Mikel Arteta offered an encouraging update on Martin \u00d8degaard\u2019s fitness after the captain returned to training on Friday, suggesting the midfielder could be involved for Arsenal\u2019s trip to Newcastle United. Arteta said: \u201cMartin will be training with us the next two days, so hopefully he’ll be available for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The manager underlined his belief that \u00d8degaard can make an immediate impact despite the recent absence. \u201cMartin certainly has the capacity not to do too much and not to train too much and go in two days and perform at the highest level because he\u2019s naturally a super gifted fit player.\u201d That assessment leaves the door open for the captain to be selected after a short spell on the sidelines.<\/p>\n
There are positive signs elsewhere in the squad. Bukayo Saka is expected to be available despite a minor injury scare in midweek. Arsenal are, however, awaiting a final verdict on the knee injury suffered by Noni Madueke. The club do not believe Madueke has torn his ACL, but the expectation is that he will be sidelined for around two months.<\/p>\n
Madueke\u2019s setback brings an abrupt halt to an electric beginning to his Arsenal career following his \u00a352 million ($69.6 million) move from Chelsea during the summer. His absence will be felt as Arsenal prepare for a demanding fixture at St James\u2019 Park, a ground where they have struggled recently.<\/p>\n
Arsenal head into the sixth round of Premier League fixtures sitting second in the table, five points behind leaders Liverpool. The Gunners have not found the net in any of their last three visits to St James\u2019 Park, losing by an aggregate scoreline of 4\u20130, which adds weight to the importance of any potential return by \u00d8degaard for the trip to Newcastle United.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta confirmed \u00d8degaard trained on Friday and could be fit to join Arsenal for Newcastle on Sunday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,194,969],"tags":[1073,826,1006],"class_list":["post-3140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-newcastle-united","category-premier-league","tag-acl-injury","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-captaincy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140","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=3140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}