Mikel Arteta reveals triple Arsenal injury boost ahead of Leeds showdown

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Arsenal will be able to call upon William Saliba and Jurrien Timber when they travel to Leeds on Saturday afternoon after both missed out on the 3-2 win over Kairat Almaty in midweek .

Saliba and Timber have been key cogs in the leanest defence in the Premier League , with Arsenal shipping just 17 goals this term. Both were absent on Wednesday night as the Gunners conceded twice - but Mikel Arteta has confirmed both players are back in contention to feature at Elland Road.

"Yeah, they are okay," the Spaniard said when he was quizzed on their availability on Friday. "Obviously, they have played a lot of minutes, they've been carrying a few niggles, and it was a really good opportunity for us to offload them a little bit and refresh them."

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The pressure is on Arteta's men to get back to winning ways in the league after dropping points against Nottingham Forest and Manchester United in their last two games.

Those results - a draw and defeat - means Arsenal's lead at the summit has been cut from nine points to just four, with Manchester City and Aston Villa both lurking in the background.

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The Gunners, who are chasing what would be their first league title in over 20 years, have also been boosted by the return to action of Kai Havertz. The German striker made his first start since last February in the win over Kairat, where he grabbed a goal and an assist.

Arteta confirmed that the former Chelsea man had come through that unscathed and is also in contention for Saturday, saying: "Yeah, he's ready, obviously he started the game, obviously it's been a long period and now we need to manage that load and the games that we're going to select for him to start.

"But there was no reaction to that, I think it was super positive, you could see straight away the impact that he can have in the team, so yeah, he's ready."