Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta provided a fitness update on three Arsenal players following the club’s 2-0 triumph over Leeds United last night.
Arteta made wholesale changes for the Carabao Cup fourth-round tie, but the club still prevailed thanks to goals from Calum Chambers and Eddie Nketiah.
The main concern during the game was the early second-half substitution of Ben White. It was initially suggested that he had picked up an injury.
In his post-match comments, Arteta clarified that the central defender was taken off because of a sickness bug that had also ruled out Pablo Mari from the game.
He said via Arsenal.com: “No, there is a bug going on, we lost Pablo today as he wasn’t feeling great and Ben had it as well in the last day or two. He wasn’t feeling great, so we decided to take him off.”
Meanwhile, Arteta confirmed that Kieran Tierney and Martin Odegaard are both carrying minor injuries, but they could return to action against Leicester City.
He added: “They were both out with two different injuries. They tried yesterday but they didn’t feel great, they wanted to be involved but they didn’t feel good enough to be selected today and hopefully in the next few days they can feel better and be available for Leicester.”
The Gunners are unbeaten since the September international break, and they have recently picked up momentum with back-to-back victories.
They travel to the King Power Stadium for Saturday’s early kick-off. Their recent record against the Foxes has been poor with one win in five league games.
The victory came at the King Power during the back end of last season where the Gunners came from one goal down to register a comfortable 3-1 win in the end.
Arteta will be hoping for a similar showing against the Foxes. White has grown in confidence in his central defensive role alongside Gabriel Magalhaes in recent weeks.
He produced a lively performance against his former employers last night, making quality forward runs. Hopefully, he is available for selection at the weekend.
