Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka will return in a much-changed Arsenal lineup when they take on Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday.

Arsenal will aim to consolidate the spot atop the Premier League table when they lock horns with Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday afternoon. Mikel Arteta has received positive updates on the team news front ahead of his side’s latest fixture.

Declan Rice and Riccardo Calafiori are fully fit and ready to take on Burnley. However, Arteta continues to sweat over William Saliba’s fitness, and the French international may not return until the midweek UEFA Champions League fixture against Slavia Praha.

Gabriel Martinelli also remains unavailable due to a knock. The Brazilian attacker accompanies Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz, and Gabriel Jesus in the treatment room. Meanwhile, during his pre-match press conference, Arteta provided fitness updates on the injured players.

The Arsenal manager said, “Martinelli is still out, Saliba we have to wait and see. We have another training session this afternoon and the rest are still getting closer, I think in the right direction, but not available yet. We don’t know yet, but I think this game is going to come too early for him.”

“I would say weeks and some of them [Odegaard, Madueke, Havertz, and Jesus] pretty soon hopefully if they keep evolving the way they are doing. It’s difficult to put a game, you know that we have the international break, which is a two-week break there, and after that I think we’ll have some back. I don’t know if it’s going to be all of them, some of them, but we’ll be quite close by then.”

“I’m excited because they are tremendous players. I see them work every single day, how desperate they are to be part of the team, the huge boost that is going to be for the squad to have those players again after such a long, long time. I’m really happy that I think it’s going to be very soon.”

David Raya is an automatic pick between the sticks, with Arsenal lining up in a 4-2-3-1 formation in front of him against Burnley on Saturday. The backline will feature Jurrien Timber, Cristhian Mosquera, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Riccardo Calafiori.

As for the midfield unit, there is no looking past Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi in the double pivot. Eberechi Eze will reprise the no. 10 role, with Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard being the two wide attackers. Finally, Viktor Gyokeres will lead the line for the away side against Burnley.

Predicted Arsenal XI: Raya; Timber, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori; Zubimendi, Rice; Saka, Eze, Trossard; Gyokeres