard (ankle), Mikel Merino (shoulder), Oleksandr Zinchenko (calf), Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee) and Kieran Tierney (hamstring).
Merino has been made to wait for his debut after a freak accident in training, where he suffered a shoulder fracture after Gabriel Magalhaes landed on him, and a first appearance before the October international break initially appeared unlikely.
Merino to make Arsenal debut in Southampton clash?
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However, while Arteta confirmed that the Spaniard would not be able to face Leicester, and probably not Paris Saint-Germain next week either, he did not rule Merino out of the battle with Southampton on October 5.
“Tomorrow is too soon, next week we will see. He had partial training today, he has been working so hard and looked really good. It is just about the healing of that bone and how mature that is to expose us to contact basically,” Arteta added.
In addition to Merino stepping up his recovery, Arteta also revealed that Tomiyasu – who is yet to play this season as well – is back in partial training, but it will be a little while longer before he is considered for selection.
“He’s back in partial training today. He’s probably a little bit behind Mikel [Merino] but it’s hard to tell because he pushes himself every single day,” Arteta added.
Arsenal sit fourth in the Premier League table ahead of the visit of Leicester, where Bukayo Saka could achieve a feat that no player has ever managed before in the English top flight since 1992.
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