While Jesus – who has had an injury-blighted spell at Arsenal since moving from City in 2022 – may not be ready to face Chelsea on Sunday, Arteta hopes the likes of Leandro Trossard, Viktor Gyokeres, and Kai Havertz will be available after their own respective injury issues.
He told reporters: “There’s another test today, we have to see how he’s [Trossard] feeling. It doesn’t look much, so we still have a few hours and we’ll have to see. We have another day tomorrow, so let’s see how everybody is tomorrow.”
After statement wins over Tottenham and Bayern this week, the north London team are eager to secure another one, this time away at rivals Chelsea.
Arteta said: “It’s a big game, it’s a big London derby, we’re going to play a really good opponent, and they are in really good form. We know the challenge, we know the opportunity that we have as well on Sunday, so we are fully prepared for it. Those are statements that we are talking about every three days. After beating Spurs at home, then we have to make a statement against Bayern Munich, we’ve done that and now we have to go to the next one. That’s where we are, we knew the importance of the week, not only that, but what is coming after three days is going to be exactly the same, nothing is going to change. But we are super motivated for the game.”