\n<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta says that Eberechi Eze is available for Arsenal\u2019s Premier League clash with Bournemouth following a calf injury.<\/p>\n
The England international has been out since suffering the injury in Arsenal\u2019s Champions League round of 16 second leg win over Bayer Leverkusen on March 17, but returned to training on Thursday, April 9. He was initially expected to be out for at least a month, and Arteta said the midfielder\u2019s recovery surprised him \u201cin a really powerful way\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Arsenal manager had previously spoken about \u201cunderstanding\u201d Eze more when the 27-year-old hit form before this injury, and asked if he had grown a deeper understanding during this spell on the sidelines, Arteta said: \u201cOne of them, I didn\u2019t know that he was so determined, obsessed and willing to push his body.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know that part of him and he really surprised me in a really powerful way. How much he loves the game. When you take someone\u2019s opportunity to play, you really see their reaction and his was\u2026 wow.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow involved he was in and around the team, the energy that he brings everyday in the building. Then we use that time as well to identify areas that we can impact the game, get his open opinion on where he sees himself, where he\u2019s more comfortable, what he sees with the team. I think we used that time in a really good way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eze had scored four goals in the seven games he played before picking up this calf injury. He was deployed more centrally, closer to the opposition penalty box, and asked whether these were the areas identified during this spell out, Arteta said: \u201cThat\u2019s on the attacking side, but there are other areas that he didn\u2019t feel were that important, or that we discussed that he hasn\u2019t in other teams as vital and important to change games or win matches. He recognises that (now). He\u2019s such an intelligent person and it\u2019s so easy to talk to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta was less definitive over the availability of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori ahead of this weekend, but did have an update on long-term absentee Mikel Merino.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s another one that is going to push every boundary,\u201d he added. \u201cHe\u2019s out of his boot now, he\u2019s doing quite a lot of exercises already. He\u2019s reacted really well to the surgery; he\u2019s got no pain. It\u2019s more for the medical staff to go a bit further on that but I\u2019m sure there is a chance to make that period shorter. If there is a person that can do it, I\u2019m sure that\u2019s going to be Mikel again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta also reiterated his commitment to Arsenal after facing question over his future at the club, with his contract running until the end of next season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fully committed here,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m really happy and I feel good. My family is good. I still have so much ambition and things to do in this football club and for now we are in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mikel Arteta says that Eberechi Eze is available for Arsenal\u2019s Premier League clash with Bournemouth following a calf injury. The England international has been out since suffering the injury in Arsenal\u2019s Champions League round of 16 second leg win over Bayer Leverkusen on March 17, but returned to training on Thursday, April 9. He was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}