Mikel Merino has returned to training with Arsenal, but Jurrien Timber remains absent in the build-up to the final game of the Premier League campaign.
Arsenal are back in training after confirming the Premier League title on Tuesday, and the good news is that Mikel Merino was involved in Thursday’s session at London Colney.
The players welcomed the Spanish midfielder back to training with the traditional tunnel slaps, with Arsenal seemingly now down to just two injured players ahead of Sunday’s game against Crystal Palace.
Jurrien Timber is one of them, remaining absent despite ongoing hopes that he might feature in the Champions League final next weekend. Ben White is the other, with the right-back out for the season.
Bukayo Saka, David Raya, and William Saliba also weren’t part of the session, but Simon Collings reports that the trio aren’t injured, just inside doing individual training.
That’s good news on the Raya front, as the goalkeeper had taken a heavy fall during Arsenal’s win over Burnley earlier in the week.
Raya insisted afterwards that despite a “dead back, a dead glute, and a dead shoulder” he’d “be fine”. It seems that’s the case, but Arsenal are evidently giving the 30-year-old some time to fully recover in individual training.
Whether or not Raya starts for Arsenal this weekend will be interesting to see.
On the one hand, the Premier League title is wrapped up, so this is now a low-stakes fixture. Mikel Arteta could give Kepa Arrizabalaga or Tommy Setford a game, allowing Raya to rest up for the Champions League final.
On the other, Raya is on the verge of setting a new Arsenal record for the most Premier League clean sheets in a single season. One more would do it, so he may want to remain in the lineup to achieve that piece of history.
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