Arsenal ended preparations for the trip to Bilbao without Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and captain Martin \u00d8degaard in their final open training session in north London ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Champions League opener against Athletic Club. Mikel Arteta, however, welcomed a number of returning squad members to the grass at London Colney.<\/p>\n
William Saliba, who lasted less than five minutes against Liverpool on the eve of September\u2019s international break, has recovered sufficiently from a sprained ankle to join full team training this week. Whether Arteta will risk deploying his centre back in Bilbao is unclear, particularly with a Premier League showdown against Manchester City to follow on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u00d8degaard was again forced off during Saturday\u2019s victory over Nottingham Forest. Arteta confirmed over the weekend that Arsenal\u2019s skipper had suffered a blow to the same shoulder which sidelined him against Leeds last month. The captain was absent from Monday\u2019s open session, casting doubt over his availability for the trip to Spain.<\/p>\n
Saka is set to spend longer in the treatment room along with Havertz, while Saliba offers a more immediate recovery trajectory. Christian N\u00f8rgaard was also back on the grass; the bargain recruit from Brentford is yet to make his competitive debut after sustaining a knock right on the cusp of the new campaign.<\/p>\n
Given Martin Zubimendi\u2019s heroics at the base of midfield, there is no rush for N\u00f8rgaard, though Arteta has frequently endured consequences from overplaying his key figures. Declan Rice was given a rare rest this weekend after a busy international break with England, starting on the bench for the visit of Forest.<\/p>\n
When \u00d8degaard hobbled off in the first half, Arteta resisted the urge to call upon Rice and instead put his faith in teenager Ethan Nwaneri. The 18-year-old could potentially start against Athletic in \u00d8degaard\u2019s absence. Eberechi Eze presents another attacking midfield option should Gabriel Martinelli return to the left, while a functional trio of Rice, Zubimendi and Mikel Merino remains possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Final session: Havertz, Saka and \u00d8degaard absent as Arsenal prepared to travel to Bilbao on Tuesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[826,606,253],"class_list":["post-2834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-christian-norgaard","tag-declan-rice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2834","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=2834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}