Bukayo Saka is working his way back to full fitness | Football

Mikel Arteta is hopeful Bukayo Saka will be ready to make his Arsenal comeback after the international break.

The England international has been out of action after he sustained a serious hamstring injury against Crystal Palace in early December.

After undergoing surgery for the first time in his career, Saka gradually worked his way back to fitness and reports earlier on Sunday claimed he could make his return before the end of the month.

Arsenal are back in Champions League action in midweek before they entertain Chelsea at the Emirates next Sunday but do not play again after that until April 1.

Asked for an update on Saka’s fitness after Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Manchester United, Arteta said: ‘After the international break let’s see where he is.

‘His progress is really good he is really willing as we can imagine. We are positive that in a few weeks hopefully he will be back.’

Arteta will be desperate for his star winger to add the sort of dynamism and threat was sorely lacking against United on Sunday.

‘Sometimes that is what is missing,’ Arteta said about his side’s lack of cutting edge.

‘The execution has to be in to the right player and the right player to shoot. How we conceded [chances] in certain moments was not acceptable.

‘They have so much quality and they pick the right player and normally that would end in a goal.

‘We opened the gate to lose the game. there was no chance to lose the game and we opened it ourselves. I will defend my players all the time but in those moments we have to do better.’

He added: ‘When we had the first half that we had where we were exceptional, we didn’t test the keeper.

‘We had some unbelievable situations but we didn’t get the last shot or the last pass.

‘We didn’t capitalise, we rushed the game, we started to lose duels and we could have ended up losing it.’

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