Eberechi Eze gets another chance to shine in a central role today as Arsenal take on Fulham at Craven Cottage.
The summer signing has played both on the left and in the middle since arriving from Crystal Palace earlier this year, but in Martin Odegaard’s absence, he gets the opportunity to play in his favoured position.
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Eze joins Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi in the Gunners’ engine room for their trip to west London.
In the front three, Bukayo Saka is off the right flank, with Leandro Trossard wide left. Viktor Gyokeres is the focal point up top, as he looks to end his scoring drought.
At the back, there was hope that new arrival Piero Hincapie would overcome his persisting injuries that have hampered the early stages of his Arsenal career.
However, despite the left-back being back in training, he has not made the matchday squad here, and will have to wait for just his second appearance for his new club.
“He will be training today again with us. If everything is right, he will be available,” Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said of Hincapie on Friday.
“He is a player that is going to help us a lot, he is going to bring something different to the team. We need to get him going.”
‘Getting him going’ will have to be next week, it seems.
Arsenal are also without Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard and Noni Madueke against Fulham, as they all have knee injuries.
Ben White and Zubimendi both missed training earlier this week, but they were just having their workloads managed, with White making the bench here.
“All the players come from different countries, different amounts of games and minutes played,” said Arteta.
“And we believed that it was the right thing to do [to allow Zubimendi to miss training on Thursday].
“He played two games again [for Spain], his load has been really high recently and he needed an extra day. He will be available.”
Arsenal face a congested fixture schedule before next month’s international break. Fulham today is the first game of seven in the space of 22 days for the Gunners.
Arteta will look to rotate his team over that period, with Arsenal hosting Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Starting Arsenal XI (4-3-3): Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Eze, Rice, Zubimendi; Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard
Subs: Kepa, Mosquera, White, Martinelli, Norgaard, Nwaneri, Merino, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman.
Injured: Jesus, Havertz, Madueke, Odegaard, Hincapie
Time and date: 5:30pm BST on Saturday October 18, 2025
Venue: Craven Cottage, London
How to watch: Sky Sports
