Pep Guardiola is likely to start Declan Rice for Arsenal against Chelsea on Sunday with a toe injury.
Rice was left out of Arsenal’s squad for Wednesday’s Champions League match against Inter Milan with Mikel Arteta saying that he had picked up the problem during the weekend’s defeat by Newcastle United in the Premier League.
He started in the match at St James’ Park that was played to a full 90 minutes but did not train on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, he picked (up) an injury in the match against Newcastle,”, Manager Mikel Arteta said before the game against Italy side. “He was able to finish the game but he wasn’t feeling good in the last few days so we’ll have to assess him on Thursday as to whether he is going to be fit to play for the weekend or not.”
After that test Rice who has played every match for Arsenal this season except one before Wednesday night does be in a position to take his place at Stamford Bridge on Sunday provided he has been given some rest after the weekend’s match.
His only other absence was Tottenham Hotspur in September courtesy of a suspension after being red carded against Brighton and Hove Albion.
He has also been named in the final list to lie in Lee Carsley’s temporary command as the head coach of the England side for the Nation’s League match fixtures against the Republic of Ireland and Greece.
Arsenal did have Martin Odegaard back in full training on Tuesday and the midfielder was introduced into the pitch during the latter part of the 1-0 loss to Inter.
Airs They were some important absences in the team as defenders Takehiro Tomiyasu and Riccardo Calafiori both sat out the San Siro clash due to knee problems. Calafiori has not played since he had to limp out of Arsenal’s Champions League victory over Shakhtar Donetsk on October 22 while Tomiyasu has only played one fixture this season, for six minutes.
