Mikel Arteta confirmed improvements across his squad as Arsenal approach a run of high-stakes fixtures. On Tuesday, a day prior to Arsenal\u2019s Premier League clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers, he suggested Kai Havertz could be back in contention for Sunday\u2019s north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur. \u201cFor the weekend, [Havertz] is a possibility, so looking forward to having him in the squad,\u201d Arteta said on Tuesday, a day prior to Arsenal\u2019s Premier League clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers.<\/p>\n
Havertz missed last week\u2019s 1\u20131 draw against Brentford and the FA Cup fourth-round win over Wigan Athletic. His absence could now finish after just three games, a timely development with four competitions still on the line. Arteta stressed that Martin \u00d8degaard remains in a similar recovery phase. \u201cFor Wolves he is not going to be fit,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cBut for Sunday we\u2019re very hopeful that he can be with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00d8degaard replaced Eberechi Eze at half time against Brentford and did prompt an upturn in creativity, although it didn\u2019t yield the desired result. He then sat out against Wigan Athletic, but the manager indicated optimism about his return for the short trip to Spurs.<\/p>\n
Arteta also reported no significant worries about two defenders. \u201c[Calafiori] is fine; he was training with us today, he\u2019s feeling better, and hopefully he\u2019s fit for tomorrow,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cIt was just a bit of fatigue [forcing White off vs. Wigan], obviously he did a lot in the game and by the end of it, he was feeling a bit of tightness in the hamstring, but he\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Havertz\u2019s potential return offers the manager tactical flexibility, providing cover and an alternative across two positions as Arsenal navigate a congested schedule. The squad update leaves Arteta with more selection options ahead of the derby and the immediate league test against Wolverhampton Wanderers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta: Havertz may be in the squad for Sundays derby; \u00d8degaard set to miss Wolves but could return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303],"tags":[984,1305,1425],"class_list":["post-6922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","tag-ben-white","tag-bench-selection","tag-calafiori"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6922","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=6922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}