Mikel Arteta has confirmed Jurrien Timber will be back in the squad for Arsenal’s Premier League opener against Wolves on Saturday.
Timber, who missed basically the whole of last season with a knee injury, has been troubled by a foot issue over the past few weeks.
The Dutchman missed the final game of the Gunners’ US tour and their two friendlies at Emirates Stadium last week.
Timber, however, returned to training this week and Arteta has confirmed he will be in the squad for Arsenal’s game with Wolves at Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
“He will be in the squad tomorrow,” said Arteta on Friday afternoon. “Obviously he had a really tough period but he used it in a great way.
“He managed to get a lot of things done and improve in many areas that, except for playing, he found really, really helpful.”
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Fabio Vieira is a doubt for the game after missing Arsenal’s Emirates Cup win over Lyon last weekend with a hip issue.
“We have to check him after training,” said Arteta. “He looks better today.”
Arsenal will definitely be without Kieran Tierney, who suffered a serious hamstring injury at Euro 2024, and Takehiro Tomiyasu. Japanese full-back Tomiyasu is yet to play this pre-season due to a knee issue and will play no part against Wolves.
“They are a few weeks behind still,” said Arteta.
Arsenal narrowly missed out on winning the Premier League last season, losing the title to Manchester City by two points, and Arteta says the squad has returned full of hunger this summer.
“We are really excited,” he said. “We’ve been missing the competition for many weeks, too long for us. We’re so willing to start, really enthusiastic about it.
“We had a really challenging pre-season but we managed to adapt and it was a great challenge for everybody to adapt: different groups, different stadiums, different conditions. We took it as an opportunity and a good challenge. The team has looked really sharp, really at it.”
