{"id":670392,"date":"2026-05-14T12:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/670392\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T12:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:46:12","slug":"arteta-hoping-timber-will-win-fitness-race-for-champions-league-final-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/670392\/","title":{"rendered":"Arteta hoping Timber will win fitness race for Champions League final | Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta is crossing his fingers that Jurri\u00ebn Timber will have a chance of facing Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League<\/a> final as he weighs up his options at right-back.<\/p>\n

Arsenal confirmed on Tuesday that Ben White would miss the rest of the season<\/a> with a knee injury that is expected to rule him out of the World Cup, although Arteta said the defender must \u201cwait and see\u201d regarding the summer. Timber has not played since Arsenal\u2019s win over Everton on 14 March owing to a groin issue. The Netherlands defender is understood to have been close to returning at the end of last month before experiencing a setback.<\/p>\n

Cristhian Mosquera is expected to fill in against Burnley on Monday night, although Riccardo Calafiori, who went off injured last Sunday at West Ham<\/a> but is back in training, could be an option after he played at right-back in the second half of Arsenal\u2019s win over PSG in last year\u2019s league stage. Arteta is hoping Timber, one of his most consistent performers this season, could be in contention for the final on 27 May as Arsenal prepare for the prospect of facing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in Budapest.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s progressed a little bit in the last few days; he\u2019s feeling better,\u201d the Arsenal<\/a> manager said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to try to get him available as quickly as possible but he\u2019s obviously been out now for a while, unfortunately. He\u2019s such an important player for us. We all know that. He\u2019s doing everything that he possibly can to help the team in any capacity. His leadership, his quality and how much the team needs him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arteta, asked whether there was a chance Timber could face PSG, said: \u201cThere is a chance. But how big that chance is, I cannot tell you. I\u2019m being completely honest. He\u2019s going to try to do everything he can to convert that chance as high as possible in the shortest possible period.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Arsenal supporters\u2019 group REDaction is again planning to welcome the team coach before the game against Burnley on Monday, when Arteta\u2019s side could re-establish a five-point lead over Manchester City. Thousands of fans turned out before the Champions League semi-final victory over Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a> and Arteta, who revealed he did not watch City\u2019s win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday<\/a> because he was at a sponsors\u2019 event, said it had inspired his players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt builds an energy connection with them that we haven\u2019t experienced before,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole preparation and the whole atmosphere showed that the level of meaning was higher and the level of implication and desire and passion from our supporters was different as well. It really helps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta is crossing his fingers that Jurri\u00ebn Timber will have a chance of facing Paris Saint-Germain in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-670392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}