Mikel Arteta has confirmed Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey is fit to face Sheffield United following a long injury absence.

Partey has not played since coming off the bench during the 1-0 victory over Manchester City at the Emirates in October following a hamstring injury.

The defensive midfielder has endured a raft of setbacks since then, which also forced the Ghana international to miss the Africa Cup of Nations at the start of the year.

While Arteta and his medical team will use the coming days to determine the availability of Oleksandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Jesus ahead of Monday’s trip to Bramall Lane, Arteta revealed Partey will travel to Yorkshire with the squad. 

Arteta said: “Thomas had a session before the last game and now he’s done two consecutive sessions so he should be part of the squad on Monday.” 

As for Zinchenko and Tomiyasu, “those ones are possible but we have to wait and see, especially with the last two sessions that we have on Saturday and Sunday,” Mikel added. “If that’s the case, they might be available on Monday.”

However, the Gunners boss does not expect Jesus to feature for the whole game. 

“Well he’s fit enough, but knowing how long he will last is something different probably, but we didn’t want to take any risks after the result that we had against Newcastle,” he said.

“Obviously we need him fit. He’s a massive player for us and we want to make sure that now we load the players in the right way.”

Jurrien Timber will not be part of Monday’s squad, as he continues his recovery from a long-term ACL injury.