Mikel Arteta faced the media on Monday evening ahead of Arsenal’s UEFA Champions League tie against Sporting.
Earlier in the day, the Gunners held an open training session.
Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.2m), who hobbled out of Saturday’s cup defeat to Southampton with a knee issue, was sighted.
So too were Declan Rice (£7.3m) and Leandro Trossard (£6.6m), who failed to feature at St Mary’s. They had previously pulled out of their respective national team squads.
And, as expected, Arteta confirmed those three are all available for Tuesday’s game.
“Yes.” – Mikel Arteta on whether Messrs Trossard, Rice + Magalhaes are available
Not seen by the Sky Sports cameras, however, were Bukayo Saka (£9.8m), Jurrien Timber (£6.3m), Eberechi Eze (£7.2m) and Piero Hincapie (£5.1m).
Saka, like Rice, had withdrawn from the England squad over the international break. Hincapie suffered a muscle issue while representing Ecuador.
As for Timber and Eze, they are carrying injuries that saw them miss the EFL Cup final in mid-March. Arteta had said the Dutchman was “in contention” for Saturday’s cup tie but he failed to feature. There are suggestions from usually reliable sources on social media that Eze could recover for Gameweek 32, even though the watching press didn’t see him on Monday morning.
While we didn’t get fresh updates on Hincapie and Timber, Arteta did comment on Saka and Timber.
“No, they’re having trouble, they’re not ready yet. Let’s see, hopefully they’re going to be ready for the weekend, if everything goes well, and that’s a massive boost because in recent days we’ve lost so many important players and that’s something that we need to change immediately.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber
