{"id":398708,"date":"2026-01-30T12:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/398708\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T12:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:17:07","slug":"artetas-updates-on-saliba-timber-and-dowman-press-conference-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/398708\/","title":{"rendered":"Arteta’s updates on Saliba, Timber and Dowman | Press conference | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta has been discussing the fitness of our first-team squad at the Sobha Realty Training Centre ahead of our Premier League clash with Leeds United.<\/p>\n

After we finished off a perfect league phase in the Champions League, the boss reported that everyone came through our 3-2 victory over Kairat Almaty unscathed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have any surprises there, hopefully everybody will train well today and be available for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

After defenders William Saliba and Jurrien Timber missed out on a spot in the midweek squad with knocks, they\u2019ll be back in the fold for our trip to Elland Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are OK, obviously they have been playing a lot of minutes,\u201d Mikel said on Friday morning, \u201cthey\u2019ve been carrying a few niggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really good opportunity (against Kairat) to offload them a little bit and refresh them.\u201d<\/p>\n

With our defenders back from injury and Declan Rice and Mikel Merino\u2019s suspensions served, the only absence from our squad will be Max Dowman.<\/p>\n

After agreeing a pre-contract agreement that will see him sign professional terms upon turning 17, the 16-year-old will have to wait to get back on the pitch as he continues his recovery.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Read more Max Dowman commits his future to Arsenal <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a little bit more than Mosquera\u2019s. He\u2019s growing and we need to be very careful and a little more protective,\u201d Mikel said on Max\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a different schedule as well because he needs to go to school, so we need to respect a lot of things throughout that process.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think he\u2019s quite close. He\u2019s on the pitch now, he\u2019s doing well and hopefully we\u2019re going to be able to see him soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we\u2019ll have to wait on Max\u2019s return to first-team action, both Ricciardo Calafiori and Kai Havertz started for the first time in 2026 in Wednesday\u2019s Champions League victory.<\/p>\n

On Calafiori\u2019s return, the boss said \u201cRichy has been instrumental, especially in the way we attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has unique qualities to occupy spaces and to create things that probably the qualities of the other full-backs are different. So when we need them, they will be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow he\u2019s fit, he\u2019s available and we\u2019ll have to wait and see when we can use him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our victory over Kairat also saw Kai Havertz start a competitive game for the first time in almost a year, and the boss is looking forward to seeing more of the forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is ready, obviously he started the other day, obviously it\u2019s been a long period and now we need to manage that load and the games we\u2019re going to select for him to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there was no (negative) reaction to that, I think it was super positive, you could see straightaway the impact that he can have in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Read more Every word from Arteta’s pre-Leeds United presser <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta has been discussing the fitness of our first-team squad at the Sobha Realty Training Centre ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-398708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}