Mikel Arteta was hopeful, but non-committal, on the fitness of Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus and Ben White ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Brentford on Saturday.
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The Gunners boss was speaking at a pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of the journey across London for the 5.30pm kick-off on Saturday against the Bees.
He sounded most hopeful of a return for Jesus, who played for Brazil over the international break, starting in the 1-0 defeat to Argentina, so is fit but may not be in peak condition after an intense match on Wednesday and a long journey.
‘He is available,’ said Arteta. ‘He played 96/97 minutes in a really competitive match. He had a long flight. I have to see the condition of every single player to make the final call in the line-up.’
Odegaard has been out of action due to a concussion issue, while White has had a muscle problem and Arteta was leaving a decision on their fitness down to the final training session of the week on Friday afternoon.
On Odegaard he said: ‘We have another training session today but he’s been progressing well. Hopefully he will be available.’
Asked whether the Norwegian had suffered a concussion, he said: ‘Yes. We didn’t know how many days, depends on certain things. In the end he got more delayed than we wanted, but we have to protect the player.’
On White, he added: ‘Hopefully if he’s able to train today he’ll be eligible to play, but it’s a question mark to be resolved in the next few hours.’
Due to David Raya being on loan from Brentford, the Spanish goalkeeper is unavailable to play this weekend and Arteta confirmed that Aaron Ramsdale will start in his place.
Meanwhile, Fabio Vieira is suspended and Thomas Partey remains injured and is not available.
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