Arsenal’s first team players posed for their official 2026/27 squad photo but eagle-eyed supporters quickly spotted one notable absentee.
Flanked by the Premier League trophy and Community Shield, Mikel Arteta wore a beaming smile, surrounded by the players who will hope to propel the club to further glory in the months ahead.
Summer recruits Ezri Konsa, Christos Tzolis, Ilan Meslier and Bruno Guimaraes lined up alongside some more familiar names, while the presence of teenagers Marli Salmon and Max Dowman confirmed theirs statuses as fully-fledged members of Arteta’s plans this term.
Arsenal have made a flying start to the season with defeat at Brighton the only block on their domestic and European copybook thus far.
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Last night’s 2-0 win over Lille maintained their 100% start in the Champions League and their near flawless record overall has come despite William Saliba’s injury.
The France international sustained a serious back injury during a World Cup semi-final defeat against Spain and has only just began training on grass again.
Mikel Arteta gave a cautiously optimistic update on the former Saint Etienne defender ahead of last week’s 2-1 win against Leeds United but his return the starting XI is unlikely to be rushed given the current options available.
Still, it came as some surprise to many that Saliba wasn’t pictured alongside his teammates on Wednesday but Arsenal moved quickly to clear up any confusion.
‘Due to a medical appointment, William Saliba was not available this afternoon,’ read a brief statement.
Arteta has several other injury concerns ahead of Saturday’s trip to the City Ground where his side will take on Nottingham Forest.
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Martin Zubimendi and Piero Hincapie both sustained knocks during the warm down that followed the victory over Leeds United and the Arsenal boss gave an update on both players last night.
He said: ‘Zubi is much, much better. Piero is improving, but it looks more significant – I think it will be a matter of weeks, but we don’t know exactly how many.
‘We have to see with Zubi how he deals with the pain on the pitch and the feelings he will face.’