Why Max Dowman and Christian Norgaard are not in the Arsenal squad vs Man United

Mikel Arteta will be without Max Dowman and Christian Norgaard for Arsenal's opening clash of the new Premier League season. The Gunners will be determined to get off to a winning start when they lock horns with Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.

football.london understands that Dowman travelled with the first team, but he was not deemed ready to be part of the squad. The 15-year-old midfielder enjoyed a promising pre-season with the north Londoners, making a few cameo appearances off the bench.

Meanwhile, Norgaard hasn't trained this week. The 31-year-old midfielder, who joined Arsenal from Brentford in July for £15million, wasn't recently spotted in any pictures or videos at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.

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The Gunners will also be with Gabriel Jesus. The 28-year-old striker suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury during Arsenal's defeat to United in the FA Cup third round at the start of the year.

In March, Jesus announced that he had successfully completed the first seven weeks of his rehabilitation programme. Unfortunately for Arteta, the Brazil international remains out of action, and he's still expected to return sometime in the Autumn.

Martin Zubimendi, however, starts against the Red Devils. The 26-year-old midfielder emerged as a doubt for Sunday afternoon's clash at the start of the week, but Arteta set the record straight in his pre-match press conference.

"Yes, he had a great integration," said the Spaniard, when quizzed on Zubimendi, who he signed from Real Sociedad for about £60m in July. "As everybody can see this immediately, he's had a very big impact on the team. I'm really happy and he will be fit."

On the difficult start to the season, Arteta said: "We need to play each other, we need to play at some point, and we'll start at an incredible stadium with so much history and a beautiful way to start the season.

"We will go game-by-game and make the best preparations and then perform to earn the right to win the game," added the Arsenal boss. "The margins, we know how small they are, we know the competition as well has increased the level, with recruitment, with another year together and we're going to have to win."

On what to expect from United, Arteta said: "They will be different as well. The manager will have more time with them, they have a pre-season, they make some really good signings as well, like anybody else. I think they strengthened and they will be better than last year, like the rest of the teams..."

On Gyokeres, who was once linked with a move to United when Ruben Amorim first replaced Erik ten Hag, Arteta said: "I can just talk about Viktor and how happy we are to have him.

"I think he's going to have a tremendous impact on the team. The adaptation has been very, very good and we're really happy to have him."