Mikel Arteta has given an brief update on his personnel list ahead of Arsenal’s clash with Brentford this weekend, insisting that decisions are yet to be made on certain players.
While we await news on Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Emile Smith Rowe and Ben White, the boss was only quizzed on the latter trio.
The English centre-back has been deemed fit, despite some reports in the press claiming that he had been ruled out of Gareth Southgate’s squad due to injury, and he will be available for selection tomorrow.
Emile Smith Rowe remains a doubt however, but the boss did make sure to highlight the important role that the midfielder has within the squad.
“It’s been an ongoing issue that Emile’s had,” Mikel said in the pre-Brentford press conference (via Arsenal Media). “It’s something we are trying to assess and trying to help as much as possible because we need him fit, we need him available and we need him performing at the best level, because he’s such an important player for us.”
Zinchenko also had his mention in the press conference, but only to reiterate that a decision was yet to be made on his availability as of yet.
It is a little worrying that both of our left-backs have already had fitness and injury issues when we are only six matches into the new season, and it seems that we are currently lucky that we have been able to field either one or the other so far. We also have sufficient cover for ESR, especially when we are only playing once per week, but the return of Ben White, and hopefully a return for Partey will be a big boost to our starting XI.
Has anyone else been worried about our LB role as the campaign plays on?
Patrick
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…