Arsenal injury news for West Ham with Gabriel worry as Mikel Arteta issues double update

Mikel Arteta was required to provide fitness updates on three Arsenal players after their 2-0 Champions League victory over Olympiacos. Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka were both on target with the Gunners one of six teams to have a 100 per cent winning record thus far.

The only potential negative coming out of the European clash came regarding Gabriel Magalhaes as he was substituted after receiving treatment from physios.

"I think he's going to be okay," the Arsenal boss admitted. "He felt something, I think it was a kick, I'm not sure, in the first half, and he was a bit uncomfortable, and towards the second half he was there.

"He could carry on, but we decided not to take any, really, because he's played a lot of games, he comes from a long-term injury as well, and we need to look after him."

The hope will be that he is able to feature against West Ham United this weekend, but Arteta is more than happy to call on Cristhian Mosquera if needed, as evidenced by his decision to rest William Saliba for a few games.

Elsewhere, Piero Hincapie is still out with a groin injury and is expected to remain unavailable until after the October international break. Noni Madueke has missed the last three games, with Arteta's latest update suggesting he could even be absent until after the November international break.

"He hasn't had a [second] scan yet so he needs to wait a little bit more still with the brace and everything," he admitted at a press conference on Tuesday.

"So he's still in a stage where everything is super protective and once he comes out of that and has the scan we'll have more clarity about it."

Having undergone surgery for very different knee problems, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are continuing their respective recoveries at London Colney.

After experiencing a number of injuries to key players last season, Arteta has opted to rest some of those bigger names more frequently. The latest decision based on that saw Saka and Declan Rice only play 17 and 32 minutes, respectively.

When asked about protecting that duo with sufficient squad depth available, Arteta said: "Yes, especially with Bukayo because he comes from a long-term injury. He played 45, 60, 70 minutes in a really short period, and today it was more risky. So we decided to keep him.

"And with Declan, because he had some incredible outputs three days ago. He's played so many games. He's going to have to play so many games as well. And it's great to have someone like Mikel [Merino] come in and perform really well. We need a different profile, like him, on the pitch."

Story Saved

You can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.