Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta gives update on injured players in his squad which includes Florian Balogun, Oleksandr Zinchenko and their new signing Declan Rice.
After the Barcelona win, Arteta confirmed that confirmed that Declan Rice missed the match after receiving the kick during the training. Balogun and Zinchenko also missed the match and later might exit frok the Emirates this summer.
Arteta explained the situation regarding the trio :-
“Dec had quite a strong kick in training.
“We didn’t want to take the risk. He was not really comfortable to train yesterday or today.””Alex [Zinchenko] had a little muscular issue unfortunately. I think he will be back soon but it’s a shame he hasn’t been with us the whole tour.
“[Balogun] wasn’t available – he also had a little foot injury, and he hasn’t been training with us, and he wasn’t available to us, that was the reason,” the manager added. When asked about the American frontman playing a role for his team this term, Arteta said “Yes but he first needs to be fit and available to play minutes.”
Arsenal won the match 5:3, as Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Fabio Vieira find the back of the net. Meanwhile for Barca, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres scored respectively.
However, Mikel Arteta was quite happy with Trossard’s performance and said:-
“It’s great to see him score – he’s been working so hard.
“He came in a really good condition for pre-season and he’s a player that gives us something very different to the wingers that we have, and he’s got incredible versatility and predictability to play in the positions. It’s great and will be good for his confidence, that’s for sure.”
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