Mikel Arteta has confirmed Gabriel Magalhaes, Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard are all fully fit and available for Arsenal’s Champions League clash with Sporting.
Gabriel played the total 90 minutes of Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final loss to Manchester City, but was forced off with a knee problem within the side’s FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Southampton on the weekend.
The Brazil centre-back was pictured back in training earlier today, though, and caught the chartered flight to Lisbon with the remaining of Arteta’s first-team squad on the eve of the quarter-final first leg.
Rice had also been a slight doubt for the competition having pulled out of England’s friendlies with Uruguay and Japan in the course of the recent international break.
However the midfielder appears to have shaken off any concerns over his fitness, together with winger Trossard, who didn’t make Saturday’s trip to Southampton as a consequence of a groin issue.
‘Yes, yes and yes,’ Arteta told reporters when asked if Gabriel, Rice and Trossard were able to feature against Sporting upon the squad’s arrival in Portugal.
Tuesday’s match involves soon for each Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka, nevertheless, with the duo not noted of Arsenal’s travelling party to proceed their rehabilitation back home.
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On Timber and Saka, Arteta explained: ‘They haven’t travelled and should not ready yet.
‘Hopefully for the weekend if all the pieces goes well.’
Mikel Merino, the one other absentee for the Gunners, remains to be a way from his possible comeback after undergoing surgery on a foot injury he suffered in January.
With Arsenal’s squad still hurting after back-to-back defeats within the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, Arteta hopes his players are in a position to use the ‘pain’ they’ve experienced to drive themselves towards something positive.
‘Have some perspective about how difficult what we have now done up until now has been,’ the Spaniard said.
‘Feel the pain, use it to enhance.
‘We’re very clear what happened, why it happened. That is football.’
Arteta added: ‘I believe what you’ve gotten to be is obvious, understand why it happened. And whenever you understand that, be higher, and that’s what we have now to do.’
The Gunners might be seeking to return to the shape they showed of their last-16 second leg with Bayer Leverkusen on the Emirates, where goals from Eberechi Eze and Rice either side of half-time proved decisive.
Their quarter-final opponents, Sporting, had seemed to be heading out of Europe’s premier competition after suffering a 3-0 defeat to Bodo/Glimt in the primary leg of their round-of-16 tie.
However the Portuguese champions accomplished a surprising fightback within the second leg to win 5-3 on aggregate and advance through.
‘They’re in a high moment,’ Arteta said when asked in regards to the threat posed by Sporting.
‘What they did against Paris Saint-Germain [beat PSG 2-1 at home in the group stage in January] and their recent form within the league.’
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