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Arsenal face Everton in North London in their latest Premier League clash
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has admitted that Riccardo Calafiori is not quite ready to return to action as the Gunners prepare to host Everton at the Emirates Stadium at 3pm on Saturday afternoon.
The North London side are six points behind Liverpool - who face Fulham at the same time on Saturday - in the title race. Arsenal could be bolstered by the return of Gabriel but a late call will be made on the defender. He has missed the last three games with a muscle problem. Speaking about the injured defensive pair, the Arsenal boss said: “There is a possibility with one of them to be available. He trained today and we will see tomorrow”.
Pressed on if it was Gabriel who could feature Arteta conceded he was referring to the Brazilian as the defender who trained. On Calafiori he continued: “We are just respecting the times that the medical department has set and then we just monitor his evolution every single day. And we understand that he is not fully ready yet, but he is getting very close now.”
Looking ahead to the challenge posed by Everton - who won their last league outing 4-0 against Wolves and had their Merseyside derby with Liverpool last weekend postponed - Arteta added: “They haven’t lost the rules and that fighting spirit, togetherness and love for the club in regards to whatever happens - they are there. That’s not easy and that makes them really special. Hopefully that will help them, and give them stability. The project with the new stadium looks unbelievable as well, so there's a lot to be excited about.
“As we all know, the club has been through very different stages through its history and recently they’ve had a very tough one, but I love the way they get together, go through their storms and the way they face it is a great example. Again, what Sean [Dyche], the coaching staff and players have done in recent years with all the instability around the club, hopefully they can try to be apart from that now with the new stadium, with new ownership as well and keep going and start to have more enjoyable times.”
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