Arsenal: Mikel Arteta confident over major fitness boost for Brighton trip in sickness bug update | OneFootball

Gunners hit back to beat Brentford despite illness in camp that saw Kai Havertz sidelined

Mikel Arteta is hopeful that Kai Havertz will be fit for Arsenal’s trip to Brighton on Saturday.

The German was left out of the squad entirely for the game at the Gtech Community Stadium, which Arsenal won 3-1 to go second in the Premier League.

The Gunners are next in action on Saturday, when they travel to Brighton, and asked if Havertz will be back for that match, Arsenal boss Arteta said: “I think so, yeah.

“Hopefully he will recover very quickly. With Kai it was obvious [that he could not play against Brentford]. He wasn’t feeling well at all and he had very clear symptoms. So stay away from it, put him in a car, and go back to London.

“These things happen. In this period, there are always things - throat, infections, viruses. So I try to delay the lineup as well, as far as possible, because you can get up in the morning and you can have a surprise unfortunately.”

Arsenal did not let the sickness bug in camp disrupt them too much, though, as they ran out convincing winners at Brentford.

Bryan Mbeumo put the Bees ahead inside 15 minutes, but the Gunners levelled before the break thanks to Gabriel Jesus.

Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli then struck early in the second half as Arsenal won to close the gap on league leaders Liverpool to six points.

“We won in a difficult stadium, against a good opponent,” said Arteta. “The record they have here is incredible and when you go 1-0 down it makes it even harder.

“We had to navigate through some difficult moments. We started really fast and aggressive and again adapting. We had some injuries and sickness and we had to play some different players.

“I really like my players and I believe in what we have as there's a lot of quality and commitment.”