The 15 remaining pre-match Premier League press conferences take place on Friday – and this is the place to come to get all the major Gameweek 8 team news.
Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso and Andoni Iraola are among the managers facing the media today.
We’ll bring you the key quotes from all of these head coaches, as they speak, in the article below. Keep checking back for the latest updates.
These pressers follow on from the four we had on Thursday and Oliver Glasner’s on Wednesday.
KEY GAMEWEEK 8 TEAM NEWS FROM FRIDAY
- Arsenal: No timeline on Saka yet, Hincapie available, Arteta on Calafiori’s fitness
- Liverpool: Szoboszlai not ready to return, Barcola fine, Munoz could miss out
- Chelsea: Martinez sidelined for “weeks”, Chavarria to miss out, Gusto fit again
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Minteh + Wieffer closing in on returns, late call on Struijk
- Leeds United: Calvert-Lewin, Stach + Okafor “major doubts”, James returns
- Bournemouth: Kroupi could feature, Evanilson okay, Toth joins injury list
- Tottenham Hotspur: Porro back, Robertson + Marmoush fine, seven out, Maddison + Kulusevski doubts
- Aston Villa: Manzambi to be asssessed, three ruled out
- Manchester United: No team news updates in Carrick’s presser
- Newcastle United: Elanga could return, Ramsey on the grass
- Everton: Moyes quiet on team news + Branthwaite, Norgaard lacking fitness
- Sunderland: Still waiting on updates
- Crystal Palace: Still waiting on updates
- Fulham: No injuries but Sessegnon begins a ban
- Hull City: Mendy to return in Gameweek 9, Vaz escapes injury, Cho + Gourna-Douath train
FRIDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE TIMES
Friday’s FPL Press Conferences 🚨
🍒 9.30am – Rose
⬜ 10am – Arbeloa
🕊️ 11am – Hurzeler
🐯 1pm – Jakirovic
⭕ 1.30pm – Arteta
🧿 1.30pm – Alonso
🦅 1.30pm – Sage
🍬 1.30pm – Moyes
⚪️ 1.30pm – Farke
🔴 1.30pm – Iraola
👹 1.30pm – Carrick
🐈⬛ 1.30pm – Le Bris
🐓 1.30pm – De Zerbi
🟣 2pm – Emery
⚫ 2pm – Jaissle— Fantasy Football Scout (@FFScout) October 23, 2026
ARSENAL
Mikel Arteta wasn’t able to give us a timeline on Bukayo Saka, after the midfielder came off with a quad injury in Wednesday’s draw with Bayern Munich.
“He’s got another MRI this afternoon because he had quite a lot of fluid in the area, so it was difficult to understand the extent of the injury. We will know more probably tomorrow.
“We need a few more scans and opinions from the specialists. When a player has to walk off the pitch, he is struggling to walk without any pain, he is restricted in movement, they are not good signs. Let’s be a little bit patient so we can give a definitive assessment.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka
William Saliba (back) and Christos Tzolis (hamstring) remain out but Piero Hincapie (ankle) has rejoined training this week and is available.
There was an encouraging quote for Riccardo Calafiori owners, meanwhile, when Arteta was asked about looking after the Italian, as he has done in the past.
“Yeah, he’s ready. I think Ricci is in a different place because he had a full pre-season as well. And he’s been available for every match.” – Mikel Arteta on Riccardo Calafiori
LIVERPOOL
Dominik Szoboszlai (hamstring) is back in individual training but won’t return this weekend.
“Dom is going to be out this weekend. I don’t think he’s far but he hasn’t trained with the group still. And also, considering the other day that we started him and he had to go out, we will probably take one or two days more than we would last week. He’s in a good place. Dom is already training outside alone and he is going to train with the group, but he’s not ready for this one.” – Andoni Iraola
Hugo Ekitike (Achilles), Conor Bradley (knee), Jeremie Frimpong (hamstring) and Giovanni Leoni (knee) remain out, too.
Liverpool may also be without Victor Munoz for Sunday’s clash with Brighton and Hove Albion. The Spaniard missed the midweek Champions League win over Villarreal thanks to a knock he picked up in Gameweek 7.
Bradley Barcola, who was only sighted in individual training on Thursday, is fine, however.
