Arsenal will be desperate to avoid players suffering long layoffs this season through injury, and they have already taken significant action to leave no stone unturned by overhauling their medical department.
Specifically, Eneko Angulo has been appointed after leaving his role at Real Betis as head of rehabilitation, and Arnaldo Arbantes will be the club’s head doctor following his exit from Aston Villa. The latter represented Portugal at the 2008 Olympics as a sprinter.
Heading into the new campaign, their injury list is manageable and two key players _“are ready to be involved”_ against Coventry City, according to Mikel Arteta.
Bukayo Saka, who has been attempting to fully shake off an Achilles issue, played 30 minutes against Manchester City during the Community Shield victory in Cardiff.
It was hoped at one stage earlier this summer that Declan Rice would miss a small chunk of the start of the season as a precautionary measure to ensure he was properly recovered from the persistent neural pain in his hamstring.
After playing 69 games last term for club and country, Arsenal’s lynchpin is ready to feature in their curtain-raiser against Premier League newcomers Coventry City, with the Gunners next playing Aston Villa ten days later.
Jurrien Timber is making steady progress with the groin issue that forced him to miss out on representing the Netherlands at the World Cup, despite returning in Arsenal’s Champions League final defeat.
Arteta broke the news that his right-back is yet to return to team training and gave an estimation on his rehabilitation timeline to be _“in the next few weeks.”_
New signing Bruno Guimaraes was replaced at half-time by Declan Rice in Arsenal’s 3-0 victory in the Community Shield with a knock, and his Premier League debut for the champions may have to wait another week.
Arteta said: _“Let’s see. It’s evolving well, but let’s see.”_
Arteta stressed the importance of cutting down on injuries and the lessons the club has taken moving into their title defence.
_“We need to have much better availability in the squad than we had last year for long periods of the season to be able to have those margins become bigger._
_“We'll learn again from the past, especially last year, when we went through some difficulties, especially when we had two or three injuries in the same area of the pitch. So, the deeper squad that we have, the better. We have to manage that.”_
William Saliba remains the only long-term absentee in Arteta’s ranks as the Frenchman continues to nurse a back injury he aggravated in the World Cup semi-final against Spain.
Alluding to the imminent arrival of Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa to bulk out his defensive options, Arteta said: _“We are really active in the market. The ambition is to improve the squad._
_“Obviously, we have a really specific issue in the back, especially with the long-term injury of Willy (Saliba) and the fact that we missed one more defender; that's clear. So, we are trying to reinforce that area. Whenever we're ready, we'll announce something.”_