Arsenal play Slavia Prague in the Champions League this evening with Bukayo Saka unavailable and William Saliba back in full training, according to Football.London. Kick-off at the Fortuna Arena is 20:00 UK time, and the Gunners are defending an unbeaten start to the league phase that has produced wins over Napoli and Lille and a 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich.

Saliba in contention, Saka sidelined

Football.London reports that Saka is still working his way back from the quadriceps problem he sustained in Arsenal's previous Europa outing, against Bayern Munich. The outlet believes he will be out for more than a month and will not feature again until after the November international break. That, it says, is the club's only current injury concern.

After a back issue sidelined him for four months, Saliba has returned to full training for the first time in the current campaign. Mikel Arteta told Tuesday's pre-match press conference that the defender is "in a really good place" and that his recovery has gone as expected. He continued: "So whether we use him or not now is a matter of what the team needs."

Dowman waits on a Europa opportunity

Arseblog News suggests that his chances of competitive minutes in the coming weeks may hinge on Arteta's selection tonight, with Saka out, Eberechi Eze a doubt before Sunday's trip to Anfield and Christos Tzolis only recently back from a hamstring injury.

Arteta was asked about the 16-year-old and said: "That's a chapter that is gone. He added: "It's a moment of learning for all of us, and we move on." Otherwise, we are in Disneyland." Arseblog News notes that the sending-off ended a sequence of 79 Arsenal matches without a red card, and that Dowman became the club's youngest Champions League player at this same venue last year.

Arteta defends his squad men

Arteta also fielded questions on Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino, both of whom have been used sparingly. He dismissed the suggestion that either has become a peripheral figure, saying: "They are playing a pivotal role." Of Zubimendi he added: "He's a very important player for us," citing an ankle issue and a later nose injury as interruptions. Arseblog News points out that the midfielder's only starts this season have come in the League Cup.

The manager stressed that accepting a place on the bench matters as much as delivering from it, and that contributions from substitutes will be "equally important" in a campaign of matches every 72 hours.

Prague's problems

In their first three matches, Slavia have earned just one point: they lost to Lens and to competition newcomers Sabah, then recovered from a two-goal deficit to draw with Fenerbahce. They have never beaten Arsenal in five attempts, and the teams last met on this date a year ago, when Arsenal won 3-0.

Head coach Jindrich Trpisovsky said "no one has increased and no one has decreased" in fitness since Sunday's 5-0 win over Jablonec. Goalkeeper Jakub Markovic has "started training" and "will be in the nomination"; creator Lukas Provod "trained for the first time" and "has permission to intervene in the match" but "will not play from the beginning"; Ange N'Guessan carries a question mark after sitting out Monday's session. Football.

Arsenal travel on the back of Sunday's 1-0 win at Liverpool, a result the Evening Standard says ended a long wait for victory at Anfield, though last week's Carabao Cup exit to Fleetwood Town is held up as a warning against complacency.

Photo: Bryan Berlin via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized.