Bukayo Saka injury, Nicolas Pepe chance - Mikel Arteta update ahead of Crystal Palace vs Arsenal

Arsenal are finally back in Premier League action on Monday night after a two-week-long international break.

The Gunners are in the midst of a heated battle to qualify for next season's UEFA Champions League, a competition they haven't played in since March 2017. Next up for Mikel Arteta's men is Crystal Palace, who they drew 2-2 with in the corresponding fixture at the Emirates Stadium back in October.

The Eagles are unbeaten in each of their last six matches across all competitions, with their most recent outing coming against Everton the FA Cup quarter-finals, a match they comfortably won 4-0. Ahead of the highly-anticipated match at Selhurst Park, Arteta will be sitting down with the media on Thursday afternoon to answer questions regarding his players and any injury updates he can provide.

Here, takes a look at three main things that Arsenal supporters will be keen to find out from the Spaniard's chat with the media.

The Gunners faithful will be desperate to find out if any of Bukayo Saka, Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu will be fit for the trip to south London. Saka scored the only goal during the club's last outing, a 1-0 victory against Aston Villa but he since tested positive for Covid-19 - causing him to miss England's friendlies against Switzerland and Ivory Coast.

Meanwhile, first-choice goalkeeper Ramsdale picked up a hip injury ahead of the aforementioned match at Villa Park, with Arteta claiming that the 23-year-old would miss the next few weeks of action. Speaking to BT Sport 12 days ago, he said: "Aaron Ramsdale had a muscle injury and will be out for a few weeks."

German shot-stopper Bernd Leno deputised in the Englishman's absence, producing an excellent save to deny Phillipe Coutinho a late