Mikel Arteta says Ben White and Jurrien Timber are close to fitness but he wasn’t giving much away on the fitness front ahead of Arsenal’s clash with Southampton on Saturday.
White has been managing a knee issue for the past couple of weeks and hasn’t featured in the last three matches, after coming off the bench against Manchester City on 22 September.
In his absence, Jurrien Timber has impressed, but the Netherlands international picked up a muscular problem in the first half of Tuesday’s win over Paris Saint-Germain and was substituted as a precaution. His omission from the Netherlands squad for their upcoming Nations League friendlies suggests he’s unlikely to feature for the Gunners tomorrow.
While Takehiro Tomiyasu, another option at right-back, is edging closer to a return to action after picking up a knee injury in pre-season, it looks as though the Japan international won’t be seen until the other side of the upcoming Interlull.
“We had to modify training for a lot of players. It was the same today,” Arteta told his pre-game press conference.
“There will be a decision to make this afternoon yes or no. They [Timber and White] are close and Tomiyasu is too.”
The same can be said for Oleksandr Zinchenko and Martin Odegaard. The Ukraine international, not for the first time, picked up a calf problem while away on international duty in September and has been stuck in the treatment room.
“Alex after the international break, probably, if everything goes well,” said Arteta. “And Martin, it’s very difficult, I expected him still with the [protective] boot and a lot of things and he’s working so hard is feeling good and pushing so it’s difficult to give a timeline.”
The manager wasn’t pressed on what was a difficult response to interpret. All the same, it’s still expected Odegaard will be sidelined for another month or so.
With that in mind, on top of tomorrow’s clash, he’ll likely sit out clashes with Bournemouth, Shakhtar Donetsk and Liverpool. There’s an outside chance he could make the Carabao Cup game with Preston North End but the club are unlikely to take any necessary risks.
Kieran Tierney and third-choice keeper Tommy Setford are the other two absentees.
With another international break coming, Arteta is desperately hoping his players come through unscathed.
“I prefer not to watch the game, listen to nothing, and just pray that everybody is going to be fine, because the last one was a really difficult one to handle in many ways.
As for the timing of two such breaks so early in the season, he continued: “It’s been like this for years, We’re not going to change that. It’s part of the duties that they have, all the European teams, South Americans as well, it’s the same thing. But, yeah, we have to adapt to that and hopefully be healthy.
“The players have to be healthy to go to the national teams, but when they are, all of them, when I spoke to them, they all want to be part of that. That is normal, it’s a huge privilege to represent your country, they all want to be involved, they all have their role, they don’t want to lose it and you have to understand that as well.”
Okay
Thank you for the update
Please don’t risk Timber. Give him a nice rest, which will hopefully encourage Netherlands to rest him at least for one of their stupid meaningless Nations League matches, and have him come back to us good as new for Bournemouth. Pretty sure we can beat Southampton with Kiwi and Calafiori dreamin.
I couldn’t believe it when we refused to allow Kiwior to leave this summer. I thought he was a surefire departure the minute Cala signed.
But I massively underestimated our ability to have injured fullbacks. Massively so. We are great at football, maybe one of the best in the world. But no one, absolutely no one, gets fullbacks injured like we do.
And the clubs who loan our full backs, like Real Sociedad, Nottingham Forest or Lazio, they get the juju on top for free. Nuno Tavares got injured 20 minutes into his debut with Lazio. 20 minutes. That beats even Timber’s record.
Be handy if White is back. Minutes for him and getting to rest Timber would be the ideal scenario
We have done amazingly well considering we have started the season with a tough fixture list and injuries or niggles for Merino, Odegaard, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, White, Tierney and Timber, and ridiculous suspensions for Rice and Trossard. It would be great to have most or all players fit after the international fortnight.
And Jesus
We’re just blessed with some great full backs aren’t we? Our transfer business in recent years has been amazing, but with Califiori, I can’t remember the last new signing we’ve made where I’ve gone into a weekend excited purely to see that player on the pitch. I’d have to go back to Sanchez/Ozil for that kind of buzz factor. *Maybe* Jesus in his early days is the one I can think of who comes close? Exciting times indeed
Okay, a glass half-full interpretation. At the end of last season, it was pretty clear Ben White was both carrying a knock (or knocks) and that he was exhausted. Ødegaard badly needed a break too. That didn’t stop either of them (or Rice or the really surprising Havertz) from running for five straight months. But we can’t count on exhausted players going 15-1-1 every year. So the enforced rest of Ødegaard and White may end up helping in the run-in this season. If we can rotate Havertz a bit when Ødegaard returns, that would help too. Maybe even Rice, though… Read more »
Rice did get injured and limp off vs Wolves though after having played *all* of last season and then the Euros, so even if not quite human he’s at least part biological. Perhaps a cybernetic organism, living tissue over a metal endoskeleton if you will.
R.I.C.E actually stands for Roentgenium Infused Cyber Endoskeleton
If we have to go Cala @ RB and MLS or Kiwior @ LB I think we’ll still be comfortable.
Oh didn’t even think about MLS, he could be a great option vs Southampton and it might be the perfect opportunity for his first PL start if Arteta thinks he’s ready.
The kid looks ready, but the kids should not start if we have good senior squad members who are waiting for minutes.
E.g. Trossard should not be on the bench just because we are excited to see what Nwaneri can do. I like the easing in approach that Arteta is taking. We need to be patient.
Generally I completely agree with that approach, but in this case I’d be tempted because he gives us that ball playing inverting ability that Kiwi doesn’t, and him playing means at least one full back will be playing his natural position. Kiwi (really a centre back) at LB with Calafiori at RB means two players playing out of position and can kind of throw the team off balance a bit.
Fair point