Mikel Arteta faces late Arsenal fitness decisions vs Newcastle with Gabriel uncertainty

Arsenal will have several players on the sidelines through injury for their return to Premier League action this weekend.

The Gunners travel to St James' Park to take on Newcastle in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off in the top flight and do so on the back of a convincing win over Preston North End in the Carabao Cup in midweek.

Mikel Arteta's side are currently third in the Premier League table and five points behind leaders Manchester City, as well as four adrift of second-placed Liverpool.

Arteta is being forced to deal with several injury concerns for Arsenal's clash against Newcastle, with Gabriel Magalhaes still a doubt after suffering a knee injury in the draw with Liverpool last week.

After missing the midweek win over Preston, Gabriel has a chance of returning to the squad for the trip to St James' Park after Arteta confirmed the defender could be involved in training on Friday.

"We have a training session today," Arteta told reporters on Friday. "If he's [Gabriel] able to complete that, he will be available.

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"He hasn't had any training sessions yet but if he can do that today he will be available in the squad."

There have also been question marks over the fitness of Riccardo Calafiori (knee), Martin Odegaard (ankle) and Ben White heading into the clash against Newcastle. Odegaard has been sidelined since September, while Calafiori has missed the last two matches, and White was absent for the win over Preston.

Arteta confirmed that Calafiori and Odegaard are ruled out for the clash against Newcastle, but there remains a chance that White could feature.

"So Ricci [Calafiori] and Martin [Odegaard] are out definitely," said Arteta. "With Ben [White], we don't know yet.

"He hasn't trained yet. He could not train, he could not get involved, so let's see what happens."

Odegaard suffered an ankle injury during the September international break with Norway and has now missed Arsenal's last 11 matches in all competitions. It remains to be seen if the Arsenal club captain will return before the next two-week hiatus later this month, which will include fixtures against Inter Milan and Chelsea.

"Now is the stage he [Odegaard] is going to start doing certain work with us and just see how he deals with pain, if he is moving naturally enough and if he is physically at the level required to compete.

"But with the work rate and the hours he has put in I would be surprised if the moment he starts training with us we don't say he is ready so hopefully soon."

Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney remain sidelined with long-term injuries and currently have no prospective return date.

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