Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has provided a fitness update on two key stars on Sunday.
Arsenal faced off with London rivals Chelsea in a pre-season friendly in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The Gunners came out on top on the day thanks to some well-worked goals from Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard and Albert Sambi Lokonga.
Martin Ødegaard makes it 2-0 against Chelsea! 🔥@ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/Z9eVDOzk8e
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 24, 2022
Following the game, Mikel Arteta was asked about the back-four he used vs Chelsea, which saw Oleksandr Zinchenko handed his debut and Ben White deployed at right-back.
When quizzed on how impressed he was with the aforementioned back-four, Arteta said: “At the moment Tierney and Tomiyasu are not fit, we have other options, but I think it was good to try different things, to build some relationships in big matches, and I’m happy with the way they played.”
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On Tomiyasu, he added: “Yeah, Tomi is really close to start doing some training sessions. Hopefully next week and Fabio [Vieira] probably a little bit longer.
“I think he needs another week or so before he starts with the team but he’s been working hard and he’s been really unlucky to start his Arsenal career in this way but again he’s fitting in well.”
Arteta also give his verdict on Zinchenko’s debut: “He was desperate to play and I knew that. It was a maximum 45 minutes but you could see straight away he was comfortable.
“He understands everything that I want, he understands the process and I thought he had a really good game.”
