Mikel Arteta sounded relatively positive about the state of his squad ahead of Saturday’s clash with Bournemouth at the Vitality.
Despite a couple of players dropping out of international duty – Thomas Partey and Kai Havertz – and two others – Saka and Martinelli – picking up issues while they were away, it sounds like they are all in contention for the trip to the South Coast.
There was also a positive update on Martin Odegaard, who continues to rehabilitate an ankle ligament injury. Unfortunately, the manager confirmed that Takehiro Tomiyasu has picked up a new problem having made his first appearance of the season in the pre-Interlull win over Southampton.
Here’s what the boss had to say in his pre-game press conference.
On Bukayo Saka…
It’s not a serious injury, he’s evolving really well, he’s done a few things in the last two days. Obviously, he wasn’t fit enough to play with the national team in the second game [against Finland] We are hopeful. We have a training session this afternoon, he did some bits yesterday, so let’s see if he can make it on time.
On Martin Odegaard…
I think he’s not going to be fit for this game, next week is a different story. But again, in that later stage of rehab, where he is at the moment, he is doing already a lot of stuff, he needs to clear some markers, he needs to clear certain things he needs to be comfortable doing, especially with the ball. I think next week will be crucial to understand how close he is.
On Odegaard being back inside the next 7 games (before the next Interlull)…
Yes. Hopefully, yes.
On Kai Havertz…
He had a few issues, we’ve been dealing with that. He’s been absolutely brilliant. He has very good communication with the national team, the manager, and he understood the situation. Obviously, we have modified everything we could do here and, again, if he trains well today, he’s has a chance to be fit and available.
On Ben White, Jurrien Timber, Oleksandr Zinchenko…
They are quite close the three of them, again today we’re going to have to try and push [in training] and see who is [available] because obviously we are a bit struggling with the numbers especially in our the right side. Hopefully, we have some positive news today and we’ll have some players back for tomorrow.
On Thomas Partey…
Yeah, Thomas is fit.
On Gabriel Martinelli…
With Gabi, he landed yesterday afternoon here. We have had a very short time to be with him. Yesterday, he went outside to do a little bit and to see how he’s feeling and today will be another step to understand whether we want to take the risk on if he’s fit. I know what the player is going to say, he’ll say fit for sure.
On Tomiyasu…
Yeah, we don’t know [how long]. It doesn’t look like, hopefully, a long period. We have to see when he comes back, how he reacts to the load and the impact on the pitch. We really need him, he’s been incredible, the work rate, the amount of hours he’s put in to get back. He did it. He was in great shape and now he’s got something else again. We are all behind him, he needs our support and hopefully, he’ll be fine.
Confusingly positive lol
I’m trying to understand how I suddenly feel so much better about the squad despite still not learning anything about the 6 players I was afraid about and whether they’ll play tomorrow.
Tomiyasu?
Christ, he’s not even mentioned anymore. Such a shame, as when fully fit he’s comfortably good enough to compete with anyone in the squad.
Apart from ‘Unfortunately, the manager confirmed that Takehiro Tomiyasu has picked up a new problem having made his first appearance of the season in the pre-Interlull win over Southampton.’ above.
Wasn’t there when I read and commented.
he *was* mentioned…
Sorry, added the update. We forgot to copy and paste it from our transcript!
Still no news on Kenny Sansom’s metatarsal either…
He didn’t go away on International Duty, did he? Or was it something in training again?
Sigh….. pray for Tomiyasu people 🙏
Arteta says things on his players’ fitness without giving anything away. We only know when we see the match day list.😀
Salah struggles to make impact against us when Tomiyasu plays left back. I hope Timber recovers fully before Liverpool come to town. I have a feeling he can do a job on Salah.
Shame about Tomi. We really need to think in January/next summer if he’s someone we can rely on consistently.
I think they made a decision on him pretty much i.e.: solid back up when available but not in regular contention due to on-going injuries. On his day he’s amazing, but you don’t go and splash on Calafiori if you have trust in Tomi..
Right now, he’s not even a solid backup though. You can’t not play and still not be fit.
Got a lot of love for him, but if we’re gonna have solid backup/rotation, we need those players to be available. Look at Jorginho…
Not exactly related but I found out today that Kai has his own donkey sanctuary. I thought I couldn’t love the man any more, but there we go
He’ll be hosting a lot of premier league defenders there once our attackers are done with them.
Hence the donkey celebration after he scores.
Visiting his forlorn donkeys milling about and braying must serve as a stark reminder of his days at Chelsea.
can’t imagine the donkeys being anywhere near as miserable as those Chelsea players
Good point, they probably feel loved
He also did a fundraiser for flooding victims in his home region. Seems to be pretty down to earth.
1.Open donkey sanctuary.
2.Join Arsenal.
3.???
4.Profit.
Heard about that during his Chelsea days, which made me think he was a thoroughly good guy that needed rescuing from that bin fire. Luckily we swooped in.
Shame we couldn’t do the same with Zola back in the day
I didn’t realize he owned Tottenham’s stadium.
Just to make myself feel better I’ll list who IS fully fit despite having questions over 8 different guys:
Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Kiwior, Thomas, Rice, Merino, Jorginho, Nwaneri, Trossard, Jesus, Sterling.
Pretty nice options.
he had a little thingy, but not so much anymore, but maybe still a tiny bit. perhaps tomorrow he can play, or in the following eight months. we will see.
I guess (and hope) that everyone but Martin and Tomi (and Kieran ofc) will be available to face Liverpool next Sunday which will be our first big game at home this season. Not ideal to miss out captain but think we’ve been doing quite well without him (although we’d be better with him 100%)
Bournemouth are one of the most committed high pressing teams with some of the best numbers for high regains. I suspect Arteta will just simply play over them and build attacks off the second balls like we did against Spurs. Havertz would be a big miss but with Merino back we have another massive aerial target. Out of possession I expect us to go man to man in their half a d rack up a few high regains of our own. Scott Willis looked at the data on this and Arsenal have the highest shots generated from high regains in… Read more »
Sad for Tomi 😗😭😭😭
Sterling for Saka against Bournemouth then?
So, to paraphrase:
Everyone is fit, apart from those who aren’t. It’s possible that some of those who are fit might not be and we are working with those who aren’t so some of them might be. Or not.
Love clicking on these articles thinking “man I hope are players are fit let’s see what Arteta says” and then the only thing Arteta ever says is invariably some variation of “lmao yeah I hope so too”. Literally: Saka: “Let’s see.” Odegaard: “Hopefully.” Havertz: “He has a chance if he trains well.” White: “Hopefully.” Tomiyasu: “Hopefully he’s not seriously injured.” Timber: “Hopefully.” TP5: (in fairness he just said TP5’s okay, I don’t know what’s stranger here the concept of Arteta giving a straight answer about an injury or the concept of TP5 being fit) Zinchenko: “Hopefully.” Feels like it would… Read more »
There are clues there. Saka, Nelli and Kai seem mostly fine. It sounded to me like Mikel really really doesn’t want to play TP at RB again. “We will push them” (re: White and co) is not something I heard him say before.
My prediction is Saka, Martinelli and Kai will be in the squad and at least one of Zinchenko/Timber/White will too. They may not start though. Odegaard is out and so is Tomiyasu.
I thought this was much more informative (and positive) then usual. I read the Havertz update as “of course he’s fit–but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have a good reason to hold him back from the Germany squad.” For Saka: “of course he’s fit, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have a good reason to bring him home before the second England match.” I also can’t imagine Arteta talking about Ødegaard’s return this way unless he was pretty confident.
Raya
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori
Partey, Rice, Trossard
Jesus, Havertz, Saka