Mikel Arteta confident ‘world-class’ Arsenal star will be back v Brentford

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has played down concerns involving Gunners duo Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.

The Arsenal boss spoke to the club’s media team on Thursday, two days before the Gunners are due to face Brentford in the Premier League.

Arteta says he’s “pretty positive” that both Saka and Martinelli would be available for the game. However, he admitted Arsenal would have to wait and see.

Saka came off at half-time in the win over Sheffield United due to illness, while his fellow attacking ace was replaced in the second half due to a cut on his foot.

“We had Martinelli and Bukayo with little issues,” Arteta told the Arsenal media team at his pre-match presser.

“We are pretty positive that hopefully they can be part of that but we’ll have to wait and see how they are tomorrow.”

Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are key for Arsenal

Admittedly, Saka and Martinelli weren’t spotted in any of the photos the Arsenal media team published from their latest London Colney session on Thursday.

Football.london picked up on this. They noted that, in their place, Leandro Trossard and Emile Smith Rowe were in training with Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira, all of whom have played out wide.

Hopefully there’s not too much to read into this. Arteta did specify that the Arsenal staff would see how Saka and Martinelli are on Friday.

Saka has been labelled ‘world-class‘ and Martinelli is “one of the best players and one of the most dangerous“.

Therefore, let’s hope they’re both available ahead of two crucial games, against Brentford and then the Champions League last-16 second leg against Porto.

Arsenal are currently third in the Premier League table, two points off top spot. In the Champions League, they currently trail the Portuguese giants 1-0 from the first leg.