Alex Howell
BBC football news reporter at Arsenal's training ground

There's lots to go at today for Mikel Arteta in his pre-Brentford news conference.

Arsenal are fresh from their best performance of the season - the 3-0 victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League - but are back to Premier League action this weekend.

The Gunners play Madrid on Wednesday and Arteta will have to decide whether to rest his key players for the league match or continue to play the players that performed so well to continue momentum.

We will be hearing from Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola at around 13:30 BST, but Arsenal's Mikel Arteta is first up in our lunchtime rush of Premier League news conferences...

Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter

Manchester City have already played plenty of games with Semi Automated offside given it is used in Uefa competition.

However, tomorrow the Premier League are using different technology, with City's lunchtime game with Crystal Palace first in the queue.

Premier League

So here is a list of what will be the first Premier League fixtures that semi-automated offsides will be used in:

Saturday

• Man City v Crystal Palace (12:30)
• Southampton v Aston Villa (15:00)
• Nottingham Forest v Everton (15:00)
• Brighton v Leicester (15:00)
• Arsenal v Brentford (17:30)

Sunday

• Chelsea v Ipswich (14:00)
• Wolves v Tottenham (14:00)
• Liverpool v West Ham (14:00)
• Newcastle v Man Utd (16:30)

Monday

• Bournemouth v Fulham (20:00)

Image source, Getty Images

The new technology has been used in a series of 'trial' games, which included Bournemouth's FA Cup fifth-round win over Wolves, when it made the headlines after a record eight-minute VAR stoppage.

The officials were unable to rely on the new technology during the check, and they needed to revert to manually drawn lines before disallowing Bournemouth defender Milos Kerkez's 35th-minute goal.

The Football Association said the issue was caused by a congested penalty area.

It was reviewed and it was recognised the speed of the process and switching between technologies - AI and data platform Genius Sports supply the semi-automated offside technology - could have been improved.

It was felt some time could have been saved before recognising the new technology was not going to be able to help in that situation.

The hope is that semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) will increase the speed of the virtual offside line placements and it will help in crowded penalty areas.

The delay in disallowing Moises Caicedo's goal in Chelsea's 1-0 win over Tottenham was about four minutes, and there is confidence SAOT would have cut that wait by about two minutes.

But it would not have reduced the time - more than three minutes - that it took to disallow Pape Sarr's goal in the same game which led to Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou claiming that VAR was "killing the game". That goal was ruled out for a foul that was spotted in midfield, rather than for an offside.

The Premier League says there has already been 100% accuracy with offsides this season, with the average VAR delay at 39 seconds per game, compared with 64 seconds last season.

Ultimately, SAOT will reduce, but not eliminate, VAR delays for complex situations.

With several high-profile lengthy video assistant referee (VAR) decisions in recent weeks, it is hoped the technology will start to reduce the delays and some debates.

Clubs voted in the technology last April, but its rollout has been pushed back from the autumn for more trials.

It is designed to make the judgement of tight offside calls easier for officials by making key parts of the review process automatic.

The Premier League says the artificial intelligence system "enhances the speed, efficiency and consistency of offside decision-making".

It is not used for other VAR involvements such as penalties, goal reviews for handballs or other fouls, red cards or mistaken identity.

While we're on the subject of semi-automated offsides, we'd like to hear your opinions on them.

Good for the game or just another unnecessary tool being added to complicate things further?

You can let us know using the methods below or, alternatively, give us a classic thumbs up or thumbs down.

Thumbs up if you think they are a good thing, thumbs down if not.

Image source, The FA

The system aims to remove some elements of human subjectivity by replacing decisions made by officials with automated ones taken by technology.

Bespoke cameras, which will monitor a variety of key elements involved in any tight offside decision, have been installed beneath the roof at all 20 Premier League stadiums.

