Ahead of Arsenal’s Saturday afternoon trip to the Vitality Stadium and a Premier League clash against Bournemouth, Mikel Arteta faced the media and quickly noted that six of his players are doubtful for the match.
All of Declan Rice, Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka haven’t trained this week, whilst William Saliba has a knock and Fabio Vieira wasn’t involved in the last game.
“We have a few (injuries), we have to assess them today and see how they are,” Arteta responded when asked how close those named were to being involved at the weekend (Footage courtesy of Hayters).
“We have to adapt to the situation because that’s a big number.”
Bournemouth, with no wins from their six games so far, have yet to really get going under new manager, Andoni Iraola.
The Basque was born within three months of Arteta, just seven miles away from him and played alongside him early in their playing careers.
“We know each other really well, we played together, we had fantastic times together,” Arteta added.
“We played in Antiguoko, a team in San Sebastian that have produced a lot of players over the years. They do fantastic work […] That’s the beauty of football, 30 or 40 years later we are together in the Premier League both as managers, and I’m really, really happy for him.”
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Mikel Arteta press conference: Six Arsenal players doubtful for Bournemouth test