He always disturb my defenders whenever we’re playing them,Now He is injured..Let me see How Arteta will win us’: Brentford Manager Thomas frank Makes mockery of Arsenal injury list as key player ruled out again
Paul Merson has named the Arsenal star he hopes will return from injury this weekend for the trip to Brentford in the Premier League. Mikel Arteta has been dealing with quite a number of absences in recent weeks with Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka, Ben White and Martin Odegaard among the marquee names to miss fixtures through injury.
Prior to the November international break, despite some worries, Saka was able to feature in the 3-1 win against Burnley, although it came too soon for Odegaard and Jesus. However, the attacking duo have used the two-week pause effectively with Jesus playing his first minutes in over a month on Brazil duty while the club captain has remained at London Colney to rebuild his fitness after dealing with a hip issue and suffering a concussion.
As for White, football.london understands the defender missed the victory at Emirates Stadium because of a muscle issue. He is still being assessed ahead of the weekend with Arteta sure to be coy about his availability in his pre-match press conference on Friday.
Arteta also faces a number of team selection decisions following mixed international periods for Kai Havertz, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Jorginho with all three pushing for a place in the starting XI. While playing with Germany, Julian Nagelsmann deployed Havertz at left-back in both games, while Jorginho missed his third successive penalty for Italy.
Tomiyasu on the other hand, enjoyed a positive break with no fresh injury picked up while playing for Japan, although much of the focus on the former Bologna man was based around his future. In recent days Bayern Munich’s interest in the 25-year-old emerged, however the Gunners have no interest in selling and are instead looking at offering him fresh contract terms.
While those decisions will likely sit with Arteta in the lead-up to the game, there is one that Merson hopes he makes which will see an injured star return with the former Arsenal defender also making clear the two things they must do in west London.
“Arsenal will go into this game after having known the result of City and Liverpool’s clash,” he wrote on Sportskeeda. “Brentford are a strong team and if Arsenal can match their physicality and be careful during set-pieces, they should win here. Hopefully, Martin Odegaard is going to be fit for this one.”
Despite some worries, after dealing with two separate problems which saw him miss four games, Odegaard is expected to be fit and available for the clash along with Jesus, although another decision will involve what to do with him, Eddie Nketiah and Leandro Trossard. The Belgian has performed well in the false 9 role in the absence of both, but Nketiah and Jesus are free from injury now giving Arteta a headache he likely won’t mind.