The cameras will track the exact movement of the ball as well as 10,000 surface mesh data points on the bodies of all 22 players, meaning it can be automatically determined whether or not an attacking player's body was beyond the last defender's at the exact time the ball was played.

Artificial intelligence manages the process, monitoring ball and player movement, before coming up with a decision as to whether the player was onside or offside.

VAR officials check the system has correctly determined the three key points it measures before confirming the decision. The on-field officials then inform the players.

A 3D animation of the decision produced by the artificial intelligence will then be played on television for viewers at home and on big screens in the stadium.

As we've briefly mentioned and Newcastle assistant manager Jason Tindall kindly commented on in his news conference, the Premier League is to introduce semi-automated offside technology for this weekend's round of fixtures.

The decision follows non-live testing in the Premier League and its launch in English football during the FA Cup fifth round at the end of February.

The first Premier League match to benefit from its introduction will be Manchester City's home game against Crystal Palace (12:30 BST).

Image source, The FA

Here is yesterday's team news from Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Leicester, and Southampton if you missed it.

• Brentford: Thomas Frank said that there is no "new" injury news and "everyone who was available for Chelsea is available again" However Aaron Hickey, Igor Thiago and Gustavo Nunes are all are "getting closer" but not given a time frame of when they will feature.

• Nottingham Forest: Nuno Espirito Santo providing an update on the fitness of Chris Wood, Anthony Elanga and Taiwo Awoniyi said: "We are still assessing all of them. They are struggling with problems, some small some not so small. We have one more day and then we will see if they are available for the game." He added he is "hopeful" each will be fit: "It could be all of them, it could be none. It depends on how they recover and how they feel."

• Leicester City: Ruud van Nistelrooy said that Wout Faes is a doubt after "picking up a small injury" which left him unable to train on Thursday and will be reassessed before the trip to the Amex Stadium. However it is "definitely possible" for Ricardo Pereira to feature in his starting line-up this weekend.

• Southampton: Simon Rusk reveals that Charlie Taylor's "knocking about with one or two issues" and Paul Onuachu is being assessed, but the club are "hoping the signs are good" for the striker. Everyone else is fit.

We'll have a look further into the use of semi-automated offsides shortly but first, there were also some news conferences taking place yesterday.

Team news you may have missed from them coming up... now!

Newcastle United

Newcastle United assistant manager Jason Tindall on semi-automated offsides being used in the Premier League for the first time this weekend: "Everyone welcomes any change that will make the league better and make these decisions a lot quicker. If it improves the speed of decisions then of course we welcome it for sure."

Newcastle United

Image source, Getty Images

Newcastle United assistant manager Jason Tindall provides an update on Anthony Gordon's fitness: "He's had a decent week with the physios. He was back out on the grass for a pitch session yesterday. We will assess him today and we will have to make a late call to see if he's available for the bench on Sunday."

He also revealed that Alexander Isak has trained this week and "feels fine" and is expected to be fit for Sunday, while Joe Willock will not be available as the club follows concussion protocols.

Fuming I saw this message 30 seconds too late, Alan. You'd set me up for a lovely half-volley with that to segue into the Newcastle news conference.

Couple more updates coming your way from Jason Tindall, though, including his thoughts on the introduction of semi-automated offsides this weekend.

Newcastle United

Newcastle United assistant manager Jason Tindall, has been speaking to the media because Eddie Howe has been "really poorly over the past couple of days"

"He's been bed-ridden", Tindall said. "We've been in contact every day so it's not affected any of the preparations. I'm sure he'll be fine for the weekend."

You can listen to Jason Tindall's interview on the Total Sport Newcastle United podcast below.

Brighton & Hove Albion

Image source, Getty Images

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler says that there are "no big changes" regarding squad availability, but Kaoru Mitoma is a doubt.

He also said "different options" to replace the suspended Jan Paul van Hecke in defence: "[Eiran] Cashin will be one for sure, Mats Wieffer has played there already and Carlos Baleba is an option. Let's see how they do in training and make a decision."