Arteta & Alonso provide Arsenal & Chelsea injury updates

Mikel Arteta provided updates on Arsenal’s injury doubts on Friday afternoon, starting with Bruno Guimaraes, who missed training on Thursday.

“He had a knock against Villa in the previous game and he’s been assessed,” Arteta said. “Hopefully tomorrow he will be okay for training.”

Cristhian Mosquera was also absent, and Arteta revealed: “He was more a precaution than anything else, so we’ll have to see tomorrow in the session how he feels.”

But if Mosquera is out, Ezri Konsa could replace him. Arteta said: “He’s certainly available in the squad, so we’ll have to make that selection.”

Jurrien Timber also seems to be close to a comeback, after a long time out. Arteta confirmed Timber is “in a really good condition at the moment” and that he’s had “a few weeks on the pitch and he’s been training with us now, so he’s in a good place”.

Whether Timber will be available for the squad against Chelsea remains unconfirmed, with Arteta saying they’ll decide after training on Saturday. William Saliba also remains absent, with no expectation he’ll be back for a while yet.

On the Chelsea side, there are serious doubts about Moises Caicedo, who returned to the pitch in their last game against Brighton, only to be subbed off again with the same injury.

Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso suggested the player isn’t entirely ruled out of the Arsenal game, but the club will check on him in training on Saturday.

“These things can happen and we need to check,” Alonso explained. “Tomorrow we will make the final decision.”

Chelsea will also be without Marco Palestra and Jordan Henderson for the Arsenal game, and it seems new striker Emmanuel Emegha will also be unavailable.

The rest of Chelsea’s players should be fit to feature, so it will be close to a full-strength team from the visitors, especially if Caicedo is available.