Arsenal welcome Wolves to Emirates Stadium on Saturday but Mikel Arteta has a few injury concerns going into the match

Mikel Arteta believes his Arsenal side are ready for the new season ahead of their Premier League opener against Wolves on Saturday.

“We are really excited. We’ve been missing the competition for many weeks, too long for us. We’re so willing to start, really enthusiastic about it,” Arteta said during his pre-match press conference on Friday.

“We had a really challenging pre-season but we managed to adapt and it was a great challenge for everybody to adapt: different groups, different stadiums, different conditions. We took it as an opportunity and a good challenge. The team has looked really sharp, really at it.”

Arteta will be able to call upon Riccardo Calafiori on Saturday afternoon as well as Jurrien Timber, who has trained all week after suffering from a foot problem. “Yeah, he will be in the squad tomorrow, yeah,” Arteta said of the Dutchman.

“Obviously he had a really tough period but he used it in a great way. He managed to get a lot of things done and improve in many areas that, except for playing, he found really, really helpful.”

One player who may not make the season opener is Fabio Vieira, however. Arteta confirmed on Friday that club doctors will “need to check” on the 24-year-old after the afternoon’s training session. Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney have been ruled out of the clash against Wolves, though, with Arteta admitting the pair are “a few weeks behind still”.

That means that Arteta will definitely be without Tomiyasu and Tierney for Saturday’s match at Emirates Stadium, while Vieira could also miss out due to a minor hip problem. Now, that would mean Arteta is without three senior players for the season opener.

When looking at the official Arsenal website, that means the Gunners have 21 senior players available for selection. As per Premier League rules, a club is only allowed to name a squad of 20 players for a Premier League match which means at least one more senior player will miss out.

Jakub Kiwior, Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson have all been linked with moves away this summer and it’s possible at least one is not named in the squad. That number could increase, however, if Arteta decides to include either Myles Lewis-Skelly or Ethan Nwaneri in the matchday squad on Saturday.

Arteta was asked if the youngsters were ready to make the step up to senior football ahead of the clash. “Yes, for sure and as well we have Jurrien who we didn’t have last year for 10 months so that’s another one,” he said.

“Myles has played a lot of minutes, Ethan as well, Aiden [Heaven] as well in pre-season. It’s given us a big platform for them to understand how good they are and the options that we have in the squad right now and they’ll certainly be training with us.”