Arsenal have been given a boost ahead of their clash with Crystal Palace, with Gabriel Martinelli expected to return to training this week.
The Brazilian fell foul of injury in the warm-up for the Newcastle clash on Saturday, having initially been selected to start the match, before having to see Reiss Nelson fill in his place.
Initial thoughts were bad, with the forward seen to be crying as he limped off the field, with some in fear that he had injured his knee for a second time, but it later emerged as an ankle issue, and Arsenal.com have now confirmed that they hope to see him back in training in the coming days.
While that doesn’t exactly shout that he will be available for the Palace clash, the club will no doubt be boosted by the news, while we also have positive news elsewhere.
Gabriel Magalhaes is fully fit and ready for action following his Coronavirus issues, while Thomas Partey is also back in full training. The midfielder still needs to be assessed before he is given the nod to feature however, and we will have to await further news on that one.
Will the trio’s return influence Arsenal’s transfer window?
Should Gabriel slot straight back into the starting line-up despite the progress made with Holding and Mari in defence?
Patrick
I dont know why Arteta was so doom and gloom initially. Rolling your ankle is mostly just massive discomfort. Nothing long term. Anyways, glad he’s okay. Partey on teh way back too, Gabriel fit again….. Love to see it. Let’s get Auba scoring goals again and we can still save the season.
Great news. Hopefully that is the end of Gabriel Martinelli’s run of bad luck with injuries. It is bad enough to suffer injury in a game, without being injured in the warm up.
With a run of games, he will reach his full potential.
So glad to hear that Martenilli’s injury is not that bad. My main concern is that how can MA change his formation to include Gabriel in the defense when he is back? will he play Luiz or as a RB and keep both Mari and Gabi as CB?
Or he will play 3 6 1 with Teirney being pushing more forward and Mari behind?
fingers-crossed his injury is a minor setback…Arteta was likely more concerned due to Marts reaction at the time of the incident…either way we can’t treat him with kid gloves…we’ve gone down this road too many times and the one thing we should have learned by now is it’s best that we find out sooner rather than later if we have another injury-prone player on our hands…the Diaby experiment provided Wenger with a built-in excuse to not properly address our DM position…not to mention the bevy of oft-injured midfielders, like Wiltshire, Ramsey, Rosicky and Cazorla, that not only affected our on-field performances, due to their absences, but likewise stoked the flames of false hopes…right now I’m trying to remain optimistic because he appears to have that special something, so here’s hoping he’s not the next in a long line of pipe dreams
Just seeing Rosicky’s name makes me smile….man i miss that guy!
Loved watching Rosicky.
The way he spun a defender was poetry.
he is very important now. But i guess now Auba will hold the left wing spot. i think martenelli will have substitute appearances.
I would not play Gabriel in this match. Palace are likely to play Benteke up front, and the last thing Gabriel needs is another collision of heads. I would play Holding and Mari again,
You’d think that getting players back from injuries would be a good thing but in our case I fear it won’t be after being forced to make changes and having stumbled on a decent starting XI having more players available for selection MA might go back to his old ways and select/rely on the wrong with players once again or making too many changes…I just hope I’m wrong!
Holding and Mari for me,they seem to have gelled much better than any other pairing here, Mari has impressed me since coming back and holding is getting better with each game.It’s good news on the Gabi front after seeing him so gutted after this latest injury, I wonder if Ozil would be crying if he were injured in a warm up,Speaking of which I hope he does not stay, he obviously has no hunger or passion to get playing again if he stays knowing he won’t play,it’s a shame it has come to this with him such a talent, but he has now outstayed his welcome i’m afraid.
Luiz —- Mari center back pairing any day of the week.
The rest is history.
The headache for Arteta is choosing the front 3 players.
Ideally it would have been Pepe…Auba… Willian but because of the temporary form of Saka, ESR and Laca, some have to be on the bench.