Arsenal begin their Premier League title defence tonight against newly-promoted Coventry City at the Emirates Stadium, with manager Mikel Arteta missing half his first-choice defence.
William Saliba is likely to miss the opening months of the campaign as he continues to recover from a back injury. Jurrien Timber has yet to return to first-team training and is not expected to do so for another couple of weeks. The Netherlands international has not started a game since March, with his only appearance since then coming off the bench in the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain.
Guimaraes fitness doubt
Arteta made two summer additions to his squad: Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle United and Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge. Guimaraes started in the Community Shield victory over Manchester City on Sunday but was replaced at half-time, later seen wearing an icepack on his leg. Arteta revealed in his press conference on Friday that his midfielder will be assessed ahead of kick-off.
Tzolis, who provided two assists in the 3-0 win over City, will be hopeful of keeping his place in the side.
Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka returned to training at the start of last week along with Martin Zubimendi following their post-World Cup breaks. Both carried knocks into the competition, with Saka dealing with an Achilles problem and Rice a neural hamstring issue. Both have benefited from the summer lay-off, starting on the bench in Cardiff last weekend before coming off the bench in the second-half.
Predicted Arsenal XI
Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera are expected to deputise in place of Timber and Saliba again. Ezri Konsa’s imminent arrival will offer another option in both roles, but the finishing touches are still being applied to that £51million deal.
Myles Lewis-Skelly started in midfield against City, and any doubts over Guimaraes’ fitness could see him handed another start the day after Arteta declared he is ‘100 per cent’ staying at the club.
Arsenal have an otherwise clean bill of health.
Match details
Arsenal vs Coventry kicks off tonight (Friday 21 August) at 8pm BST. The match is live on Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event, with streaming available through the Sky Go app and NOW TV for subscribers.
