Champions League: Arsenal v Monaco, Wednesday, 8.0 – Live Virgin Media Two & TNT Sports 1
Kieran Tierney is set to feature for Arsenal for the first time in more than 16 months after Mikel Arteta revealed he expected to be without several key defenders for Wednesday night’s Champions League meeting with Monaco.
Thomas Partey, Jurrien Timber, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Magalhães did not train with the rest of the squad on Tuesday and Arteta said “some of them probably aren’t going to be fit” to face the French side, who have an identical record of 10 points from five fixtures.
Tierney, who returned to the squad last month after a hamstring injury sustained playing for Scotland at Euro 2024, is in line to play some part, having made his most recent appearance for the club at the Community Shield in August 2023 before going on loan last season to Real Sociedad.
“He is ready, he’s training really well and he’s going to have an opportunity for sure,” Arteta said of Tierney. “He’s earned it. The way he’s behaved, the way he’s been with us because he’s willing to do it and when that happens, you have to give those opportunities to players.”
Asked whether he was frustrated there was no chance for his squad to recover given the incessant schedule, Arteta said: “You can see it as well in the league. Certain players that are coming back from injury and getting injured again.
“They are under a lot of demands at the moment and unless you are out of a cup or something then I don’t see many breaks. We want to win every competition and hopefully we will have that chance and we still have the ability to maintain the level that we want.”
Martin Odegaard missed 12 matches this season before returning in the Champions League defeat against Inter Milan last month. The Arsenal captain became a father for the first time last week and said he was thriving in his more mature role.
“We have quite a young squad and at the moment I feel like I’m one of the more experienced older guys and that is something new to me but something that I enjoy,” he said.
“I feel like I’ve been through a lot and gained a lot of experience on the way and now I’m just trying to use that in the best possible way to everyone around me. We have a lot of leaders and we are all trying to help each other get better every day.”
Arteta’s side fell at the quarter-final stage in the Champions League last season after they came unstuck against Bayern Munich, but Odegaard believes they are ready to go all the way and deliver their first ever Champions League title.
“That’s the feeling in the squad,” he continued. “Everyone believes so much in what we are doing. We have confidence in everything we do as a team.
“Last year we learned a few good lessons. We wanted to go all the way [in the Champions League] and we didn’t so we had to take those lessons and make sure we got better.
“If you look at the last game [against Sporting] it was a really tough fixture away from home and we did amazingly.
“That is a sign of improvement. We believe in what we do and hopefully this can be the year.” – Guardian
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