Arsenal: Jurrien Timber ready to make injury return against Bournemouth, confirms Mikel Arteta

Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber is available to make his long-awaited return from injury against Bournemouth.

Timber has been out of action since August after injuring his knee in the opening Premier League game of the season.

The Dutchman played twice for Arsenal’s Under-21s last week and Standard Sport reported on Tuesday he was hopeful of making his comeback against Bournemouth on Saturday.

Mikel Arteta has now confirmed Timber is ready to return and the Arsenal manager has a fully-fit squad to choose from.

“Everybody is fit and available so now it’s the headache to make the right selection,” Arteta said on Friday afternoon. “A good headache. (Timber being back) increases the quality of the training sessions.

“You see how commanding he is, his leadership, his quality and the rest they have to lift it up and they start to demand more from each other. And they look at each other and say: ‘Mmm, I better be good because I want to keep playing.’ And this is very positive for the squad.”

Arsenal have just three games left this season and are fighting to win the Premier League for the first time in 20 years. The Gunners are one point ahead of Manchester City, but Pep Guardiola’s side crucially have a game in hand.

Arsenal have three games to turn the tide in their favour - and Arteta says playing Timber is the only way to found out if he can make an impact.

“We won’t know that until we throw him in there,” said Arteta. “It’s tricky because there are only three games to go and he has missed eight months of football.

“He’s played only 150 minutes of football with the under-21s. It’s a question that can only be resolved by throwing him on the pitch and we will see what happens, we have to try to nail that decision when [we take it].”