Arteta recalls 2 fringe players to his squad for Inter Milan clash | OneFootball

Christian Norgaard and Ethan Nwaneri have returned to the travelling Arsenal squad for Tuesday’s match against Inter Milan, but three other players remain absent.

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Arsenal trained in front of the media on Monday before their flight to Italy, and only three players were missing from the session.

Piero Hincapie, Riccardo Calafiori, and Max Dowman all remain absent, but they’re the only three players left on the injury list following Cristhian Mosquera’s return to the bench on Saturday.

Mosquera’s comeback coincided with exclusions for Christian Norgaard and Ethan Nwaneri, with only so much space in the Premier League matchday squad. But Tom Canton reports that both Norgaard and Nwaneri have travelled ahead of the Inter match.

Whilst the Premier League matchday squad restrictions allow for 20 players to be named, the Champions League boosts that figure to 23, giving Mikel Arteta the option to make a couple of additions.

The choice of which players to include shouldn’t have been a particularly difficult one on this occasion.

With three extra spaces, the logical thing to do was call back Norgaard and Nwaneri and promote an academy goalkeeper, with all Champions League clubs naming three goalkeepers in their squads whenever possible.

Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Return dates for Calafiori, Hincapie, and Dowman remain uncertain, and perhaps Arteta’s pre-match press conference will provide some clues on that front.