Arsenal enter a defining stretch of the season with their title hopes very much alive despite recent setbacks. The club expect to be second in the table heading into the meeting with Newcastle United, and remain focused on closing the gap after successive April defeats.<\/p>\n
The squad\u2019s fortunes hinge in part on Bukayo Saka, who has missed seven matches for club and country. Saka has endured an injury-hit campaign after a significant hamstring problem cost him much of 2024\u201325. This season he has battled hamstring, hip and Achilles issues, the latter keeping him out since the 2\u20130 defeat to Man City in the Carabao Cup final.<\/p>\n
Arteta offered a cautiously optimistic update, revealing that Saka had \u201cstarted to do some stuff\u201d on the training field. According to The Independent, the club are \u201chopeful\u201d that Saka returns to the fold over the next week. If fit, his presence down the right flank would be a timely boost for a frontline that has struggled for rhythm in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Arsenal remain, in broader terms, a club with strong credentials. They are Opta\u2019s favourites to win the league, and they have reached the Champions League semifinals in back-to-back years. The team also crawled into this season\u2019s semifinals without their No. 7, although they have exited the FA Cup and suffered back-to-back league losses.<\/p>\n
Saka is still widely regarded as a key figure for the side, a player described internally as a \u201cstarboy\u201d whose pace and ability to retain the ball remain assets. Yet this has not been his most productive season, and some supporters worry that his accumulated workload is taking a toll. Even so, with Kai Havertz providing renewed energy in recent matches and captain Martin \u00d8degaard back fit, Saka\u2019s return could reinstate the balance Arsenal need as they chase a first league title in 22 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal \u201chopeful\u201d Saka return could restore energy to a frontline that has struggled in April. soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[1084,826,1047],"class_list":["post-12527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-achilles-injury","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}