We’ve got more press conferences ahead of us on Friday – and this will be the place to come to get all the big Gameweek 15 team news.
There will be 12 Premier League managers facing the media on Friday, hopefully clearing up the lingering concerns we have about flagged players.
Another two bosses, Ruben Amorim and Nuno Espirito Santo, held their Gameweek 15 pressers in the aftermath of last night’s clash at Old Trafford. Those quotes are embargoed until 1.30pm GMT today.
As ever, we’ll be bringing you the latest key team news updates in this ‘live’ article. Keep checking back throughout the day for the latest updates.
For the headline updates from Thursday’s six press conferences, check out this article here.
GAMEWEEK 15: KEY INJURY UPDATES FROM FRIDAY’S PRESSERS
- Arsenal: Arteta says “let’s see” on Rice, Saliba + Trossard latest, Mosquera “more complicated”
- Liverpool: Bradley trains, Gomez should be fine after knock, Slot on Salah
- Manchester City: Rodri still out, Pep on resting O’Reilly
- Chelsea: Caicedo still banned, no fresh worries
- Newcastle United: Tonali latest, Wissa “getting closer”, Botman still out
- Bournemouth: Senesi + Brooks return, Adams ban, Milosavljevic struggling, Iraola on Semenyo
- Manchester United: United hopeful on de Ligt + Dalot, Amorim on AFCON exits
- Brentford: Thiago “in a good place”, Nelson available again
- Aston Villa: Emery to assess Martinez, Barkley + Mings still out
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Tzimas set to be out long-term, Mitoma setback, Ayari could return
- Everton: Moyes “not sure” if Keane will recover, Coleman out, Iroegbunam banned
- Fulham: Robinson involved in ‘drills’ but remains out, no new worries
- Sunderland: No fresh concerns
- West Ham United: Paqueta to start, Nuno hoping to get Summerville back soon
GAMEWEEK 15 PRESS CONFERENCE TIMES
ARSENAL
Mikel Arteta was typically non-committal on Declan Rice (calf), who came off late on in midweek.
The player himself said he was “fine” after the game but Arteta wouldn’t stretch to confirming that.
“Well, let’s see! I think with all the questions I’m going to get, the answer, unfortunately, is going to be the same. We have another training session in the afternoon and every hour is going to be very important to see the availability of the players. After that, we will decide who travels.” – Mikel Arteta on whether Declan Rice will be fit
Arteta did, at least, acknowledge that Cristhian Mosquera‘s ankle injury was “more complicated”.
“That’s the one that is more complicated but again, we have another test today to see where we are with him.” – Mikel Arteta on Cristhian Mosquera
The Arsenal boss had said earlier this week that William Saliba (knock) and Leandro Trossard (knock) would be back within “days”, and doubled down on that estimate on Friday.
“Yeah, it is a matter of days with those two, for sure.” – Mikel Arteta on William Saliba and Leandro Trossard
Kai Havertz (knee) and Gabriel Magalhaes (knee) remain out but the Gunners have no other concerns.
Away from injuries, Arteta was asked if Riccardo Calafiori being on four bookings was a worry.
“Both. Especially the other day against Brentford and especially with the situation that we had at the end of the game with the backline and the numbers that we have there. But it didn’t happen, so good news.” – Mikel Arteta on if Riccardo Calafiori being on four yellow cards impacts his line-up decisions or if it’s an in-game dilemma
And after a spot of midweek rotation, the Arsenal boss was then asked about his fringe players.
“We haven’t had this situation too many times. I think the problem would be the other one, that you bring somebody in and he doesn’t perform, and then the decision is so easy, not to play him again. We are not in that position, which is the position that we want to be in, which is exactly that. We have people in contention, whether it’s to start the game or to finish the game, or to play whenever the team needs his qualities. That’s what we have at the moment with every player.” – Mikel Arteta on whether it’s difficult to drop fringe players who performed well after being rotated
Martin Odegaard was one of those coming into the side in Gameweek 14, getting his first start in two months.
“Yeah, I think he’s certainly capable of doing that once the injury is resolved. You see the stats, what he did in midweek after six or seven weeks out, it’s incredible. We just have another player, another top player, that gives us a lot, gives us something different to what we have in those positions, so I’m very happy to have him.” – Mikel Arteta on if Martin Odegaard is in a position where he can play every three days
LIVERPOOL
Conor Bradley (muscle) has trained this week and Arne Slot expects him to be involved at Elland Road.
Everyone came through the Sunderland game mostly unscathed, with Slot saying that Joe Gomez shouldn’t be unduly affected by a knock he sustained in Gameweek 13.