“Bradley has trained today normally. He’s fine with no problem. It was just a matter of sometimes you have to deal with the loads and we consider sometimes they have to stay inside. But he’s fine.
“Victor, he has the knock he received against Brentford [in the] first half. He could finish the game very well but he’s dealing with some pain since then and it was too early the other day against Villarreal. I don’t know if he’s going to arrive. I think it’s going to be difficult but I really don’t know.” – Andoni Iraola
CHELSEA
Emiliano Martinez will be sidelined for “weeks” after undergoing surgery on his jaw.
He joins Reece James (knee), Emmanuel Emegha (hamstring) and Jamie Gittens (ankle) on the sidelines, while this game comes just too soon for Pep Chavarria (muscle).
Malo Gusto is back from illness, at least.
“He’s doing better. He had the surgery. Day by day he’s feeling better, but we still need to wait.
“A few weeks. Hopefully less than more, but we need to wait. The good thing is that he is feeling better.” – Xabi Alonso on Emi Martinez
“Malo is fine and Pep is training a little more, but he is not going to make it.” – Xabi Alonso
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
Yankuba Minteh (leg) and Mats Wieffer (knee) are closing in on returns but this match may come too soon for the pair, with a Gameweek 9 comeback likelier.
Femi Azeez (hamstring), Kaoru Mitoma (hamstring), Zadok Yohanna (unspecified), Evan Ferguson (ankle) and Stefan Tzimas (knee) remain out, meanwhile.
As for Pascal Struijk, he’ll have a minor issue assessed after he missed the last three matches in all competitions.
Jason Steele sat out Thursday’s draw with Jablonec with illness but Diego Gomez and Maxim De Cuyper were merely rested.
LEEDS UNITED
There’s a triple whammy of bad news in attack as all of Leeds’ front three are described as “major doubts”.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Anton Stach have contact injuries, while Noah Okafor has adductor issues.
Joe Rodon (hamstring) and Mateo Joseph (knee) remain out but Daniel James (back) returns.
“Our offensive players from the last game are all doubtful.
“Dominic Calvert-Lewin got a tackle and a foul late on in the last game and he is struggling, since this moment, with a bruise on his foot. Problems with this, still a question mark behind his availability.
“Anton Stach, the same, a foot problem after the last game. It’s painful at the moment, also a question mark behind his availability.
“Noah Okafor is struggling with some adductor problems after the last game.
“If the game was today, all three of them wouldn’t be available. They have missed many training sessions during this week. The good positive news is more or less that we still have two days and we try, of course, to make them available. The question mark will be first, who of them will be available and also for how many minutes. We’ll have to assess them and will need to take some late decisions. But all three of them, in addition to Joe Rodon, major doubts.
“All the others seem to be okay.” – Daniel Farke
BOURNEMOUTH
Alex Toth has joined Alex Scott (tendon) and Julian Araujo (thigh) on the injury list after suffering a hamstring injury in Thursday’s win over AC Milan.
“Now we’re going to miss him for some weeks. I think it’s a bigger muscle injury.” – Marco Rose on Alex Toth
Eli Junior Kroupi (foot) hasn’t featured yet in 2026/27 but is now back in training. While he didn’t/couldn’t feature against Milan (he’s not in the UEFA Europa League squad), there’s a good chance we’ll see him in Gameweek 8.
“This is the plan, to have him back in the squad. We’re going to see how he works tomorrow in training and after tomorrow but the plan is to have him with us in Manchester.” – Marco Rose on Eli Junior Kroupi
Veljko Milosavljevic (knee) is another longer-term absentee who is back on the grass, but he’s instead getting game-time with the under-21s to build up match fitness.
“Junior is coming back, Veljko is match-fit with the under-21s.” – Marco Rose
Marco Rose confirmed that Evanilson was fine after the Brazilian appeared to pick up a knock in midweek.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Pedro Porro (hamstring) returns this weekend but Lucas Bergvall (knee), Destiny Udogie (knee), Savinho (muscle), Mykhailo Mudryk (ankle), Xavi Simons (knee) and Wilson Odobert (knee) remain out.
Rodrigo Bentancur is still suspended, too.
