Arteta confirms triple injury boost ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Brentford

Arsenal return to Premier League action following the international break as they take on Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday evening.

Ahead of the game, Mikel Arteta has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference today. The Gunners boss provided a team news and injury update that included the latest on the fitness of several key players.

Gabriel Jesus has missed Arsenal’s last five games in all competitions since suffering a hamstring injury during the Champions League win over Sevilla in late October. The striker returned to action for Brazil during their World Cup qualifying defeat to Argentina on Wednesday.

Jesus started the game and played the entire 90 minutes, so Arteta was pleased to confirm the 26-year-old is ‘available’ to face Brentford. However, the Arsenal boss says Jesus will need to be assessed following his long flight back from South America before a decision is made over whether he’ll start on Saturday.

Martin Odegaard has also missed Arsenal’s last three matches due to a combination of issues. He was initially out with a hip injury but then suffered concussion when he returned to training. That saw him miss the games against Sevilla, Newcastle United and Burnley before the international break.

However, Odegaard is back in full training after progressing well over the last two weeks, and is expected to be available to face Brentford on Saturday evening.

Arsenal boost

Ben White was another player who missed the win over Burnley last time out after picking up a knock against Sevilla earlier this month. White has also been back in training this week and should be back in contention for the trip to Brentford.

All three players will be checked over at London Colney today, but Jesus, Odegaard and White are expected to be in the squad tomorrow. Arteta told Arsenal.com:

On Jesus

“He’s available. He played 96, 97 minutes in a very competitive match, so we have another session and they had a long flight so I have to see the condition of every single player to make the call on the line-up.”

On Odegaard

“Hopefully he is available. We have another training session today but he has been progressing well. We didn’t know how many days he’d need to be out and in the end it got more delayed than we wanted but we had to protect the player.”

On White

“Again, hopefully if he is able to train today he will be eligible to play, but it’s a question mark to be resolved in the next few hours.”

It will be a huge boost for Arsenal to have Jesus, Odegaard and White available again as they’re three important players in Arteta’s starting eleven.

However, it’s not all positive news as the Gunners boss will be without five other players this weekend. David Raya is ineligible to play against his parent club so Aaron Ramsdale will start in goal on Saturday.

Thomas Partey remains out with a thigh injury that’s likely to rule him out until 2024. Fabio Vieira starts a three-game suspension following his sending off against Burnley while Emile Smith Rowe and Jurrien Timber are long-term absentees.