Mikel Arteta has refrained from ruling out the possibility of Bukayo Saka featuring in the critical match between Arsenal and Manchester City this weekend. Saka has been dealing with injuries and has struggled to complete full matches recently, with his most recent setback occurring during the Champions League fixture against Lens.
There have been calls for Saka to be rested due to concerns about potential overuse, but he continues to be a key figure in the Arsenal lineup, making it difficult to leave him out.
A clash against Manchester City demands the presence of the best available players, and Arteta is determined to secure a victory. The manager recognises that achieving a positive outcome in the fixture will be challenging without the involvement of his star player. As a result, Arteta has acknowledged that Saka is still in contention to be included in the lineup against the defending champions.
He said, as quoted by the Daily Mail: ‘He’s in contention, let’s see how he progresses from here to Sunday. He had to leave the pitch, that’s never good news but let’s see how he recovers.
‘I leave that for the doctors.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
Saka is one of our most important players and we can all understand why the gaffer wants him to be in every game.
However, if he is not fit enough to play the game, we cannot force him to play, as he would be ineffective.
——————————-
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
I don’t think it would be wise to start him on Sunday. If he is fit he should come in second half
The one player that the team is surely missing is Gabriel Martineli how i wish he will be in the team against Man city, the kind of consistency he has been showing is wonderful wether he scores assist or he doesn’t he always terrorise opposition not forgetting the defensive side of his game he helps Zinchenko so much thats why he is always ahead of Trossard when he is fit.
With a left flank consisting of Zinchenko, Havertz and Trossard who are all lacking in defensive abilities, the fact that Lens showed up our vulnerability in this area was not surprising.The prospect of Walker and Foden bombing down the City right is worrying but not so much if Arteta were to select Tomi/Kwior, Rice and Martinelli in that area.To me this is as important as the question of playing Saka when he is clearly not 100%
If only Partey could starts in the middle with Rice, but am not ruling out anything.
I don’t blame you
Arteta likes his little games