Arsenal set to miss two key stars for Brentford match
Mikel Arteta acknowledged that Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson will not be available for Arsenal’s Premier League match against Brentford on Saturday.
The two Hale End graduates have missed a significant portion of the season due to injury, combining for just 13 appearances across all competitions.
Smith Rowe recently made a full recovery from groin surgery, but he has since suffered a setback and missed Arsenal’s last two matches due to a thigh injury.
Nelson, meanwhile, has been absent since suffering a hamstring injury in a loss to Juventus on January 17, despite recently training with the rest of the squad.
However, Arteta acknowledged in his pre-match press conference that neither player would be fit to play this weekend, while Gabriel Jesus and Mohamed Elneny remain sidelined.
“The ones that they were long time like Emile, Reiss and Gabi they are closer. They started to do some work outside but they are not ready to contribute yet,” Arteta said.
Jesus recently returned to Arsenal’s London Colney training facility as he continues to recover from knee surgery, and he told MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov last month that he was targeting a return in “four to five weeks,” which would put him in contention for a return at the start of March.
However, Arteta refused to put a timeline on Jesus’s recovery and insisted that “timelines” must be respected, adding, “Gabi is doing really well, he’s outside a bit, but it’s still early stages.
“He’s pushing everybody every single day, but we need to respect some timelines and some processes but he’s doing really well.”
When asked if a date had been pencilled in for Jesus’s return, Arteta replied: “Not yet, I think it’s still too far. We have to see how he puts some load into the knee and start to get some movements and actions that are not as controlled as he has been doing.”
Arsenal has the opportunity to move eight points ahead of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table after both teams lost to Everton and Tottenham Hotspur respectively last weekend.
Since the previous matchweek, Arteta’s former club Man City has been charged with more than one hundred alleged violations of Premier League financial rules, which are now under the jurisdiction of an independent commission.
City has categorically denied the allegations, but if found guilty, they could face fines, point deductions, or even expulsion from the Premier League.
Arteta served as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City for three years, from 2016 to 2019. When asked if he ever witnessed anything improper at the club, the Spaniard replied, “No.”
Following the weekend’s matches, the Gunners will host the champions, who defeated Arteta’s team 1-0 in the FA Cup last month, at the Emirates on Wednesday.
Arsenal set to miss two key stars for Brentford match