Declan Rice missed out on Arsenal's win over Aston Villa with a knee injury
Declan Rice missed out on Arsenal's win over Aston Villa with a knee injury
Declan Rice faces a race against time to be back for match against Bournemouth after missing the Gunners' win against Aston Villa but manager hasn't ruled him out. The boss was less optimistic about some other stars, but Rice could yet return.
"No, obviously we haven't trained yet, so today's going to be the first training session," Arteta said on Friday. "Probably with the players that obviously started against Villa, so we'll know more this afternoon.
When asked about Rice, Arteta said: "Well, not yet, and we have another session today. Let's see how he comes today and how that's feeling, but it was too early that game for him. Neither Riccardo Calafiori or Cristhian Mosquera will be available, though, with Arteta confirming the pair are still missing.
Arteta had been non-committal about the prospect of Rice returning to face this weekend after he'd missed the win over several days ago. The midfielder was ruled out late in the day, prompting concerns over his absence.
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He has been dealing with a knee injury, which he sustain during the win over recently, although he was able to play the full 90 minutes. Arteta had stated that the swelling needed to go down for him to have a chance of returning.
The Spanish head coach said after beating Villa: "It depends. The swelling has to come right down for him to have the chance to function. He wasn't able to do that today yet. He's improving but let's see what happens in the next couple of days."
Despite Rice missing out in midweek, didn't miss a beat against Villa. Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi partnered up together in the middle of the pitch to help Arsenal extend their lead at the top, with the latter scoring his side's second after being put through by Martin Odegaard.
They've since seen drop points at after the Black Cats kept them goalless. It means they've extended their lead at the summit over Pep Guardiola's men to four points, whilst they've now opened up a six point gap to Villa.
Arsenal will head to Bournemouth on Saturday evening - 24 hours before City host . It means by the time the side from Manchester take to the pitch they could be seven points behind the league leaders.
There will be more to follow on this breaking news story and will bring you the very latest updates, pictures and video as soon as possible.
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