Mikel Arteta has provided a rundown of the players who will not be available for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup third-round tie against Brentford at Gtech Community Stadium.
On Declan Rice, who was substituted at half-time in Sunday’s north London derby with a back complaint, Mikel said: “Declan hasn’t trained yet. He could not carry on in the game, he wasn’t comfortable at all. Hopefully it’s not something big.
"We are confident. He’s still uncomfortable, he had to leave the pitch and that’s never a good sign for a player like him, but hopefully he will progress in the next few days. It’s a tough one.”
Bukayo Saka also came off during the game, and Mikel isn’t sure if he’ll be available for this weekend. “He was limping quite badly after the match,” he said. “We had to get him off the field, which is never a good sign as well. He hasn’t been able to participate in the session. It’s a possibility, yes [that he could miss the Bournemouth game].”
Leandro Trossard wasn’t named in the squad on Sunday, and we will need to make a later call on if he can feature against Bournemouth this weekend.
“Leandro won’t be available for tomorrow,” Mikel said. “Let’s see day by day how he improves and whether he’s got a chance for the weekend or not. He did some activity and that’s where he felt it. He wasn’t comfortable to carry on the session the day before the game and he hasn’t trained yet, so not available for tomorrow.”
Mikel also confirmed that the Brentford game comes too quickly for Gabriel Martinelli, who came off in the 24th minute of our 1-0 win at Everton earlier in the month.
Thomas Partey and Jurrien Timber are both still out, Mikel added.
“It’s the situation that we have at the moment,” he said. “We have to adapt. The squad that we have at the moment is really short and we need players back, that’s for sure.”
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