Arteta excited by upcoming return of duo – and praises ‘exceptional’ Arsenal star | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta says he is relishing the prospect of having both Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz available at the same time.

Havertz has been out since August with a knee injury, while Gyokeres has missed the last three games because of a muscle problem.

Despite both of his first choice strikers having been unavailable of late, Arsenal still sit top of the Premier League and have won every game in the Champions League too so far, going into the clash with Bayern Munich.

Arteta revealed earlier that Gyokeres and Havertz could return for the weekend’s game against Chelsea, with both set to undergo another assessment this week to determine when is best to welcome them back.

And Arteta spoke of his excitement about what more is to come from his team when both do return.

“Hopefully that will be soon,” Arteta said.

“That has not been the case. It has not even been the case that Kai and Victor are together in the squad so far and we are at the end of November, which is almost half of the season.

“Hopefully we are going to be in that position. I hope so.”

Mikel Merino has had to step up once again as a striker, a position he filled respectably last season too amid an injury crisis despite having played in midfield for his entire professional career up until that point.

And Arteta was full of praise for the job the Spaniard has done.

“He’s done it in the past and he played the biggest part of the season last year at the end in that position,” Arteta said.

“We take it for granted but what he’s doing it, it’s exceptional.”