Arsenal have been plagued by injuries this season with key players like Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka missing a number of games.

Takehiro Tomiyasu, Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz are all currently on the sidelines and in truth the injuries have heavily impacted the Gunners’ results. Mikel Arteta’s side find themselves 13 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, who have remained fairly fortunate on the injury front themselves.

After Havertz was ruled out for the season after sustaining a hamstring injury during the warm-weather training camp in Dubai, Arteta opened up about the sheer number of injuries impacting his squad. “We were having a great Dubai camp and then the injury happened in an unexpected way and it’s a big blow because of the injuries we have,” Arteta said last month.

“We’ve had players who are injured who’ve played 130 games in the last two seasons, so it’s an accident waiting to happen when you continue to load, load and load. The intensity is at a different level and the demands in terms of minutes in this competitive environment is getting higher and higher and it’s a consequence of that. The amount of muscle and tendon injuries is higher than ever so there’s a relationship.

“We’re very limited and we’re training less than ever. There’s no time for training. The biggest problem is that you don’t train the muscle, the muscle is undertrained and then you expose the muscle and the tendon to an exposure that it can’t absorb because the tendon has 72 hours to recover.”

The likes of White and Riccardo Calafiori have recently come back from injury but Arsenal still remain relatively light in the forward areas. This may change over the coming weeks, though, with Martinelli and Saka hopefully available for selection.

Saka has been missing since December while Martinelli has been out since the League Cup loss to Newcastle last month, with the duo both nursing hamstring injuries. Arteta was asked about the pair after the draw with Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.

Asked if they may be available for selection for the game after the international break – a Premier League clash at Emirates Stadium against Fulham on April 1 – Arteta said: “I think so [that is more realistic], but again, let’s see how they evolve in the next few weeks to make the right steps as well. And then after that, they’ve been out for a long, long time, so we’re going to have to integrate them as well, probably gradually. So they’re evolving well, but they’re still a bit far.”

Does that mean Arteta is not keen on rushing both Martinelli and Saka back? “No, we have a meeting tomorrow [Thursday] to discuss where they are, especially Gabi,” the Arsenal boss said. “That has probably a chance before Bukayo to come in, but how soon that is, we’ll have to see how it goes in the next week or ten days.”

Everyone associated with Arsenal will be hoping both Saka and Martinelli will be available for selection for the last seven or so weeks of the season. Tomiyasu, Jesus and Havertz, meanwhile, are not expected to return to fitness until next season.

Dream Arsenal starting line-up with fully fit squad: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Partey, Rice, Odegaard; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.