Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Thomas Partey is ready to return against Crystal Palace on Thursday, while Gabriel Magalhaes could also be back for the London derby. Arteta stated in his pre-match press conference that Partey has been in full training for nearly a week after missing over a month due to a thigh injury. Arsenal manager also spoke about his team’s impressive form & increasing cases of Covid – 19 across all football clubs.
Mikel Arteta said “Yes, there’s a lot of games coming up now, some important ones as well. We need to get our home form established, we’ve had some issues there and now it’s time to get some wins. We’ve got two at home right now that are going to be key for the future of our season in the Premier League and the team is in great spirits. Obviously, after four wins everything looks better and we’re looking forward to the games. Well, we don’t know how bad it is (Martinelli’s ankle). He’s getting a scan this morning. We didn’t look after the game because he was in a lot of pain. But yesterday he tested a little bit better. So let’s hope, we have a scan today, that it’s not serious and we can have him back soon. But we will know more tomorrow certainly. Well, Gabi he had a training session the other day. He tested positive. He had very mild symptoms so he’s missed a few weeks of training because he had to be isolated. It’s better now, we expect him to be training with us and couple of days and we will make an assessment whether we can have him or not on Thursday. And Thomas now he’s been in full training for four or five days, he’s completely asymptomatic. It was a little bit rushed to try and play him for Newcastle but I think he will be ready for Thursday. Morally, with the situation we have in the county, with the situation we have worldwide, to keep doing what we are doing is a little bit of a strange feeling. But we know as well what we can bring to society if we are able to do it in a safe way, then there are a lot of positives to take. It’s just that balance. When this starts to get damaging and worrying and it starts to exploit people. And when we can do it and it’s still safe and we can add something positive to this difficult context.”
