Arteta confirms key absentee from Arsenal’s trip to Norway

Arsenal will take on Bodo/Glimt on Thursday in the Europa League group stages, but will do so without striker Gabriel Jesus.

The Brazilian suffered a knock at the weekend and had to be assessed for a head injury, but he was believed to have been cleared of any worry. Despite this, he has been left behind in England as we depart for Norway, where we will be looking to maintain our 100% record so far in the competition.

While Mikel Arteta named Jesus as missing from his squad, he refused to name any other players who were absent from his travelling party when asked during his pre-match press conference.

“A few players that were injured. You will find out tomorrow,” Arteta told Arsenal Media.

It makes sense that the manager will ring the changes for the trip to Norway, regardless of whether he has a full squad of options available given the facts. We remain in a strong position in the group, even if we was to suffer a shock result, but we have such a strong squad that we should be able to deal with the threat posed by making a number of changes.

Oleksandr Zinchenko is another who is unlikely to have made the trip, while given Kieran Tierney’s injury record, it might not be worth risking him on the artificial surface. You would imagine that both of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli would also be rested, but could well make the trip as part of the squad.

Would you be happy if Mikel opted to make 11 changes from the weekend’s line-up, or do you think we need to field a strong team for our trip to Bodo?

Patrick

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