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Five Arsenal players absent from training pictures despite double injury boost

Arsenal are back in Premier League action on Saturday when they host Newcastle United at the Emirates Stadium

16:52, 24 Apr 2026

Mikel Arteta

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Mikel Arteta is looking to fire Arsenal to the top of the Premier League table

Arsenal have released their training picture gallery ahead of Saturday's clash with Newcastle and there are a number of notable absentees.

As always, if a player is missing from training photos, it does not necessarily mean they did not train or that they are injured.

Mikel Arteta confirmed on Friday that Bukayo Saka and Riccardo Calafiori are back in contention after shaking off recent fitness issues.

But interestingly, neither Saka nor Calafiori were pictured in training on the club's website and Jurrien Timber, who will miss the match, was unsurprisingly also absent.

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Piero Hincapie was not visible in training pictures either and Kepa Arrizabalaga wasn't spotted but that isn't uncommon (David Raya was included) as he is a goalkeeper and they usually train away from the main group.

Arteta said during his press conference that there were no new fitness issues following last Sunday's 2-1 defeat at Manchester City.

We will have to wait until tomorrow's game to understand whether that truly is the case.

Captain Martin Odegaard did train though, indicating he came through his start at the Etihad Stadium following a recent knee injury setback.

Arsenal training

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Arsenal were pictured in training ahead of facing Newcastle

Key midfielders Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi were also there, as were strikers Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz.

Raya, Myles Lewis-Skelly, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera, Christian Norgaard, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Max Dowman, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard were among those present too.

When asked if Arsenal now have to be perfect until the end of the season to stand a chance of winning the Premier League title, Arteta said: "I don't know. It's five games to go, four weeks, two big competitions to play for and everything to play for.

"If someone had told us that at the beginning of the season, we would have taken it. We are so excited, and tomorrow is game one."

This weekend's opponents, Newcastle, currently sit 14th in the table following a tough campaign under Eddie Howe but Arteta is not willing to underestimate them, explaining: "We know the difficulty of the league. Very clear, the ability and the quality of Newcastle, what Eddie’s done with that team and continues to do, we know how tough the opponent is going to be tomorrow. We have to be at our best. If we do that, we're going to have a big chance to win."

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