Arteta Confirms Bug In The Camp After Crucial Brentford Win

By The Editor
on 2nd January 2025

Arteta confirms Gunners won in a difficult context…

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta confirmed that a number of players were suffering from a sickness bug during our important win against Brentford, he told the press.

A controlled 3-1 win – needing us to come from behind – sees us close the gap at the top of the Premier League to six points ahead of a busy month of fixtures.

Kai Havertz wasn’t able to shake off the illness to make the matchday squad, though Arteta said players involved at the Gtech Stadium were also showing symptoms.

The likes of Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard and Myles Lewis-Skelly were relegated to the bench despite their strong performances in recent weeks and could’ve been among the players the Spaniard was referring to.

Given Brentford’s record at home this season – they trail only Liverpool in points accumulated on their patch – the victory under those circumstances is very impressive by Arteta’s men.

“Yes, on the pitch and off the pitch as well,” Arteta said when asked which players were struggling with a bug.

“But these things happen, I mean, in this period there’s always things; throat infections, viruses, so I tried to delay the line-up as well as far as possible because you can get up in the morning and have a surprise unfortunately.

“Yes, I hope so, you know, it’s nothing serious but they weren’t in the ideal condition to play today,” the 42-year-old said when asked if the players are available for the Brighton game.

Arteta often said that the goal for this season was for the team to “win in any context” after falling short on two previous occasions to win the title.

That theory has been tested to the maximum this campaign as the likes of Martin Odegaard, Ben White and Bukayo Saka miss big chunks of the season.

A team full of sick players was added to the list of problems facing Arteta this term and the Spaniard will be delighted to have overcome that and maintain our unbeaten run.