Mikel Arteta has issued an update on the fitness of our first team squad, as well as praising the form of Viktor Gyokeres since his return from injury.
The boss spoke to the media at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Friday ahead of our London derby against Chelsea on Sunday, and reported there were no fresh concerns after last weekend’s 4-1 win away at Tottenham.
“No so far,” Mikel reported, “we’re waiting for tomorrow, the last training session, to understand if we have one or two available from last week.”
As well as coming through the north London derby without any injuries, we may be able to welcome back some of those who missed the win.
“We are hopeful; Max (Dowman) will play some minutes tonight with the under-21s.
“Kai will train tomorrow and then we’ll see (if he’s fit to face Chelsea).”
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Throughout the season, the boss has maintained that the priority with injury recoveries is ensuring players come back stronger.
One man who has certainly done that is Viktor Gyokeres, who has started 2026 in fine goalscoring form, having missed a spell through November and December.
Viktor has found the net eight times in his last twelve games, including two in our rampant win at Spurs last time out.
“Well I think one thing leads to another.” Mikel said on our no.14.
“When you score the first one, the performance is good, you have more time with your teammates, you understand the games, the opponents, the league, everything helps.
“We know his qualities, he’s undoubtedly an incredible striker. We need to feed his quality, we need to understand him better, he needs to understand the team, the league better and I think we are in the right trajectory.”
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