“Yeah, they did [come through unscathed]. Joe Gomez got a knock in the West Ham game but was still able to start [in midweek]. He couldn’t make the full 90 minutes but I think he will be able to train again today. Yesterday was a recovery day for most of them, today we will train again and let’s see where they are.
“Conor Bradley has trained this week, so I expect him to train today, and then he is available or to be in the squad.” – Arne Slot
Jeremie Frimpong (hamstring), Stefan Bajcetic (hamstring), Jayden Danns (hamstring) and Giovanni Leoni (ACL) remain sidelined.
Away from injury news, the big question this week is whether Mohamed Salah is going to start after successive benchings.
“Every player is in my mind to start a game of football because we have so many good players. Mo has been such an exceptional player for us. He’s always in my mind to start or to come in.” – Arne Slot on Mohamed Salah
Slot was also asked about Alexander Isak‘s form, Dominik Szoboszlai‘s position, Cody Gakpo‘s lack of compeititon and Florian Wirtz‘s growing confidence.
“I think he’s not the only No.9 that suffers in some games from not getting as many chances.
“But it’s obvious and clear to me that we, as a team, want to bring him more often in threatening situations. Before we went to only one goal conceded in two games, we had a lot of chances. The last two games, as a result because we were a little bit more compact and maybe take a little bit less risk, we haven’t been able to create that many chances as we did [in] all the games before.
“So, definitely one of the things on my list of things to improve is getting our No.9 more involved in the game, let alone more involved in the final third.” – Arne Slot on Alexander Isak
“In the long term he will play in a central area, that’s for sure. Maybe also in the mid-term and maybe even tomorrow. He is one of the few players that can play in multiple positions. Unfortunately for us, we’ve had injuries in certain positions – not one but like both full-backs are injured for a few weeks already and in the start of the season as well. So that’s why I used him in different positions, and he did well, by the way, in every position he played in.
“In the last two games he’s been very important for the team in the [right-wing] role that he had because, like I just said, he’s part of a team that was only one deflection away from two clean sheets and he had a free role off the right. He’s still a lot of times in the middle. I think if you look at his positioning in the first half compared to the second half against Sunderland, I think the heatmap will show that he was nine out of 10 times in the same position in the first half as he was in the second half, whereas in the second half he played as a midfielder and the first half he played as an inverted winger.
“We can use him in every position but for the mid and long term and maybe even for the short term we will use him in the middle – if we have no injuries.” – Arne Slot on Dominik Szoboszlai
“The reason why I haven’t tried Hugo [Ekitike] a lot of times off the left is an obvious one because of because of the Alexander Isak situation, that he’s either not been available or not been available to start every single game. And Rio [Ngumoha] has had his minutes, but I think for a 17-year-old, he’s already had much more minutes than any other 17-year-old at any other club in the Premier League.
“I don’t think Cody suffers from the fact that he doesn’t have competition because there are players that can play in his position. And usually, like I just said, players prefer to have a situation where they have the confidence and the understanding that they might play many minutes.” – Arne Slot on Cody Gakpo and his left-wing alternatives
“If you can only have confidence if you score goals, that would be the wrong thing. I think you can see where his confidence is at if you look at the last two games – how many times he wants the ball and how many times his teammates play him the ball. That is something that tells me how much confidence he has at the moment.
“It’s also that he came back with an injury [from] Germany, so I’m already very happy that he is able to play so many minutes in these first two games after he came back from an injury.” – Arne Slot on Florian Wirtz
MANCHESTER CITY
Rodri (hamstring) and Mateo Kovacic (ankle) remain out for the Cityzens this weekend.
“No. He’s getting better. I don’t know how long.” – Pep Guardiola on if Rodri is available
Away from injury news, Pep Guardiola was asked about the soon-to-be-AFCON-bound Rayan Ait-Nouri and his lack of starts.
The City boss, unsurprisingly, pointed to the form of Nico O’Reilly – and was then asked about the England international’s minutes and the need to rest him.
“Rayan played in the World Cup, was really good. Played the first games against Wolves, played the second against Spurs, and after got injured. Then after came Nico, and Nico O’Reilly has performed really well. It’s the only reason, no more than that.
“Yeah, maybe [O’Reilly will need a rest in the next 2-3 games]. That’s why I rotate, maybe too much, obviously too much, against Leverkusen. But one of the reasons why was that, fresh legs. Look what happened in the second half against Fulham, our legs could not run more. So, it’s a lot of games, you need the energy.
“So yeah, maybe it’s going [to happen that I rest O’Reilly]. I don’t know when but at the same time, he’s young, he’s not Bernardo maybe or other players who are already grandfathers! He’s so young, he’s a teenager, he recovers well. We’ll see, day by day. – Pep Guardiola on Rayan Ait-Nouri + Nico O’Reilly
CHELSEA
Enzo Maresca reported no fresh concerns in his pre-match presser.
