Gabriel Martinelli to return, Thomas Partey a doubt: Arsenal team news and predicted XI vs Leicester City

Thomas Partey continues to be assessed having missed Arsenal’s last two games with a muscle injury. Arsenal will make a late decision on Partey's fitness, but given Jorginho’s form it’s unlikely they will take any risks on the Ghana international. Bukayo Saka is expected to be fine to feature despite having to receive treatment on an ankle injury last weekend, while Emile Smith Rowe is now fully available following his recent lay-off. Gabriel Jesus continues to progress well with his recovery following knee surgery, but Arsenal are managing his return to training carefully to limit the chances of the striker suffering any setbacks. Mohamed Elneny, who signed a new contract earlier in the week, is out for the remainder of the season after undergoing knee surgery.

Manchester United highlighted Leicester City’s weaknesses down the flanks last weekend, with Marcus Rashford twice beating the offside trap to race clear and score. Arsenal will have noted that and they will feel Bukayo Saka could get lots of joy if they can break quickly and get the ball to the 21-year-old when he is in space. Saka has scored in each of Arsenal’s last two games and it would be no surprise to see him add to the 10 goals he has already scored this season on Saturday.

What will Mikel Arteta do with Gabriel Martinelli? The Arsenal manager left the Brazilian out of a Premier League starting XI for the first time this season against Aston Villa last weekend, but Martinelli responded by coming off the bench to make a huge impact on the game. He set up Jorginho for the shot that led to Arsenal taking a 3-2 lead and then finished the game off himself moments later when he raced away to add a fourth. So Arteta must now decide whether to bring Martinelli straight back into the starting XI, or leave him on the bench in the hope he could make a similar impact if needed in the second half.

Arsenal’s manager believes his team will go into Saturday’s game as confident as they have been all season, thanks to the dramatic comeback success at Aston Villa last time out.

“I feel like it’s right back with more belief than before, because you have to put performances into results,” Arteta said. “There are still a lot of things to improve and we have to be humble enough to see those things, recognise them, work on them because we cannot have those big margins. We don’t need to produce as much as we do in every single game to win matches. A smaller margin [of chances] should be enough to win in this league and we need to improve that.”

(4-3-3): Ramsdale; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Jorginho, Odegaard, Xhaka; Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli.