Why Ben White is absent for Arsenal vs Brentford as Real Madrid injury blow explained

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Ben White is missing from Arsenal's Premier League clash against Brentford after picking up a knock in training, football.london understands.

The hope is this will not be too serious with the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid firmly on the horizon.

The 27-year-old has endured a challenging season in north London having already missed three months. White started last weekend's 1-1 draw away at Everton before making a late appearance off the bench against Los Blancos earlier this week.

Speaking before the game, Arteta said: "Ben White couldn’t be in the squad because he felt something again post-training yesterday, so that limits the solutions we have because Jurrien wasn’t ready to start the game either. Other players as well played a lot of minutes and other players deserve to play minutes to help the team.”

As a result of his absence, Thomas Partey has been moved to right-back with Jurrien Timber rested. Bukayo Saka is also among the substitutes after suffering a knock but Declan Rice, following an early substitution after his midweek free-kick heroics, has been named in the starting XI.

Arteta explained after the Champions League quarter-final first leg that both players were brought off due to issues but just a few days later was able to confirm they were available to face Brentford. Riccardo Calafiori however, is still out and it is unclear when he will be back.

"Yes, so with Declan and Bukayo, they're both fit," he said in a press conference. "So, it was just a matter of two kicks and they recovered well. So, they're available for tomorrow.

"And Ricci is progressing really well. I think to give you a timeline is difficult because he needs to step up, especially having more people around and how the knee reacts after that. But he's in a good place, I think."

Starts for Kieran Tierney and Oleksandr Zinchenko shows Arteta's focus is firmly on the Bernabeu with Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, Myles Lewis-Skelly joining Saka on the bench as players key to that stunning 3-0 win on Tuesday evening.

Further forward, Ethan Nwaneri and Leandro Trossard are back in the starting XI with Gabriel Martinelli one of the few survivors. Given the limited options at centre-back, Jakub Kiwior and William Saliba will have the chance to further solidify their partnership.

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