Mikel Arteta has issued an update on Kai Havertz and Riccardo Calafiori ahead of our trip to Portsmouth in the FA Cup third round.
Kai is yet to feature in a match since the opening day of the season, appearing on the bench in our 4-1 win over Aston Villa last month, with Riccardo missing out since picking up an injury in the warm-up against Brighton.
Mikel is optimistic that our German attacker could be involved in the trip to the south coast. He said: "If everything goes well, I think he's going to be in the squad again in the next few days.
"He trains well, he's increased his load, he's coping with that really well and he will be ready when we can have him."
However, our game at Fratton Park won't feature our Italian defender, with Mikel adding: "I don't think so. I think that game is going to be too early for him."
[Read more
How to watch Portsmouth v Arsenal live on TV](https://www.arsenal.com/news/how-watch-portsmouth-v-arsenal-live-tv?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
It's been nearly six years since we last took on Portsmouth, beating the Championship side in the fifth round of the competition thanks to goals from Sokratis and Eddie Nketiah.
That result helped us on our way to a 14th FA Cup trophy and reflecting back on the success, Mikel is keen to add more titles to the cabinet.
He said: "We want that one for sure. That's what we are chasing. That's the purpose of this team.
"At the end, I think we have to get judged, and we get judged for what we do today. Last week is not important and we will get judged for what we are able to do at the end of the season. One thing is the trophies for our football club and the many other things that you have to do in a football club, especially in the situation we are in.
"I'm really happy where I am with the people I work with and hopefully they know that we give our very best to try to win as much as possible."
[Read more
Storey's pair of penalties pip Portsmouth in 1971](https://www.arsenal.com/news/storeys-pair-penalties-pip-portsmouth-1971?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.