In the 1-2 loss of Arsenal against Liverpool in Philadelphia (USA) on July 31, the duo of Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori sat out to watch their teammates play. They were not even included in the list of players to be registered by coach Mikel Arteta. After that, the defensive duo did not appear in the list for the 4-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen.
After the dominant win over the reigning Bundesliga champion, in the press conference, Arteta received many questions related to Timber, most of which were about the injury situation of the Dutch star.
“With Timber, he has been feeling uncomfortable in his leg for a few days now. After a long period of absence last season, we do not want to risk further with our star anymore” - Arteta shared.
Last season, when he had just arrived at Emirates, Jurrien Timber suffered an ACL injury in the opening Premier League match of the season and was absent from the pitch for 9 months. By the end of the Premier League 2023-2024 season, Timber had returned to the Arsenal team and played on the Emirates pitch against Everton. In that match, Timber played only 21 minutes and then played in the two recent friendly matches in the US.
In the meantime, Calafiori was also asked by Arteta when he did not see the Italian star appear.
“With Calafiori's case, there have been many things happening in the first week of his time here. Calafiori has come to a new football environment with completely different training methods. We are having a special training program for Calafiori.
The coaching staff wants to do this slowly so that he can play at his best. Hopefully, Calafiori will play a few minutes on Sunday” - Arteta shared before Arsenal hosted Lyon in the Emirates Cup.
In addition to Timber and Calafiori, Arsenal has just welcomed the return of a number of key players who were absent for a long time after the EURO 2024, including William Saliba, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, and David Raya. Raya played the full 90 minutes in the win over Leverkusen, while the other three players each played 45 minutes.
“The new season will start in just 9-10 days, so the players must be in a state of readiness. Whether they play or not, how many minutes they play is the requirement of the coaching staff for them.
When the players need care or rest, we will try to create conditions for them. Before EURO 2024, some players were on vacation and after the tournament, they also had the necessary time off” - Arteta shared.
This is the second time Arteta has welcomed Arsenal players back after a EURO. The first time was in 2021 with EURO 2020. Last season, Bukayo Saka played in all 38 Premier League matches for Arsenal but was substituted in the first two matches.
Arsenal will continue to play this week with a match against Lyon at home Emirates on Sunday. Then, The Gunners will kick off their Premier League campaign also at Emirates against Wolves on August 17.
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