Andrew Robertson and Omar Marmoush are fine despite appearing to limp off on Monday.
Roberto De Zerbi is not sure whether James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski will feature, with the pair restricted to individual training in the aftermath of the Coventry game.
ASTON VILLA
Johan Manzambi faces a fitness test ahead of Aston Villa’s clash with Manchester City.
The midfielder missed Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League win over Viking with a “small injury”.
Matteo Ruggeri (hamstring), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (hamstring) and Amadou Onana (knee) remain out.
“We are training now in the afternoon. Still being some players clearly out like Onana, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Ruggeri.
“Other players we will see how they are after the match we played on Wednesday. Some were in some pain. I can’t tell you now until after the training session this afternoon.” – Unai Emery
MANCHESTER UNITED
There were no team news updates in the first section of Michael Carrick’s presser, which was predictably dominated by United’s form, the midweek loss in Italy and talk of dressing room turmoil. There is another section to come but that won’t be till well after the Gameweek 8 deadline.
We do know that Patrick Dorgu (hamstring), Manuel Ugarte (knee), Benjamin Sesko (calf), Luke Shaw (unspecified) and Kobbie Mainoo (unspecified) will remain out.
Ayden Heaven (illness), Lisandro Martinez (thigh) and Marcus Rashford (hip) all missed Wednesday’s clash with Como.
NEWCASTLE UNITED
Anthony Elanga (unknown) has rejoined training this week and could be involved in the squad on Sunday, although Matthias Jaissle did stress that the winger wouldn’t be ready for 90 minutes.
The Newcastle boss added that the Magpies would take it “step by step” with Jacob Ramsey (thigh) after his own return to the grass.
Ewen Jaouen (hamstring) and Tino Livramento (unspecified) remain out.
Mathias Fernandez-Pardo has had his week of training affected by illness.
EVERTON
David Moyes, with a smile, was coy when asked about Everton’s team news for the trip to Arsenal.
“We’ve got our share of bits and pieces and we’ll keep them quiet.” – David Moyes on team news
And he wasn’t biting when asked specifically about the availability of Jarrad Branthwaite, who was missing from Thursday’s training video.
“I wouldn’t be answering any questions [on team news], at the moment, that’s for sure.” – David Moyes
The Everton boss did speak freely about Christian Nørgaard, who made his debut for the Toffees as a late substitute against Chelsea last weekend. It sounds like he’s some way off from starting XI contention.
“It actually wasn’t a difficult decision to bring him on, because he’s trained and probably had three weeks. I was trying to see if I could get him the final 15-20 minutes of the game because it would have been another little bit of game time for him.
“But I think when we brought him on we realised he’s a little bit further away than we all had hoped. But we also expected that, we didn’t think he was going to be back fully firing until probably after the next international break, if we’re being honest, because he’s had no real pre-season with us. He’s probably had 7-10 days of training, half a game, but we’d seen enough to suggest [he was fit] and I wanted to see [him for] 20 minutes. How do I get him the minutes, how do I get him the game time. We tried it and it showed, everybody saw, that he’s probably got a bit to go.
“Christian was the first one to come to me to say he was sorry about it and he’s realised he’s probably a bit further away than we probably all thought.” – David Moyes on Christian Norgaard
FULHAM
Emile Smith Rowe missed out in Gameweek 7 with “some issues” but Alvaro Arbeloa says he has a fully fit squad for the trip to Coventry City, which suggests he has recovered.
The Spaniard’s comments also imply that Hugo Larsson has recovered from a groin problem.
The Cottagers will definitely be without one player, however. Ryan Sessegnon begins a three-match ban, following his dismissal last weekend.
HULL CITY
Nobel Mendy (groin) is back on the grass but won’t return until next week.
Mohamed-Ali Cho (thigh) and Lucas Gourna-Douath (calf) could return, having trained the whole week. The latter got a kick on the same calf in training on Thursday but has trained today “normal”.
Robinio Vaz has also escaped injury despite taking studs to the Achilles in Gameweek 7. He has trained all week.
Matt Targett (ankle), Jack Butland (shoulder), Charlie Hughes (groin), Ilyas Ansah (back) and Darko Gyabi (thigh) remain on the sidelines.
