Triple Arsenal boost before Leeds — but one star faces 3 weeks out

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Mikel Arteta has had three defenders back out on the grass at London Colney as Arsenal begin preparations for next weekend's visit of Leeds United.

Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie have all returned to training, with footage released by the club showing the trio back involved with the rest of the squad. All three had been unavailable for their respective national teams during the international break.

White and Mosquera had both been nursing hamstring problems, costing them one and five matches respectively. Hincapie, meanwhile, was named on the bench for the trip to Brighton while working his way back from a muscle complaint, and has now stepped up to full training.

Depth needed with Saliba still absent

The timing matters. William Saliba remains sidelined with a long-term injury, and Arteta has already asked for patience over the Frenchman's recovery.

"He is in rest mode at the moment," the Arsenal boss said. "He had to do almost nothing, an aggravated injury, so it's going to take some time to heal. We know that."

Saliba is believed to be targeting a return at some point in November, which leaves Arteta leaning heavily on his defensive options across a punishing run of nine fixtures in 27 days.

It is not all good news, though. Christos Tzolis picked up a knock during Greece's 2-2 draw with the Netherlands on Thursday and is reported by football.london to be facing around three weeks out.

A brutal month ahead

Arsenal welcome Leeds to the Emirates in Saturday's early kick-off on October 10, before hosting Lille in the Champions League three days later. Trips to Nottingham Forest and Bayern Munich follow, then Everton at home, a Carabao Cup tie at Fleetwood Town, and fixtures against Liverpool, Slavia Prague and Hull City.

The reigning Premier League champions go into that schedule looking to respond to their first defeat of the season, a 3-0 loss away at Brighton that ended a run of six straight wins in all competitions.

Arteta made clear afterwards that he wants the squad to sit with the disappointment rather than brush past it. "We need to feel the pain," he said. "Today we need to take this lesson very, very seriously because it's going to happen. I think we need to look at it in isolation first and get the learnings and then we can put it into the overall picture."

With White, Mosquera and Hincapie back in contention, Arteta has considerably more to work with as that run begins against Leeds on Saturday.