The Blues continue to be without Moises Caicedo through suspension, of course. He’ll be back in Gameweek 17.
Dario Essugo (thigh), Romeo Lavia (quad), Levi Colwill (knee) and Mykhailo Mudryk (suspended) are also on the sidelines.
Maresca repeated on Friday that he didn’t know when Lavia would be back.
“Just Moi is suspended and then we don’t have any new injuries.” – Enzo Maresca
The Chelsea boss was, inevitably, asked about rotation, having rested some key names and then suffered defeat to Leeds United in midweek.
“Most of the rotation we do is because the other ones, they cannot play. We have players in this moment not able to play every three days.
“We have players, because of their history, that we need to manage. Wes [Fofana], Reece [James], Pedro [Neto]. We have four or five players… we need to protect and manage. I said many times, I would like to play all the games with Reece [James], with Pedro [Neto], with Moi [Caicedo], even with Romeo [Lavia], but it is not possible, so we try to find a different solution.” – Enzo Maresca on rotation
Maresca also expressed regret that he didn’t use Josh Acheampong on Wednesday.
“One of the regrets I have after the game is that I didn’t play with Josh. The reason why we played with Trev [Chalobah], Tosin [Adarabioyo] and Benoit [Badiashile] is because, analysing [Leeds], we saw that most of the time, they were playing long balls [to their strikers]. So, we prefer physicality to win the aerial duels. But even with that, we lost most of them.” – Enzo Maresca
We can probably expect Estevao to be the next player to rotate out of the side, meanwhile.
“I said many times that also with him, it’s too easy to put him always on the pitch. Pitch, pitch, play, play, play. But in some moment we need to try to manage a little bit.” – Enzo Maresca on Estevao
NEWCASTLE UNITED
Eddie Howe said Yoane Wissa is “getting closer” to first-team involvement as his comeback from a knee injury nears.
“Getting closer, getting closer! We did an 11 v 11 game for him on Wednesday and that was good, more minutes for him. Around about half an hour, he did well. We’ll see how he is today.
“Touch wood, so far he’s looked good and he’s come through everything.
“We’ve got to make a decision as to whether he’s ready to not just be fit but fit to make a difference.” – Eddie Howe on how close Yoane Wissa is to making a matchday squad
Howe also said he will give Sandro Tonali “every chance” after he suffered a knock in the midweek draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
“He’s had a scan, we don’t think it’s too bad. We’ll give him every chance to declare himself fit, if possible.
“I think it was a knock, very similar to [what] Joelinton suffered. A similar fate, a dead leg-type feeling. Sandro felt it was concerning enough for him to get scanned. We’ll see how he is today.” – Eddie Howe on Sandro Tonali
Sven Botman (back) remains out.
“Sven has had an injection and we hope that that will bring about his return quite quickly but now I think there’s a time period for his injection to work, which I think is around about a week, and then we’ll see how he is.” – Eddie Howe on Sven Botman
Kieran Trippier (hamstring), Emil Krafth (knee), Will Osula (ankle) and Nick Pope (groin) remain out.
BOURNEMOUTH
Marcos Senesi and David Brooks return from suspension this weekend.
However, Lewis Cook remains unavailable following his red card in Gameweek 13 and now Tyler Adams has to serve a one-match suspension after picking up his fifth booking of the season in midweek.
Senesi looks set to take the place of Veljko Milosavljevic, who Andoni Iraola said is “struggling” with a knee injury.
“We have Veljko that we have to check but I think it’s going to be difficult until we do more assessments for tomorrow because he finished the other day with some issues on the knee. I think for tomorrow I think it’s going to be difficult.” – Andoni Iraola
Ryan Christie (knee) and Ben Gannon-Doak (hamstring) remain out.
Elsewhere in the presser, Iraola was asked about Antoine Semenyo‘s form and the possibility that links to other clubs have affected him.
“Antoine is giving us a lot. I think he’s been close to the goals or to the assist and he’s not also a number nine. He’s not someone who we are expecting to score every game. You know, he’s a winger that normally is a very good threat for us and I think he can continue giving us a lot of numbers, but it’s not like his main job. He has to do a lot of the jobs for the team. I think he’s still being a threat. He’s trying to help us in every game and I haven’t seen any change in his attitude.” – Andoni Iraola
MANCHESTER UNITED
Ruben Amorim is hopeful that Diogo Dalot and Matthijs de Ligt will both be available for the trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Dalot appeared to signal to the bench that he needed replacing in Thursday’s win over West Ham United.
Meanwhile, de Ligt missed out altogether after picking up a minor injury.
