Mikel Arteta has had a lengthy injury list since the beginning of the season, but on this happy New Years Day, the news coming out of the Emirates is saying that Arteta could soon have a full squad to choose from for a change.
So we’ll start with the best news, which is that depite Bukayo Saka coming off injured against Brighton he has yet again recovered quickly and is training normally ahead of the West Brom game. The youngster has been the most lively of our players in our back-to-back wins, and would have been sorely missed if unavailable for selection.
Two of our veteran Brazilians, David Luiz and Willian are now out of isolation following their contact with a positive case of Covid-19, and I think that Arteta may start with both of them against the Baggies. They will be fresh legs after our gruelling Xmas schedule and I fully expect Arteta to make quite a few changes for this game against the relegation contenders.
We will all be pleased to know that we are getting much closer to the return of our Deadline Day signing Thomas Partey. We haven’t had much chance to see him in action since his arrival, and it will be a great boost if we can watch him get a few games under his belt. It’s time for the Partey to start in January! At last.
Last but not least we have our very own positive case in the form of Gabriel, but it looks like he is over the worst and will also resume full training next week.
It will certainly be very interesting to see which team Arteta’s chooses once he has every single player out of the treatment room and available for selection….