Mikel Arteta reveals Arsenal duo are injury doubts for Man City Premier League title clash

Mikel Arteta has revealed he has concerns surrounding the fitness of William Saliba and Oleksandr Zinchenko, ahead of next week’s huge Premier League clash between Manchester City and Arsenal.

The Gunners are four points clear of City in the title race, although as they’ve played a game more the battle for top spot is in the Blues’ hands once again. That gap could be extended to seven points this weekend with Arsenal facing Southampton on Friday in the Premier League, while City are in FA Cup semi-final action on Saturday.

With the meeting between England’s top two sides set to follow on Wednesday, Arsenal’s trip to the Etihad is being billed as a potential title decider. But speaking ahead of the clash with Southampton, Arteta gave a worrying update on the fitness of William Saliba.

The 22-year-old has missed the last four matches with a back injury and the Arsenal manager revealed he’s unlikely to return soon. “There’s no big news, the picture hasn’t changed from last week,” he said.

“Regarding William, we still have to wait a little bit more. He’s not progressing as quickly as we hoped and it is a bit delicate so we want to be certain that when we push him, he’s ready to absorb the load and the risk that we’ll take, and that’s not possible at the moment.”

Asked if Saliba will play again this season, Arteta replied: I don’t know, it’s a bit early to know. Probably next week we’ll have more certainty. There is some evolution, he’s doing more activity but is not there yet to start to throw him into the pitch at the level the sessions demand to compete in this league.”

Saliba’s injury has only been compounded by a problem sustained by Zinchenko, meaning half of Arsenal’s first-choice back four were missing for last week’s 2-2 draw with West Ham United.

While the Ukrainian has returned to training this week, Arteta remains uncertain whether Zinchenko will be fit to face Southampton, putting his participation in next week’s clash with City into doubt. “We’ll see about that one as well, it’s not certain,” Arteta explained. “It’s a muscular injury and it needs some time to heal and we’re not there yet.”

Zinchenko is not the only former City man hoping to prevent Pep Guardiola from claiming a fifth Premier League title, and Gabriel Jesus’s recent return from injury has been a huge boost for Arsenal, with the no.9 netting four in his last three matches.

However, Jesus hasn’t played 90 minutes since coming back into the fold, and Arteta said he’s doesn’t want to overexert the Brazilian “We’ll see. We’ve been really careful,” he told reporters in Thursday’s press conference, when asked if Jesus can complete a full 90.

“There have been some issues within that period when he was doing the final stages of the rehab and we have to be really attentive. We have players that can change the game, that are fully fit, that deserve to play as well and we have to be mindful of that.”