Arteta confirms double Arsenal blow for Fulham clash

Arteta confirms double Arsenal blow for Fulham clash

Mikel Arteta confirmed that both Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber will both miss this weekend’s Premier League clash between Arsenal and Fulham.

Havertz suffered what appeared to be a groin injury in the first half of last week’s 1-0 win over Newcastle United, while Timber has been sidelined by a similar problem since mid-March.

Neither player has recovered in time to face Fulham at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, although Arteta did say he expects captain Martin Odegaard to be available.

Arteta confirms double injury blow for Arsenal vs Fulham

“Kai and Jurrien are out,” the Arsenal head coach said in his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon.

“Let’s see how everyone is tomorrow morning, obviously we haven’t been able to train much but tomorrow we will have the final update.”

Havertz’ campaign has been dogged by injury, missing six months after hurting his knee on the opening day of the season against Manchester United. He has only made nine appearances in the Premier League this term.

“It’s been a huge miss,” Arteta added. “We are talking about one of the most important attacking players that we have and he has been out for seven or eight months [in total] and he hasn’t been the only one, unfortunately, regarding players that we have missed through injury.