Arsenal head to Brighton on Wednesday night with Mikel Arteta facing several late fitness decisions.
Arsenal return to Premier League action on Wednesday night with a demanding trip to Brighton, seeking to steady a title challenge that has shown signs of strain in recent weeks.
The fixture at the Amex follows Sunday’s win over Chelsea and precedes a congested month featuring Champions League knockout ties, an FA Cup quarter-final and the League Cup final.
Mikel Arteta addressed the media on Tuesday and provided a mixed update on availability.
Max Dowman, sidelined since October with an ankle injury, is fit to return to the squad. Ben White, however, remains out with a muscular problem and will not feature.
Martin Odegaard, who is still struggling with the knee problem he picked up last month is firmly in the “We’ll see” category according to Arteta, which makes him a major doubt. Asked to give more information about the Arsenal captain, Arteta said, “Yeah, we have to wait and see how comfortable he is to do certain actions.”
Regarding Kai Havertz, still being carefully managed following his latest muscular concern, Arteta said, “So, he’s done a part of the session, we will have to wait and see whether he’s available and in which condition. The rest I don’t think there will be anybody else.”
Declan Rice, who asked to come off against Chelsea, has shown improvement. Arteta said, “I hope so. He was much better today. Obviously, we haven’t really trained because we have only two days to prepare the game. So, hopefully, it’s going to be better tomorrow.”
There had also been reports of an issue concerning David Raya, one of only two players available for every match this season alongside Myles Lewis-Skelly, but Arteta dismissed concerns. “Yes, David is good. Good to go.”
As for Brighton, Yasin Ayari has returned to training and is expected to be an option for Wednesday. Apart from that, Brighton have “no new big injury concerns”, though a few players have minor issues and will be tested ahead of the game.
Fabian Hurzeler is likely to rotate, with Danny Welbeck and James Milner both candidates to drop out after a lot of minutes recently. Welbz has just extended his contract with the Seagulls.