As usual, Mikel Arteta wasn’t giving much away on the team news front, especially with more than 48 hours still to go before Arsenal’s fourth meeting with Chelsea this season.
“Not so far,” said Arteta when asked on Friday whether he has any new injury concerns.
“We’re waiting for tomorrow and the last training session to understand if we’ll have one or two available from last week.”
The manager teased a return for Kai Havertz ahead of last weekend’s north London derby, but it sounds like the German is only now edging back towards full training after his hamstring strain. He pulled up after the win against Sunderland on 7 February and was expected to miss about a month, so whether he’s genuinely in contention still feels a bit of a stretch.
Ben White, absent from the squad that faced Sp*rs, is another doubt. His fitness has been carefully managed all season and it appears he’s still carrying something.
“Kai will train tomorrow,” said Arteta. “And Ben, let’s see.”
There is better news elsewhere. Max Dowman, out since early December with ankle ligament damage, is due to feature for the under-21s this evening when they take on Ipswich at Meadow Park. If he comes through without any issues, a first-team return might not be far away, with next week’s FA Cup trip to Mansfield Town a possible target.
With Manchester City playing Leeds on Saturday evening, Arsenal’s lead at the top could be trimmed to two points by the time we kick off on Sunday.
Chelsea will still present a challenge, even if they’ve let points slip in their last two, drawing with Leeds and Burnley from winning positions. We knocked them out of the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage earlier this month, so you can be sure a bit of revenge will be on their minds.
At the same time, Arsenal’s recent record against the Blues is impressive, seven wins and three draws in the last 10. The boss was asked whether his side now have a psychological edge over their west London neighbours and whether that might be useful on Sunday.
“No, I think what is [important] is the preparation and the preparation gives you confidence and the right emotional state to get to the game with the belief and the conviction that you’re going to win it.
“And after that you have to have the right to do it.”
Asked whether he learned anything from the recent meetings with Chelsea and if Liam Rosenior might try something different, he added:
“We don’t know, I mean they’ve done different things, they can change throughout the game. They have the players and they have a manager that is very comfortable doing that.
“We are prepared, we are going to be prepared in the possible scenarios that we can face throughout the game and try to be better than them.”
Sunday’s game will be the first of seven in March across four competitions. While Arteta played down talk of the next four weeks being decisive, he knows his side are entering an important stretch.
“I don’t think March will [define the season], but I think it will be very important for what is going to be happening in April and May, that’s for sure. Because there are competitions and knockout stages and then you are in or you are out.”
In short, not a huge amount of clarity on the team news, but plenty riding on what comes next. With the fixtures piling up and the stakes rising, this feels like the point where good weeks start to matter a lot more than good days.