Arsenal head to Chelsea seeking to end a run of three games without a win as Mikel Arteta faces decisions on whether to play Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice from the start
Arsenal head to Chelsea seeking to end a run of three games without a win as Mikel Arteta faces decisions on whether to play Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice from the start Arsenal head to Chelsea seeking to end a run of three games without a win as Mikel Arteta faces decisions on whether to play Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice from the start
Mikel Arteta claims everybody in his squad is “available to start the game” as he faces a call on whether to throw Martin Odegaard straight into the Arsenal XI.
The Norwegian has been absent for weeks after picking up an injury but made his return in the final moments on Wednesday night as Arsenal lost at Inter Milan. Their clash at Chelsea is a must win following a run of three games without a win in the Premier League.
Odegaard has been hugely influential and, given the need for three points, is likely to be named to start the clash at Stamford Bridge.
Arteta said on Friday: “Everybody in the squad will be fit and available to start the game, then it will be a decision on whether to start the game.”
Declan Rice was another player to be missing in midweek and Arteta was more coy when he delivered an update on the England midfielder. “I have to be very vague on that one because there’s no clarity if he’s going to be fit on the weekend,” said the Arsenal boss. “He hasn’t trained yet and it’s not clear if he’ll be able to play.”
He is expected to join Odegaard in midfield though with Thomas Partey completing the trio in the middle of the park. The front three of Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli are poised to continue in the final third amid criticism over their lack of potency recently.
The back four is as expected but they haven’t kept a clean sheet since mid-September and will be under pressure to keep a Chelsea side, who scored eight in midweek, at bay.
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Arsenal will play after rivals Liverpool and Manchester City and, should results go against them, could find themselves ten points off the summit after just 11 games. Arteta has confessed that the run of poor results does impact on the feeling within the group.
He said: “When you don’t win it affects the mood and energy but the positive thing is that it is impossible that anyone in this room or outside wants to win more than I do, and these guys in the dressing room want to do. Today I had a meeting with them about it and I can sense it straight away.
“What I sense as well is a big belief about how good we are as a team, and again what we did in Milan watching it back twice, I hadn’t seen my team doing that against them.
“But you need to take that into a winning football match because, in the end, that is the only thing that anybody is going to judge, not how superior you were to the opponent, that you outrun the opponent, you out-performed the opponent in every single way.
“It is about how they scored a goal and you didn’t. We have a problem, and the problem has to be resolved by scoring more goals than the opponent – that’s it.”
Arsenal predicted line-up: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Partey, Rice,Odegaard; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.
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