Arteta’s fitness update on Timber and Merino | Interview | News
Mikel Arteta has issued an update on the fitness of our first team squad ahead of Sunday’s Premier League season closer against Crystal Palace.
The boss began by confirming Mikel Merino will return to full team training soon, after stepping up his rehabilitation in this morning’s session. 'Mikel is going to start to train with the group tomorrow,' Arteta said. 'Today, he's gone out a little bit, but it was just a reintegration.' Our newly-crowned title-winning manager gave his players and staff time off to enjoy the celebrations after mathematically sealing Premier League top spot on Tuesday night, when Manchester City failed to beat Bournemouth.
'Mikel added, "We had 48 hours to enjoy the success of winning the league," and now we’re going to prepare really well because we need to now lift again our habits and the standards that we normally do things to be in the best possible way to compete.
On Sunday, we’ll have a little window there again to celebrate, to lift the trophy in a manner that deserves it, to connect with the people that we have constantly around us. But then we have six days that we need to write a new history in this football club.'
Mikel also provided an update on Jurien Timber’s progress, with the full-back having been sidelined for an extended period. 'Jurrien, let's hope that he can do the same [as Merino’s progress] in the next few days,' Arteta said. 'He’s still a little bit further behind than Mikel at the moment.'
