The Gunners’ frustrating start to the season came against the backdrop of constant fitness woes, with Mikel Arteta’s side going four Premier League matches without a win to drop to fourth and nine points adrift of early leaders Liverpool before the November international break.
However, serious Ben White setback aside, things were looking much brighter for Saturday’s visit of Nottingham Forest as Arteta made five changes from the draw at Chelsea, with Bukayo Saka, Riccardo Calafiori and Leandro Trossard all passed fit to start after knocks, captain Martin Odegaard making an impressive second start after his ankle injury and Declan Rice fit enough to be on the bench.
Arsenal looked to get through their dominant 3-0 win over Forest without any further setbacks, with Jorginho’s half-time substitution seeming to be caused by his yellow card rather than any fitness blow.
The key fixtures come thick and fast now for the Gunners, with Sporting Lisbon up next in the Champions League on Tuesday night ahead of games against West Ham, Manchester United, Fulham, Monaco, Everton and a double-header against Crystal Palace that includes a Carabao Cup quarter-final showdown. With that in mind, here is all the latest Arsenal injury news and return dates.
Ben White
White is the exception to Arsenal’s vastly improved injury picture, with the versatile defender having dealt with multiple issues over several weeks leading into the last international break, when the decision was made to send him for a knee procedure.
It was initially unclear exactly how much time White would miss, before Arteta confirmed before the win over Forest that he was facing months on the sidelines.
"Ben White is going to be out for months, unfortunately," he said. "It's been different kinds of struggles, never the same thing.
"We had to make a decision, it hasn't been improving in the last few weeks. We know Ben is going to push every boundary, but it got to a point where we had to protect the player.
"We decided to do surgery, he agreed with that and that's going to keep him out for a few months.
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