Arteta puts a timeline on Saka's return, but his FPL flag still says 0%

Update, Sunday 8 November

Mikel Arteta has given a timeline for Bukayo Saka's return from his freak thigh injury. FPL has not caught up yet: his flag still shows a 0% chance of playing with an unknown return date. Meanwhile his price has dropped to £9.4m and his ownership to 5.6%.

That changes less than it sounds. Until the flag has a date on it, you can't plan a gameweek around his return, so the case for selling still stands. If you have a free transfer, use it. Cole Palmer is the obvious swap at £9.8m. He's fully fit with a 100% flag and owned by 28.5% of managers, though he costs £0.4m more than Saka's current price. If you'd rather hold, watch our injuries page for the moment FPL puts a date on Saka's flag. That's when to decide.

Still no date on the flag

Bukayo Saka is the kind of player you keep through a bad week. The trouble for his owners is that FPL still can't tell you how many bad weeks this will be.

Mikel Arteta gave an update on Saka's thigh injury on Friday, alongside news on William Saliba and Ezri Konsa, before Arsenal host Hull City on Saturday 7 November. Saka is not expected to play. FPL has him flagged as injured with a 0% chance of playing and "unknown return date" next to his name. The market agrees: no chance of him appearing and zero expected points for GW10.

£9.5m doing nothing

At 5.8% ownership this hurts only a minority of managers, but it hurts them badly. He costs £9.5m, and every gameweek he sits in your squad that money earns you nothing. If he's in your starting XI, he has to come out before the deadline. That much is simple.

Whether to keep him beyond this week is the harder question, and until FPL puts a return date on his flag, waiting is the riskier choice. Keeping an injured premium makes sense when you know which gameweek he comes back. You don't know that yet.

Check your Saliba too

The Saka news isn't the only Arsenal issue. William Saliba is listed as available on FPL with a 100% chance of playing, yet the market gives him only a 7% chance of appearing against Hull and 0.3 expected points. Only 0.3% of managers own him, but if you're one of them, believe the market over the green flag and bench him.

Ezri Konsa is the Arsenal player to own this week. He has a clean flag and a 93% chance of appearing, and comes to 6 expected points against Hull for £4.8m. That's comfortably more than the defenders priced just above him: Jeremy Jacquet and António Silva both come to 4.2 at £5.1m, and Luka Vušković to 4.1 at £5.2m.

Sell Saka and spend the money

If you have a free transfer, I'd sell Saka now. His flag has no date, and the market expects nothing from him this week, so there's no point keeping £9.5m idle. You can always bring him back once FPL gives a date. If you don't already own Konsa, he's the best value in Arsenal's defence for GW10 and costs only half of what you get back for Saka. If you don't have a free transfer, bench Saka and check our injuries page before next week's deadline.