Myles Lewis-Skelly and William Saliba could return to action sooner than expected, with their respective injury issues not thought to be serious.
Saliba picked up a muscular problem in the 2-1 win over Sp*rs and subsequently missed the 2-2 draw with Aston Villa and the 3-0 victory over Dinamo Zagreb. Meanwhile, Lewis-Skelly jarred his knee in training on Monday, ruling him out of Wednesday’s Champions League match.
While both remain doubts for Saturday’s trip to Wolves, there’s optimism they could be available for next week’s clashes with Girona and Manchester City.
“With Myles there is nothing serious on the scan. It will be a matter of today have a meeting with the medical staff [to discuss] if it is too early or not for today’s training session.
“With Willy [Saliba] something similar as well. I think definitely [he’ll] be in for next week, this week, and let’s see how it goes.”
Arteta also provided an update on Ben White, who remains unavailable but is closing in on a return to full training after knee surgery late last year.
“He’s very good. He hasn’t trained with the team yet, but I think he’s very close to do that.
“He needs to still tick a few boxes in the next two or three days, and if that’s all going well and smoothly, I think he will be with us pretty soon.”
With Arsenal navigating a packed schedule, Arteta was lightheartedly asked if he ever wished he could rotate himself out of the dugout.
Laughing, he replied: “Me? No, I’m OK. I don’t have to run. It’s very different, obviously, the psychological demands and everything that we want to achieve.
“Obviously, we put the bar really, really high, but it’s what I love doing. I’m fine.
“Diet I’m doing good. With sleep, yeah, I can sleep a little bit more, so I will find the right time to do so!”
Arsenal head to Molineux on the back of seven consecutive wins against Wolves and will look to heap more misery on coach Vitor Pereira.
The Portuguese manager started brightly after replacing Gary O’Neil in December, overseeing wins against Leicester and Manchester City and a draw with Sp*rs. However, his side has since faltered, conceding nine goals in defeats to Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, and Chelsea.
“He has been in now for a few weeks already, so we already know [how they play],” said Arteta. “I know Vitor very well from previous clubs as well and what his ideas are.
“It is very clear how he sets the team. I think he had a really good impact on the team. It will be a really tough match tomorrow because they are a really well-coached team.
“In regards to the structure and organisation that they use, it is different. They have certain very clear principles, what they want to achieve with and without the ball.”
Great news overall.
Let’s smash Wolves tomorrow !
COYG
Agree BG, the return of Riccardo and Tomi to our squad and Ben not being so far away to full fitness with Willy and Myles being short term injuries and available Nwaneri’s return aswell, Tross, Martinelli, Rice and our captain scoring goals or assists recently, lets not forget as tough as our schedule has been we have played really well in all our games lately, its been a long time since we played a Saturday 3pm kick off, hopefully we are on our game to see off a difficult Wolves, can see it being a game we scrape through by… Read more »
Really relieved about about MLS. Him and Nwaneri have been the two things I’ve most enjoyed about this and to have had him snatched away for any prolonged period would have been so cruel (for him and us!)
I really feel that Arteta and the medical team aren’t being transparent and honest with the fans regarding the extent of BS timeline. I sense that BS is actually out for the season or at earliest late April or early Msy. They just don’t want the frusrand and emotions surround the BS’s absence to be over the roof. That is why I think they keep saying he might be back in March. Remember two seasons ago when Saliba got injured. Arteta and the med team kept giving us optimism that he will return before end of season but he never… Read more »
They do not owe us transparency. I like the fact that t that they keep things out of the press and public information.
This is a poker game. Woud you show your cards to everyone if you were Arteta?
Isn’t Saka entitled to patient confidentiality?
This is an interesting question to be fair
Agree that Mikel should feel free to withhold info if it benefits the club strategically to keep match day opponents guessing on who’s available. With regard to a player’s consent to have medical info released, I assume disclosure is broadly governed by the players contract. I’d guess players contracts generally give the club the right to reveal info but subject to a players right to request restriction of the disclosure if they wish on a case by case basis). In the recent case of Nwaneri’s injury, unless I missed it, zero info was ever given about the nature of the… Read more »
MASSIVE relief, phew. Thought this jinx of a season might continue where every week two players go missing for months. (touchwood)
Here’s to Big Willy being back asap, and to Kiwi continuing to do a great job deputising meanwhile as he did vs Zagreb.
Great news.
What a beautiful coach we have too
Good news. I don’t want us to have any more injuries please.
I really feel that Arteta and the medical team aren’t being transparent and honest with the fans regarding the extent of BS timeline. I sense that BS is actually out for the season or at earliest late April or early Msy. They just don’t want the frusrand and emotions surround the BS’s absence to be over the roof. That is why I think they keep saying he might be back in March. Remember two seasons ago when Saliba got injured. Arteta and the med team kept giving us optimism that he will return before end of season but he never… Read more »
You “feel”. Could you please use that scientific tool to feel the lottery numbers for this weekend.
Saliba had a back injury. My understanding is that he could have felt better very quickly–or that the problem might have lingered deep into the next season. A knee or hamstring injury is different. There is a “normal” timeline, depending on the diagnosed extent of the injury at the time, a diagnosis that is usually fairly accurate. Of course, that’s not exact; it depends on the individual and there are plenty of setbacks and exceptions. But there is a “normal,” a reasonable “expectation.” I think back injuries are quite different.
Will be great getting White back finally. While Timber has done well at RB having another option to give him a break so we don’t have to play Partey there is key and it allows Timber to fill in across the back line as needed.
Miss his shithousery as well. Always good for a giggle.
Although he disguises it better than White, I think Havertz has done pretty well in filling the shithousery gap.
Most of all it allows Timber to have a rest while allowing Partey to perform at his best position. This is quite important with the ACL injury the dutch suffered last year.
Unfortunately Nichols got severly injured as well. Think he could have helped in some games.
I think our biggest strength last season was the chemistry between Saka, Odegard, and Ben White on the right. These 3 players were absolutely amazing together, but this season unfortunately we really didn’t get many games with all the injuries. Hopefully in early March Saka will be back and we can get the magic trio playing together again.
Install a nap cubicle in the bosses office asap
Prime Arteta could maybe fill the current Jorginho role in this team?