“FULL RECOVERY”- Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have just been handed big injury boost ahead of Manchester City clash
“FULL RECOVERY”- Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have just been handed big injury boost ahead of Manchester City clash
‘Full recovery’ – Arsenal handed big injury boost ahead of Manchester City clash
Manchester City take on their Premier League rivals on Sunday
Manchester City’s next league opponents Arsenal are ‘confident’ that key winger Bukayo Saka will be fit for this weekend’s clash. The Gunners head to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Saka, 23, hobbled off in their game against Tottenham Hotspur last time out. They ran out 1-0 winners after Gabriel’s second-half winner
Arsenal are now sweating over his fitness ahead of their upcoming Champions League tie against Atalanta. They are also hoping he is available against City which would be a massive boost.
Speaking after their win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, their boss Mikel Arteta initially said: “Saka went down. I don’t know exactly what it is, but he said he could not continue.”
In this latest update regarding his condition by the Evening Standard, they are ‘confident’ that the player will be ready to play this weekend. He has scored once in four league games so far this season.
Saka has been on the books at Arsenal for his whole career to date and rose up through their academy ranks. He was a regular for the London outfit at various different youth levels before breaking into their first-team in 2019.
The England international has since become one of their most prized assets. He has fired 59 goals in 230 games in all competitions.
Arteta was delighted with their win at Spurs and will be hoping for more of the same at City. The Spaniard said: “I’m super happy, obviously. We know what it means to our club, to our people to win a London derby, and we have the power to try to make them very happy. So hopefully we have achieved that and that makes it very special. On the performance we had moments in the game, some really good ones, some others that we have to suffer. We suffered because we have to adapt a little bit of the plan because of the players that we had available.
“I loved it because since the day that we started to get by, the team got hungrier and hungrier to play the game and that’s a big compliment to everybody at the club to behave in a certain way. It’s a tough week that’s coming up, and instead of finding any little excuses or arguments to do that – the opposite, face the challenge, play with courage, acknowledge our qualities and what we have to be able to do to win a game, and we’ve actually done it.”
In other team news regarding Arsenal, Declan Rice should be back against Atalanta and then against City. Meanwhile, Kieran Tierney, Mikel Merino, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Martin Odegaard are out, whilst there are question marks over Oleksandr Zinchenko and Riccardo Calafiori.
As for Pep Guardiola’s men, they will be in confident mood ahead of facing the Gunners and need to get through their home game against Inter Milan on Tuesday night in the Champions League first and foremost. They have won all four of their fixtures so far this term and sit top of the table on maximum points.
