Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta could have Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz available when the Premier League leaders travel to west London to face Chelsea on Sunday [Jay Patel/SPP]

MIKEL Arteta is looking forward to a selection headache ahead of Arsenal’s titanic trip to Stamford Bridge on Sunday with the news that two more of his injured stars are back in contention.

Viktor Gyokeres, who picked up a muscle issue at the start of November, and Kai Havertz, who had minor knee surgery back in August, are both pushing to play their part when the Premier League leaders travel to second-place Chelsea.

Offering an update on the pair ahead of the Gunners’ Champions League clash with Bayern Munich, which was kicking off as the New Journal went to press last night (Wednesday), Arteta revealed: “Perfect, both of them [are progressing well]. In the next few days, they’re going to have a repeat scan to see how everything is and where we can push them for the weekend.”

It’s yet more good news for the Arsenal boss, who has already seen Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Jesus all return following spells on the sidelines.

Reflecting on the challenge of now reintegrating those players back into his squad, Arteta added: “Especially because they’ve been out for a long period of time: six, seven, eight weeks. But to be fair, when I see them training, and how willing they are, all of them to play a part to start, ideally, in the camp, it’s great.

“They seem to be in a good place, we have to manage that because we have a very demanding week and opponents.”

But someone as meticulous as Arteta isn’t about to get too carried away by having his star assets back, knowing full well that the road to recovery is a cautious one. “Well, we have to look at the individuals, obviously, and make sure that they are ready to start a game, and the second one as well is for how long they can play,” explained the Spaniard.

“We need to be very mindful about how many of those players we put on the pitch because most of them might not be able to finish 90 minutes; we need to be conscious about the subs that we need to use, how we’re going to use it, the windows that we have, in order to be very efficient with our decision-making throughout the game.”

Such is the depth of quality within Arsenal’s ranks, that even club captain Odegaard isn’t a guaranteed starter – with Spurs slayer Eberechi Eze in unplayable form following his hat-trick in the north London derby.

Arteta insists that such tough decision-making comes with having an “extraordinary” group of players.

He said: “The priority is for the team to be as efficient as possible and to win football matches – as a priority [that’s] number one, and they’re going to have to deal with those situations.

“Players are going to have to merit to play, and the higher the standards each individual puts in, the higher the level of the team is going to be.

“So we’re going to have to live with that in a really positive way because it’s something extraordinary.”