Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta confirms that Gabriel Martinelli will be available for the Gunners’ Premier League clash with Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Gabriel Martinelli is back fit for Sunday’s Premier League clash with Brighton & Hove Albion.
The Brazil international was unavailable for the Gunners’ Champions League group-stage finale with PSV Eindhoven in midweek, having missed Monday’s training session with a bug.
Martinelli was left at home for the trip to Eindhoven, where Leandro Trossard and Reiss Nelson were drafted into the XI either side of Eddie Nketiah in a 1-1 dead-rubber draw.
However, Martinelli’s affliction was not expected to sideline him for long, and Arteta confirmed at his pre-game press conference that the 22-year-old would be given the green light to line up in North London.
The Spaniard also had a positive update to share on Mohamed Elneny, who came off with a hamstring injury in Tuesday’s draw, but Arteta does not believe that the Egyptian is nursing anything serious.
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When asked about Martinelli’s condition, as quoted by football.london, Arteta replied: “He’s feeling good. He’ll be in contention,” before also confirming that scans on Elneny had not shown anything severe.
“Mo had to be subbed. He felt something in his hamstring. We did a scan and it doesn’t look too serious so he’ll be with us soon which is very good news.”
Elneny will still be expected to sit out Sunday’s visit of the Seagulls, though, taking his place on the sidelines with Thomas Partey (thigh), Takehiro Tomiyasu (calf), Jurrien Timber (knee) and Fabio Vieira (groin).
Arsenal’s clash with Roberto De Zerbi‘s side will also mark the hosts’ first match since Arteta was cleared of an FA charge relating to his post-match comments in last month’s loss to Newcastle United, where he hit out at “embarrassing” and ‘disgraceful’ decisions to go against his team.
The FA accused the Spaniard of using insulting language which were detrimental to the game and/or brought the best interests of the sport into disrepute, which could have seen the Gunners boss fined or suspended, but an independent commission threw the charge out.
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Arteta hailed the “really good process” undertaken by the panel and hopes that the investigation can be used as a learning curve moving forward, adding: “I think it was a really good, well run process.
“It gave the opportunity for both of us to say how we felt and the reasons behind it. OK, the outcome is that I’m not charged, but I think we have to draw a line now and look at how we can be more constructive and learn from it and move forward. It was good. I felt a lot of sympathy to be fair as I explained the pressure we feel as managers and how important details are for our job.
I love what I do so much and I want to continue doing it. The reality was that 14 managers lost their jobs and we depend on results. When the outcome is that important we get really emotional about it. Nobody remembers three weeks ago when you lost a game because of a certain reason. So, I think it was a really good process.
“It’s not about them, it’s we . We want to do the game better. It’s about how we can improve on the touchline to make life easier from the players’ side, their (officials) side, technology-wise and the clubs. It’s all about us. We’re all in this together, it’s not about separate people trying to do their bits. That’s not going to work, we have to do it together.”
Arsenal occupy second place in the Premier League table behind Liverpool and will temporarily rise back into first place with a win over Brighton at 2pm on Sunday, as the Reds do not kick off against Manchester United until 4.30pm.
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