Mikel Arteta has shared that Arsenal decided ‘not to risk’ Declan Rice during their 5-3 over Barcelona after he got a ‘strong kick’ in training.
The Arsenal boss also added that left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko will be ‘back soon’ and ‘it’s a shame’ that he hasn’t been able to be a part of the club’s pre-season tour of America, as he told Football London.
That is a blow to the former Manchester City man because that lack of preparation isn’t going to help, with Declan Rice hoping to be back on the pitch soon as he watched his team from the sidelines yesterday.
The Gunners continued their positive pre-season tour of America by beating Barcelona 5-3 – but Xavi wasn’t too happy with the approach from the Premier League side and he shared what he told Arteta.
It doesn’t help that the London club have been in pre-season for a number of weeks, whilst the La Liga champions were playing their first game.
Nonetheless, this was the update Arteta provided on the injuries to Rice and Zinchenko after their win over Barcelona.
“Dec had quite a strong kick in training so we didn’t want to take the risk,” said Arteta. “He wasn’t really comfortable training yesterday and we decided not to train.
“Alex had a little muscular issue, unfortunately. I think he will be back soon but it’s a shame he hasn’t been with us the whole tour.”
Arsenal next season
Arsenal’s Premier League title charge has started and they will be hoping they have learnt from their troubles of last season.
The final few weeks of last season hurt them badly and they need to either get it out of their system or use it to take their game to the next level ahead of the forthcoming campaign.
Either way, with new faces in, things going well in pre-season and very few injury concerns, if Arsenal start the season well, then they will be backing themselves to push for the title again, but this time, get over that dotted line.
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