Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal are “always honest” with regard to the fitness of their players after the club came under scrutiny this week as the majority of their players didn’t play for their countries during the international break.

Gabriel, William Saliba, Eberechi Eze, Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber, Leandro Brossard, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Martin Zubimendi and Piero Hincapie all either didn’t travel or returned home in the last fortnight.

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228 Premier League players were called up for their international sides and 11 of the 23 that withdrew were Arsenal players.

But Artetainsists there was no skullduggery at play, claiming Arsenal are “always honest” and that the club is “fully supportive” of the players who are “desperate to play for their nation”.

“We have very good relationship and communication with most of the national teams – certainly with [England manager] Thomas [Tuchel] too.

“We have been extremely supportive all the time. When you have to communicate the state of every player, we are always honest and a medical decision had to be made. That was clear what the conclusion was.

“When you are fit and available to play for the national team, you have to play. It makes us so proud that we had that many players in the national team.

“Players are desperate to play for their nation. I know how important it is to them. We are fully supportive of that and when we can do it, we do it.”

On which of the injured payers might feature against Southampton on Saturday, Arteta added: “You will see. I will let you do the speculation. You can judge afterwards.

“We are in a position right now where we need to make the strongest line-up we possibly can to win every competition. We are two or three games away from the FA Cup and we know how important that competition is for us.”

On Arsenal’s FA Cup ambitions, he said: “It’s a huge competition and very closely related to the history of our football club. We are going to play a team who are in a really good moment. They’ve won a lot of games recently. We are ready for them and we want to go to Wembley again. We will be ready for that.”

“It is the magic of the FA Cup that every scenario every context has a history. This is a special game. We are ready to face that tomorrow.”

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