The Arsenal injury Mikel Arteta is not telling us about amid secret Man Utd tactic

Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of Arsenal's Premier League clash with Manchester United with hope that he might provide some insights on the players that are not available. The Spaniard removed both Gabriel Magalhaes and Riccardo Calafiori during the game, citing the need to manage minutes.

He was given bad news on Friday that both Thomas Partey and Mikel Merino had suffered problems, revealing to supporters on the Saturday evening with his team selection that both were not then fit to face West Ham. Again, there was hope that Arteta might provide an update on the fitness of these but he instead chose to lean into his cautious approach.

"We're gonna have a meeting this afternoon. We have done a training session," he said. "We monitored and kept some players away from certain activities.

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"After that meeting I will decide which ones are fit and available and who will start." Adding: "They all want to play."

Arteta's press conference typically land either on the morning before the final session or a couple of days before a game to allow for him often to reference the need for assessment in the remaining training sessions. With the conference falling on Tuesday afternoon, after the final session, he didn't have this answer; to avoid providing details and clues for Ruben Amorim to help prepare to face the Gunners, he had to change tact.

It may frustrate fans but if there are indeed injuries that Arteta is not telling us about, he had his reasons for doing so. He was asked a few weeks back about the importance of preventing leaks of information about his team's status to which he provided an interesting insight into how he sees this phenomenon.

He said: "I don't want to make it easy for anyone. The opponent has to make sure they do their homework - like I have to.

"When I know, I am not going to lie to you, I am not going to say, 'he's not fit' and then I play him - I would never do that. But, if I am certain or I don't want to tell you, I will keep you guessing."

Indeed he does keep us and Amorim guessing. He did have the opportunity to completely rest Gabriel Martinelli on the weekend, who is surely keen to start again after his goal in the Champions League last week.

Should he be without any of the aforementioned quartet, he can call upon Jorginho, Jakub Kiwior and Oleksandr Zinchenko should he need to, who all featured in the win over West Ham. Jorginho was particularly impressive and could make his third successive league start following the last international break.