Mikel Arteta has said Arsenal will make a late decision on Bruno Guimar\u00e3es before Friday\u2019s Premier League opener against Coventry City.<\/p>\n
Guimar\u00e3es returned from the locker room last weekend with ice on his right thigh, which naturally raised concern as the new season approached. Arteta moved quickly to calm the situation, saying the issue was not serious, but he would not commit to the Brazilian\u2019s availability for the opening match.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see how he is,\u201d the predictably mysterious Arteta said. \u201cHe\u2019s evolving really well but let\u2019s see for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s midfield depth gives them room to absorb any setback. Martin \u00d8degaard is expected to continue in attacking midfield after his strong display against City, while several options are available in the deeper roles behind him.<\/p>\n
Myles Lewis-Skelly is another player in contention for more minutes, although the academy graduate may find opportunities limited by the senior quality available to Arteta. Mart\u00edn Zubimendi and Declan Rice both came off the bench last weekend and are now further along in their build-up after long World Cup campaigns. Arteta has also confirmed both are \u201cready to be involved\u201d on Friday.<\/p>\n
Mikel Merino is available too after the foot injury that interrupted the final months of last season.<\/p>\n
There is less positive news in defence. William Saliba and Jurri\u00ebn Timber are both definitely unavailable, with Arteta hopeful that Saliba can return after the international break in September. Timber may be back sooner, but not yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said in the next few weeks,\u201d Arteta insisted on Timber. \u201cHe\u2019s not training with the group yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s fixture will also come too soon for incoming signing Ezri Konsa, whose $69.4 million move from Aston Villa will not be completed in time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta faces a late fitness call on Guimar\u00e3es, while Arsenal wait on Saliba, Timber and Konsa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1836,242,180],"class_list":["post-18656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18656","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=18656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}