Mikel Arteta has issued his latest team news update ahead of Saturday’s visit of Brentford at Emirates Stadium.
“We got some players back last Monday,” he said in his pre-match press conference at Sobha Realty Training Centre.
“Then we had [Gabriel] Martinelli and Bukayo [Saka] with little issues but we are pretty positive that hopefully they can be part of that, but we’ll have to wait and see how they are tomorrow.”
Aaron Ramsdale is expected to play in goal for Saturday’s 5.30pm kick-off in the Premier League, with on-loan goalkeeper David Raya ineligible to play against his parent club.
“It is what it is, he is fully prepared, he trains really well every day - he is desperate to play like the rest of the boys who haven’t had that many opportunities and Saturday is a great day for him,” Mikel explained.
“He’s been brilliant, he’s been really good, really supportive, really pushing everything in training like I expected and it’s a joy to have two top goalkeepers in the team.
“One of the toughest things to deal with is for players who don’t have the amount of time that they deserve. Not only Aaron, but with many of those, but we have an unbelievable group of players.
“We try to be straight and explain things and be close to them and give them the support that we want and then, when they have the opportunity, at the end they want to contribute to the team the best possible way and that’s what Aaron will try to do on Saturday.”
There were no updates provided on the fitness of Takehiro Tomiyasu (calf), Oleksandr Zinchenko (calf), or Jurrien Timber (ACL).
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