Mikel Arteta has issued a positive update on the fitness of Jurrien Timber, William Saliba and Kai Havertz, leaving the Arsenal manager with an almost fully-fit squad to choose from.
Timber and Saliba missed the midweek win over Kairat with what were described as “niggles”, with Arteta able to freshen up his line-up for the fixture as his side completed a perfect league phase campaign in the Champions League.
Havertz made his first start in a competitive fixture in more than a year and scored in the 3-2 success, providing a significant boost to the club’s attacking options.
While confirming that the German’s minutes will be monitored after such a long lay-off, Arteta nonetheless said that all of the key trio are in contention for selection for the trip to Leeds in the Premier League.
“We didn’t have any surprises [against Kairat], hopefully everybody will train well today and be available for tomorrow,” Arteta said.
“[Saliba and Timber] are OK, obviously they have been playing a lot of minutes. They’ve been carrying a few niggles. It was a really good opportunity to offload them a little bit and refresh them.
“[Havertz] is ready, obviously he started the other day, obviously it’s been a long period and now we need to manage that load and the games we’re going to select for him to start.
“But there was no reaction to that, I think it was super positive, you could see straightaway the impact that he can have in the team.”
Ricciardo Calafiori is also in contention having made his first start of 2026 in midweek, leaving only youngster Max Dowman sidelined.
Arsenal begin the weekend four points ahead of Manchester City and Aston Villa at the top of the table. A defeat to Manchester United has led to renewed questions about the club’s mentality as they seek a long-awaited Premier League title, but Arteta dismissed those concerns.
"It's about understanding where you are," Arteta stressed.
"Certainly when you lose a game you have a lot of feelings, especially this group of players because they are so competitive. They search for excellence and when you don't reach it, you ask questions, and we did that.
"My role there is to bring optimism and reality of where we are. Our club has a long, long history and to find the position we are in February, it's hard to find.”
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