Mikel Arteta, Rob Edwards and Eddie Howe all faced the media on Tuesday ahead of their midweek ties.
Wolverhampton Wanderers and Arsenal will square off at Molineux in Double Gameweek 26, while Newcastle United are in UEFA Champions League action against Qarabag FK.
Both matches will take place on Wednesday.
In this article, you’ll see what Arteta, Edwards and Howe had to say on their respective sides’ team news.
ARSENAL
Riccardo Calafiori and Ben White should be fine for the trip to Molineux.
Calafiori was meant to feature in the FA Cup on Sunday but pulled out of the starting XI in the warm-up, while White went down late in the match and came off soon after.
“He’s fine, he was training with us today. He’s feeling better and hopefully he’s fit for tomorrow.” – Mikel Arteta on Riccardo Calafiori
“It was just a bit of fatigue. Obviously, he did a lot in the game. By the end of it, he was feeling a bit of tightness in the hamstring, but he’s fine.” – Mikel Arteta on Ben White
Martin Odegaard (knock) and Kai Havertz (muscle) will both miss out, however, but could return for the north London derby in Gameweek 27.
“No, for Wolves [Odegaard’s] not going to be fit, but for Sunday we’re very hopeful that he can be with us.
“Kai is the other one that again, for the weekend is a possibility, so looking forward to having him in the squad.” – Mikel Arteta
Mikel Merino (foot) and Max Dowman (ankle) remain on the injury list.
Elsewhere, William Saliba made a swift return from illness on Sunday and looks well placed to start.
Arteta later discussed Bukayo Saka, who lined up in a No 10 role against Wigan Athletic on Sunday. Asked if he enjoyed playing in a central position, and crucially if he would play there again, the Spaniard said:
“I think he does, and everything that brings a challenge to him. Anything where he needs to prove something, that ticks something in him, and I think that’s a positive.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka
“Yes, depending on the options that we have available, we will try to be as good as possible. We have another opportunity, another option there, which is great.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Edwards has confirmed that Wolves will be without Toti Gomes (hamstring) and Hwang Hee-chan (calf) due to injury against Arsenal.
“Toti is doing well and trained. We’re hoping he’s fit for the weekend.
“Hwang is doing individual work at the moment.” – Rod Edwards
The Wolves boss also confirmed he will make changes on Wednesday.
“There’s a few that are feeling it, I don’t want to go into detail on who. We’ll make a couple of changes anyway, and maybe a few others.” – Rob Edwards
NEWCASTLE UNITED
Joelinton (groin) is back in the Newcastle squad for Wednesday’s Champions League encounter.
“Joelinton’s back in the squad so that’s a great boost for us. He’s such an important player, such a big presence within our squad, such a real leader. He trained yesterday and trained well, and felt really good.
“No one else from the missing list, I think, has travelled from the last game so we’re missing quite a few players, quite a few real quality players as well. They’re big misses for us, but we come in here good spirits from our last two games. We will play our strongest team in the sense that we will try and win the game. There’ll be no thinking of the schedule ahead; this game, in isolation, is hugely important.” – Eddie Howe on Joelinton
That quote suggests Sven Botman (back) and Yoane Wissa (knock), who both missed Saturday’s FA Cup win at Villa Park, will remain unavailable, as well as Fabian Schar (ankle) and Tino Livramento (hamstring).
On Bruno Guimaraes (hamstring), who will miss the next few weeks, Howe said:
“We’ve spoken with, and he spoke with our medical team, and we’ve been in consultation with the Brazilian national team. He’s going this week with the Brazilian national team, and then comes back to us for the last four weeks. I think it’s a good mix for Bruno; initial stages of not doing too much, he gets a sort of mental refresh while doing some good work, and then comes back to finish off his final part.” – Eddie Howe on Bruno Guimaraes
Lewis Miley (knee) and Emil Krafth (knee) are also absent, with the latter likely out for the season.
“He’s doing alright. He’s made good progress in the last few days. We’re happy with his progress. He’s had a number of scans, it came from a knock and it was a really bad dead leg which gave him some muscle disruption so as soon as that’s healed, which we think it is now, we can push him on quite quickly.” – Eddie Howe on Lewis Miley
“Emil has had an operation on his knee so in all likelihood it looks like his season is over which is a blow for us. He first suffered the problem on international duty and we hoped he could come back and be OK. It was clear in training he wasn’t going to get to the level needed and there needed to be a surgical intervention.” – Eddie Howe on Emil Krafth
