Arsenal face Sporting in the first leg of the quarter-final on Tuesday night (8pm kick-off), with the return leg scheduled for just over a week later at the Emirates Stadium. In the build-up to the match, injury concerns surrounded Gabriel, Rice, Saka, Piero Hincapie, Jurrien Timber and Leandro Trossard. Eberechi Eze and Mikel Merino remain sidelined through injury.
When quizzed at his pre-match press conference on whether Gabriel, Rice and Trossard were available, Arteta said: “Yes, yes and yes.”
Providing an update on Timber and Saka, the Arsenal manager added: They haven’t travelled in yet, let’s see, hopefully they’re going to be ready for the weekend, if everything goes well. That’s a massive boost because in recent days we’ve lost so many important players and that’s something that we need to change immediately.”
Timber has been battling injury for the past three weeks and appeared to be in contention for a return against Southampton. However, he was omitted from the squad for the FA Cup clash, with attention now turning to a potential comeback at the weekend ahead of the second leg.
Saka found himself in a comparable position, having been absent from the squad against Southampton after returning early from England duty. He will now sit out the first leg against Sporting. One player who is anticipated to feature in attack is Viktor Gyokeres, who will face his previous club.
The striker joined Arsenal from Sporting in a transfer worth approximately £55 million in the summer. Arteta has disclosed he has spoken to Gyokeres to attempt to gain an understanding of Arsenal’s adversaries.
“Of course I did, to understand the dynamics the culture and to have more information about them that we can use in our favour,” he said.
“A lot of qualities, what they are doing is remarkable. The record they have at home is amazing.”
Discussing how the Gyokeres signing materialised, Arteta said: “He’s been on the radar for years, but more recent moments when we look at it, he was one of the top targets was around December of last year.
“When we had the issue with Kai [Havertz], and he became one of the main candidates.”