The Spanish boss believes that his Dutch defender will play a part this season but emphasised that his return won’t be anytime soon.
After such a promising start to their campaign, the Gunners have hit a major bump in the road during their last few Premier League games.
Although a draw at Anfield for Arsenal is far from a bad result, their next two games were as they lost to West Ham and Fulham.
To make matters worse, they were then knocked out of the FA Cup by Jurgen Klopp’s side at the Emirates.
Fans will be desperate to see their side sign attacking reinforcements this window but they are also short at the back with Oleksandr Zinchenko a potential doubt for this weekend while Takehiro Tomiyasu is away on international duty.
After images of Jurrien Timber training in Dubai emerged this week, supporters couldn’t help but speculate about a potential early return but Mikel Arteta stated that he is not close to returning.
“There is a possibility, but at the moment he’s still very far from competing,” he said in his press conference via The Standard.
“That’s the realistic picture of it. Are we hopeful that he could have a realistic impact before the end of the season?
“If everything goes well, it looks like that might happen.”