Mikel Arteta provided updates on a quartet of Gunners at his pre-Chelsea press conference on Friday afternoon.

Speaking at the Sobha Realty Training Centre, he shared the latest injury news relating to Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino.

On whether Declan – who missed Wednesday’s game at Inter Milan – could play against the Blues at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, Mikel said: “I have to be very vague about that because there is no clarity on whether he will be fit for the weekend . .”

“(If he has a broken finger it’s) for the doctor, what I can say is he hasn’t trained yet and it’s not clear whether or not he will be available to play.”

One positive to take from this week’s UEFA Champions League action was the emergence of Martin Odegaard, who came on as a late substitute in our game in Italy.

“Everyone in the squad will be fit and available to start the game, so then it will be a decision if it’s too early or the right time for him to take that step again,” Mikel explained of his involvement Martin’s against Chelsea.

Finally, our manager was also asked how Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino are doing after both came off against Inter.

“We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how he reacts,” he said. “Kai had a pretty bad cut and couldn’t continue. With Mikel, to be fair the day before, he wasn’t feeling great and we decided to rest him.”