Mikel Arteta refused to confirm which of Arsenal’s struggling quartet will be available for the Premier League curtain-raiser at Crystal Palace on Friday night.
For the second time in as many seasons, the Gunners will get the new top-flight season underway and will again make a trip across the capital to do so. The Spaniard will be hoping for a significantly better start than last term however, when his undercooked and unfit side were soundly beaten by recently promoted Brentford.
It promises to be a similarly fervent atmosphere at Selhurst Park, with Gunners legend Patrick Vieira venturing into his second campaign in charge. As for the visitors, they go into the first weekend appearing significantly better prepared, having enjoyed a positive summer both on, and off the pitch.
Having agonisingly missed out on the Champions League last term, Arsenal have been active in the transfer window, signing five players at a cost of more than £100m. Fabio Vieira was one of those summer arrivals, although he is yet to make his bow due to his persistent foot injury.
The Portuguese playmaker is one of four players going into the game vs the Eagles with question marks. Along with the Palace boss’s namesake - Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Emile Smith Rowe are all carrying knocks.
But speaking ahead of Friday night’s kick-off, Arteta refused to name the trio who look set to be ready to go. “Three out of four of those are probably gonna be training this afternoon and if everything goes well hopefully they are going to be available for selection in the squad,” he tentatively explained.
“Hopefully they are going to recover because they have been missing a lot of minutes and time in preseason and they are really important players for us.” Arteta did go into some more detail on full backs Tierney and Tomiyasu, believing that the nature of their injuries were exacerbated by a small squad which meant they were occasionally running on empty.
“The reason they got persistent injuries are for different reasons,” he added. “The squad didn’t enable them to recover and not play when necessary or when they were too tired, or weren’t fully recovered.
“Sometimes we had to rush them. It was a combination. Those two players are so pushy and willing to contribute with the team and that is what we done. We know with those two fit and performing at their best, we are much stronger as a team.”
One player who definitely will be involved is marquee summer arrival Gabriel Jesus. The Brazilian, signed to the club from Manchester City will shoulder much of the goalscoring burden, although Arteta is keen to ensure that particular responsibility is shared across the group.
“The role that Gabi has here is going to be very different to the role that Gabi had in his previous club. That needs some adaptation and time and we are all surprised with how quickly he’s done it, but we have to share that responsibility.
“He’s a tremendous talent with a mentality that is so contagious and he’s going to give us a lot, but it’s a team at the end of the day.”
