Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta says there is “no chance” of either Jurrien Timber or Mikel Merino playing against West Ham United in the Premier League this weekend due to injury.
The Gunners travel across London this Sunday to take on the Hammers at the London Stadium as they look to move one step closer to winning the title.
Arsenal have a relatively clean bill of health heading into the fixture, with Timber and Merino their only players currently on the treatment table. Everyone else came out of Tuesday’s win over Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals unscathed.
Arsenal duo Timber and Merino ruled out of West Ham trip
Arteta revealed, though, there is a possibility that neither player will return from injury before the end of the season.
Asked about their prospects of playing again this term, the Arsenal boss replied: “I don’t know”.
“There’s a fair bit to do. Everything has to be so smooth and quick if they want the chance to play any minutes.”
Arteta admitted Timber’s injury, which has kept him out since March, has turned out to be worse than initially anticipated.
“That’s probably been the most difficult thing to manage, with the player, with myself as well, because we didn’t expect it to take so long and at the moment he’s not fit to play.”
Arsenal have at least been able to welcome back a number of key players back from injury in recent weeks, including Bukayo Saka and Ben White.
Arteta added: “Very important, it’s great to see, to witness the quality that we had on the bench the other night [against Atletico], if you compare that to a year ago, that’s a very different picture.
“We have managed in the last week or so as well to have some players fresher, and you could sense that as well, and as I said from the beginning, that’s the most important thing. If we have that, we have a bigger chance to achieve the goal.”
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