Arsenal have a handful of injury doubts heading into this afternoon’s Premier League clash with Bournemouth.
After a spate of withdrawals through the international break, the overwhelming majority of those players returned to motion either in last weekend’s FA Cup defeat to Southampton or the midweek Champions League victory over Sporting CP.
An open training session on Thursday provided more clues into the state of Mikel Arteta’s squad with Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber, Martin Odegaard, Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapie not joining their teammates on the grass.
Chatting with the press on Friday, Arteta suggested a few of those players had stepped up their returns with today’s game in mind – but declined to call those within the frame.
Saka has not played because the Carabao Cup final, also sitting out of England’s international friendlies against Uruguay and Japan. Timber meanwhile missed that defeat at Wembley.
Odegaard’s situation has been made slightly more complicated after comments from his international manager Stale Solbakken, who claimed the Norway has suffered an injury setback.
The Arsenal captain has missed 11 games this 12 months but began against Southampton and Sporting before being replaced with 20 minutes left in Lisbon.
There was a bit more clarity on Eberechi Eze. Despite fears he could miss as much as six weeks of motion, the previous Crystal Palace star is obtainable this weekend.
Arsenal XI to face Bournemouth – Metro prediction
Arteta can have some big decisions to make in attack with Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli each impressing off the bench against Sporting.
Given how little Arteta was making a gift of on the status of Saka and Timber, there may be the chance they won’t be risked.
Arsenal vs Bournemouth TV channel, live stream and kick-off time
Arsenal vs Bournemouth kicks off today (Saturday 11 April) at 12:30pm.
You’ll be able to watch the match continue to exist TNT Sports 1 with streaming also available through the HBO Max app.
You can too follow all of the motion with Metro’s LIVE blog.
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