Mikel Arteta has been handed two fresh Arsenal fitness worries and a potentially major blow following the 3-1 victory over Brentford. Three points for the Gunners took them back above Nottingham Forest and into second with the gap to leaders Liverpool also closed.

Goals from Gabriel Jesus, Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli gave Arsenal the victory after Bryan Mbuemo opened the scoring inside 13 minutes. Declan Rice and Myles Lewis-Skelly were among those that dropped down to the bench while Kai Havertz was left out of the squad entirely.

Jurrien Timber is also now guaranteed to miss a game for the Gunners which could force Arteta into a tactical switch. With that being said, football.london has taken a look at the latest Arsenal injury news alongside other reasons why key players may miss out.

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Declan Rice

Rice featured off the bench against Brentford, but ahead of the game, Arteta revealed he suffered a fresh issue during the Christmas period.

Injury: Unknown.

What Arteta has said: "Declan as well he had to come off the other day, it's the second time he had a niggle.

Possible return date: Returned.

Jurrien Timber

Injury: N/A.

Though he has been hit by injury on a number of occasions, Jurrien Timber will actually miss the next Premier League game against Brighton through suspension. He will however, be able to play in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Newcastle.

Possible return date: Newcastle (H) - Tuesday, January 7.

Kai Havertz

Havertz was a noticeable absentee from the Arsenal matchday squad to face Brentford with it later confirmed he missed out due to illness and judging by Arteta's words, he may not have been ready to play.

What Arteta has said: "Yes, I hope so. It's nothing serious but they weren't in the ideal condition to play today. With Kai, it was obvious he wasn't feeling well at all and he had really clear symptoms so stay away from it, put him in a car and go back to London.

Possible return date: Brighton (A) - Saturday, January 4.

Bukayo Saka

Injury: Hamstring.

Saka is expected to miss the next few months with a hamstring issue picked up against Crystal Palace before Christmas which required surgery to fix.

What Arteta has said: "He had a procedure. Everything went well. But unfortunately, he will be out for many, many weeks. I think it will be more than two months. I don't know exactly how much longer."

Possible return date: March 2025.

Ben White

Injury: Knee.

Having undergone a procedure in November, White has been confirmed as unavailable for the next few months.

What Arteta has said: "Ben is going to be out for months. We had to make a decision in the last few weeks, unfortunately. It got to a point where we had to protect the player, and we decided to do the surgery."

Possible return date: Unknown.

Takehiro Tomiyasu

Injury: Knee.

Tomiyasu is still missing because of a knee injury with Arsenal carefully managing his return to action given the issues he has faced in recent months.

What Arteta has said: "He is going to be away now for a few weeks to continue with his treatment and as well change a little bit the environment, because psychologically it has been really, really tough for him – as you can imagine.

“He is a guy that the only thing he wants to do is work 24 hours to get better and he feels terrible when he is not fit. It’s a real shame, so we are going to give him the best opportunity to try out that kind of thing.

“If it can trigger something, unlock something and try to help him, to have him as quick as possible back – but I think we need to be patient.”

Possible return date: Unknown.