Arsenal have the perfect chance to bounce back from defeat in the Premier League to Bournemouth as they welcome Shakhtar Donetsk to north London on Tuesday. Three days on from a torrid evening on the south coast, Mikel Arteta’s side go again.
Already limited by injuries to key players across the squad, Arsenal’s task of beating a stubborn Cherries side was made tougher by William Saliba’s red card. Luckily, his ban does not carry over from domestic football to European, meaning he will be available to play at the Emirates Stadium.
To make matters even better, Arteta is hopeful of welcoming Bukayo Saka back into the team. He missed Saturday’s defeat with a hamstring injury that appeared to be picked up on international duty.
The winger had been a doubt for the match but was left out altogether. Speaking ahead of Shakhtar, Arteta explained that there is still a chance for a quick return. “Let’s see how he feels today and the transition that we have later on,” he said.
Arsenal trained before the match on Monday but, despite Arteta’s words, Saka was not seen as part of the open session held ahead of the game. The same is true of Jurrien Timber, who hasn’t played since the 2-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain before the international break.
He didn’t get picked for the Netherlands squad during the fortnight away from club football but was also absent against Bournemouth. “I think he’s going to be close obviously,” said Arteta. “We have to see how he deals with training with the whole group because he hasn’t done that yet but he will be pretty close hopefully.”
Unfortunately, Martin Odegaard is yet to be introduced back onto the grass either. He remains out and hasn’t played for over four weeks now. An initial timeline pitched him at being out until the end of October at least. There is still good news on the Odegaard front, though.
Odegaard is “progressing really well,” Arteta revealed. He is not yet fit to play though and is not back in team training with the squad. Oleksandr Zinchenko, Thomas Partey, Ben White, and Gabriel Martinelli all made the matchday squad at the weekend having been doubts, leaving the group in a stronger position in regards to depth.
Zinchenko is the only one who didn’t get onto the pitch buy may well have the opportunity in the Champions League if Arteta looks to rotate. Kieran Tierney is still out.
