Arsenal star ‘absolutely struggling’ as Arteta reveals pre-Man City injury updates on three players | OneFootball

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has commented on whether three important players will be fit for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final vs Manchester City.

The Gunners took a step closer to winning the Premier League by beating Everton 2-0 at the weekend, with Man City strengthening their position further by dropping points in a 1-1 draw against West Ham.

This week, Arteta‘s side switches their attention to cup competitions, facing Bayer Leverkusen in the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie before they battle Man City at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final.

Arsenal will hope that the Carabao Cup is the first of at least two trophies they win this season and several injured players could return in time for Sunday’s match.

Speaking on Monday, Arteta revealed that Leandro Trossard is “okay” and “available” to feature in each of this week’s games, though he was less sure about Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber.

“We’re really pushing [to make Odegaard fit for the Carabao Cup final],” Arteta said in his press conference on Monday.

“He really wants to try to be available, but we’ll have to wait and see in the next few days when he trains with the team how he feels.

“We know the game that we’re going to be playing in a few days again, and the more players that we have the better.”

On whether Jurrien Timber will be available, Arteta added: “We don’t know, I think with him it will be a matter of days, but not sure.”

In recent weeks, Arsenal have won games without playing at their best and Bukayo Saka is among their players who have been out of form.

Former Liverpool star Steve Nicol has picked out Saka as an Arsenal player who has been “absolutely struggling”.

“Arsenal’s front-three today… I mean again Bukayo Saka is struggling, he’s absolutely struggling for form,” Nicol said on ESPN.

Another forward Liverpool star, Don Hutchison, has mentioned two potential factors behind Saka’s current form.

“Mikel Arteta said he had a gut feeling about Max Dowman and he’s basically saying he’s coached the life out of Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke and this kid hasn’t had any coaching yet so he just went out there and played,” Hutchinson said.

“Just on Bukayo Saka, he’s been out of form and this kid at 24 has played over 300 games.

“So you just start to wonder, with a few injuries along the way, is he feeling a little bit shattered or is it over-coaching because Max Dowman came on and just lit up the place, he was magnificent.”