Mikel Arteta says there’s no bad news on the returning internationals, and they all seem to be okay on the injury front.

Speaking in his first press conference after the international break, Mikel Arteta had a positive update on the fitness status of the squad.

“Not any bad news, at the moment everybody seems to be ok,” Arteta revealed, before commenting on Granit Xhaka’s injury. “Granit is progressing really well but we know it’s a long-term injury unfortunately.”

That’s certainly good to hear, as it’s rare for Arsenal to return from an international break without any problems.

We do know that u23 defender Omar Rekik picked up an injury over the break, and Gabriel Martinelli also suffered a minor injury in training at London Colney, but it seems the senior players on international duty escaped setbacks.

Overall, that makes it a very successful week for the squad. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Thomas Partey, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Nuno Tavares, and Nicolas Pepe all got on the scoresheet, and there were a few clean sheets at the back as well.

The team need to carry that international momentum into Monday’s match against Crystal Palace now.

As for Xhaka, we know he has a couple more months out at the least.

David Ornstein recently reported for The Athletic that the public are likely to get an inside look at Xhaka’s recovery, as he’s agreed to let the Amazon Prime cameras dedicate time to covering the process.

There are no guarantees much or any of it will make it into the documentary, but they’ve already been capturing footage.

Ornstein adds that there’s optimism at Arsenal that Xhaka will return as quickly as possible, given his reputation around the club as being a model professional on the training pitches.

Arsenal initially confirmed that Xhaka has a significant injury to his medial knee ligament. After specialist consultation, they determined he doesn’t require surgery, but he will need a three-month rehabilitation period.