Arteta unclear on Rice's availability for Chelsea clash, but positive on Odegaard

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Mikel Arteta says he’s not sure if Declan Rice will be available for Arsenal’s visit to Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

The midfielder missed the game against Inter Milan in midweek due to a ‘foot problem’, which was later reported to be a broken toe. As you’d expect, the Arsenal boss wasn’t particularly forthcoming on the nature of the injury, saying that was a conversation for the doctors, but he did reveal Rice hasn’t yet trained since the loss at Newcastle last weekend.

“I have to be very vague on that one because there’s no clarity whether he’s going to be fit or not for the weekend,” he said.

“What I can say is that he hasn’t trained yet and it’s not clear whether he’s going to be available or not to play.”

The manager was also asked about the chances of Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino making the game. The former went off with a head injury, with the latter taken off at half-time, with Arteta saying, “Kai had quite a nasty cut and he could not continue, we had to take him off.

“With Mikel, since the day before, to be fair, he wasn’t feeling great and we decided to stop him at half-time.”

The game in Italy saw the return of skipper Martin Odegaard, and the Norwegian could be in line for his first start since August, as the Gunners look to shake off a poor run of results.

Speaking about his chances of doing that, Arteta said, “Everybody that is in the squad is going to be fit and available to start the game.

“So then it will be a decision whether it’s too early or it’s the right moment for him to make that step again.”

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