No Rice and Timber, new injury concern - Four things spotted in Arsenal training before Wolves
Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal players took to the training pitches on Friday ahead of their Premier League clash against Wolves. The Gunners will likely have just one full session at London Colney between their Champions League clash in Belgium on Wednesday and this weekend's fixture at Emirates Stadium.
Injuries dominated Arteta's press conference on Friday with doubts surrounding Leandro Trossard, William Saliba, Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber.The latter pair played in the defeat to Aston Villa but were deemed unavailable to face Club Brugge a few days later.
Saliba missed both of those games and the two fixtures before that while Trossard has played just 78 minutes in Arsenal's last five games. A possible new injury concern has also emerged from training that could derail Arteta's plans significantly.
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With all of that being said, football.london has pulled together all the important things spotted from the Gunners' session ahead of facing Wolves.
No Rice and TimberUnsurprisingly, Rice and Timber were not in any of the 35 images uploaded to Arsenal's official websiteon Friday evening.
Regardless of whether or not the duo were actually involved, the expectation would have been that no photos including either would be posted in order to keep Wolves guessing.
Arsenal playing on Saturday evening does mean there is less time between the clash and Arteta's "wait and see" update on both. Given the opposition, the Gunners could certainly claim the three points without them but Arteta would prefer to have the duo and the midweek break afterwards seemingly boosts their chances of featuring.
New injury concernBen White was also not captured in training photos posted on Friday. The right-back has been forced to play more minutes than Arteta probably would have liked due to injuries.
Just under half of his minutes this season have arrived in the last three games with it very likely that his load is being managed between games, which could be an explanation for his potential training absence. It is worth noting that he could have still taken part, but just not been photographed.
Arteta stating that Trossard and Saliba returning would be a matter of days made it no surprise when neither of those players were spotted out on the grass.
Given the action, and likely training sessions, both have missed over the last few weeks, it is hard to foresee either having a prominent role on Saturday evening. An appearance on the bench is certainly possible, though.
Calafiori boostInjury problems have ruled three Arsenal stars out of the clash against Wolves, but there is another key player in Riccardo Calafiori that is unavailable.
The Italy international is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the campaign last weekend. Based on that, it was a shock to see him not in the starting XI in Belgium. It was later revealed that was because of a knock suffered against Villa.
Therefore, it would have been a boost to see him in the latest selection of Arsenal training photos.