“I think [they will be fit]. We’ll see.” – Ruben Amorim on Diogo Dalot and Matthijs de Ligt
Amorim was later asked if he knew when his African players would be departing for AFCON. It is thought Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo will be fine to feature in Gameweek 16, with question marks over Noussair Mazraoui due to Morocco’s earlier opening fixture, but the United boss couldn’t offer us much new.
“No, we are dealing with everything. They are going to play the next game and that is the only thing I care [about].” – Ruben Amorim, when asked if he knew when his African players would be departing for AFCON.
BRENTFORD
Keith Andrews says Igor Thiago is in a “good place”, having been benched in midweek. That demotion to substitute duty came after he limped off in the closing stages of Gameweek 13.
“I’m not going to tell you the team, but he’s clearly in a good place. He’s playing very, very well, I think that would be fair to say.
“He’s going from strength to strength and we seem to be speaking about him a lot. And rightly so because he’s been magnificent.
“He is a joy to work with. His mental strength is pretty evident, considering the type of season that he had last year, where he’s come from in his career, different countries, to end up here, and get through last season and have an impact in the most demanding league in the world.” – Keith Andrews on Igor Thiago
Josh Dasilva (knee), Fábio Carvalho (knee) and Antoni Milambo (knee) are all out.
Loanee Reiss Nelson is available, however, having been ineligible to face his parent club on Wednesday.
Aaron Hickey was not included in the squad for the 2-0 defeat at the Emirates but there has been no reason given for that; there had been talk of “knocks” ahead of that game, though.
ASTON VILLA
Emi Martínez (back) will be assessed ahead of Aston Villa’s Saturday clash with Arsenal.
The goalkeeper was named in Villa’s starting XI to face Brighton and Hove Albion in midweek but pulled out of the line-up shortly before kick-off.
“We will train this afternoon. He didn’t train yesterday but it’s very important for him, how he is passing the hours, feeling better. Until the last moment, I don’t know if he’s going to be available or not for tomorrow.” – Unai Emery on Emi Martinez
Ross Barkley (knee) and Tyrone Mings (hamstring) remain out.
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
Stefanos Tzimas faces further tests on a knee injury he sustained in Gameweek 14 but his manager fears he could be out “long term”.
“I don’t have great news today. Stefanos [Tzimas], we have to further assess him but, at the moment, it looks like a long-term injury.
“I would say it’s months, yeah.” – Fabian Hurzeler
Elsewhere, Yasin Ayari (muscle) could return but Kaoru Mitoma (ankle) has suffered a small setback and will be checked over in training today.
“I hope that he’s available on Sunday, it’s not quite sure yet but there’s definitely a chance that he’s available.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Yasin Ayari
“He’s still an option, so let’s see if he’s able to train today. He had his comeback to our training sessions. He had a small setback during the training session, not a big one, so hopefully he can train today and then for sure, we try to make him as quick as possible an option for us.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Kaoru Mitoma
Georginio Rutter (head) and Tommy Watson (unknown) should be back, meanwhile.
“Georiginio Rutter should be an option for Sunday, he’s back in non-contact training. The same for Tommy, I hope that he will train today with the team and then I hope that they’re definitely both options.” – Fabian Hurzeler
James Milner (muscle), Solly March (knee) and Adam Webster (knee) are still sidelined.
EVERTON
David Moyes is “not sure” whether Michael Keane returns from injury after missing out in midweek.
“I’m not sure yet if [Michael Keane] is going to be right. He played against Newcastle with an injury and he just couldn’t quite make it [for Bournemouth]. So, I’m not sure if he’s going to make it or not.” – David Moyes
Merlin Rohl (hernia), Jarrad Branthwaite (hamstring) and Seamus Coleman (hamstring) remain out, with Moyes confirming the latter would be out for a “little while”.
Tim Iroegbunam has joined Idrissa Gana Gueye on the suspension list; both players return in Gameweek 16.
FULHAM
Marco Silva has reported no new injury doubts for the visit of Crystal Palace.
Antonee Robinson (knee) and Rodrigo Muniz (hamstring) remain out, although the latter is now involved in some “drills” in training.
Silva is still not sure if Robinson will be back before Christmas.
SUNDERLAND
The Black Cats have no fresh concerns for the trip to the Etihad.
Aji Alese (shoulder), Habib Diarra (groin), Dennis Cirkin (wrist) and Leo Hjelde (Achilles) remain out.
WEST HAM UNITED
Nuno Espirito Santo has confirmed Lucas Paqueta will start on Sunday after returning from suspension.
“He’s going to play. Yes, [from the start].” – Nuno Espirito Santo on Lucas Paqueta
The West Ham boss added that Crysencio Summerville (calf) “hopefully” returns soon, while Ollie Scarles (shoulder) is in individual training.
Igor Julio is ineligible to face his parent club, meanwhile.
