Following the narrow victory over Tottenham at Tottenham Stadium, Mikel Arteta was sweating over the fitness of Bukayo Saka, after he was substituted for Ethan Nwaneri late in the game. In his post-match press conference, Arteta shared his thoughts on the Saka injury situation.
“I made two changes with the front players and suddenly he’s down. So I looked at the bench and the options that we had, so we had to adapt. I don’t know exactly what it is, but he could not continue.”
Following his freak injury on international duty, Calafiori was arrived in London to receive further medical evaluation and he wasn’t even available for selection against Tottenham while Saka suffered an injury late on. With Arsenal suffering another casualty in the form of club captain, Martin Odegaard, during the international break, going into crunch encounters against Atalanta and Manchester City without Calafiori and most importantly, Saka, would have been heart-breaking.
Saka and Calafiori were pictured in training
Thankfully, Saka and Calafiori traveled with the squad to Italy and were pictured in training, which puts them in contention for selection in tomorrow’s clash with Atalanta. Saka will be odds on to make a start, but Calafiori will get some minutes from Jurrien Timber in the second half of the Champions League encounter.
Saka is a very vital cog in the Arsenal machine, and Calafiori is one that has a bright future with the club. It’s good to know that they will be available for selection tomorrow.
