Arsenal\u2019s title celebrations at the end of the 2025\/26 Premier League campaign were muted by a late injury concern for Noni Madueke. The champions travelled south for a 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace during a Public Holiday weekend in the United Kingdom, a result that allowed rotation ahead of next week\u2019s Champions League final in Budapest against Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta used the match to rest key starters. Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice were unused substitutes and William Saliba did not make the matchday squad. Saka is set for a 90-minute outing in the final, while Madueke, who joined from Chelsea last summer, has been earmarked as a bench option to provide pace and direct running.<\/p>\n
Madueke scored his second Premier League goal of the season on Sunday, but was forced off late at Selhurst Park with an apparent niggle. The winger grasped the back of his left leg when speaking to the physio on-field and looked in some discomfort. Arteta offered no post-match update, although The Standard reported that the winger was moving freely during their title celebrations and that there were no signs of a limp.<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s wider fitness picture was also outlined. Mikel Merino is recovering from foot surgery and, according to the club\u2019s list, only a pair of right backs remain absent. Ben White\u2019s knee injury at West Ham United earlier this month has ended his World Cup hopes. Jurri\u00ebn Timber has been out since March with a groin issue. Arteta had been hopeful Timber could play some part in the final, but his omission from the matchday squad on Sunday suggests he will not be ready to face one of the tournament\u2019s in-form players.<\/p>\n
If Timber is unavailable, Cristhian Mosquera is expected to line up against Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Madueke\u2019s late exit at Selhurst Park has placed his availability for the Champions League final in doubt, leaving Arsenal to assess whether the winger can still offer a bench impact in Budapest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Madueke’s late exit at Selhurst Park casts doubt on his fitness for the Champions League final today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1647],"tags":[1254,1305,1304],"class_list":["post-14054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-champions-league","tag-adductor-injury","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14054","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=14054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}