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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

Arsenal loan star makes surprise return to training ahead of Standard Liege trip

Spirits were high within the Arsenal camp on Wednesday afternoon following a first win since October.

The Gunners came from behind to beat West Ham United 3-1 on Monday night as second half goals from Gabriel Martinelli, Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ended a winless run which had stretched to nine games across all competition.

But can they make it back-to-back victories this week?

The north London face Standard Liege in the Europa League this evening where a point will seal a place in the round of 32, while matching Eintracht Frankfurt's result against Vitoria will ensure they top the group and potentially get a favourable tie in the knockout stages.

Interim head coach Freddie Ljungberg has taken a relatively young squad to Belgium but insists he's not risking the club's qualification.

"We have a few injuries, and we've played a lot of games lately," he told reporters at his pre-match conference. "We have another game (against Manchester City) on Sunday.

"But we've brought a lot of firepower here, we have younger players here who have played earlier in the group stages, not just now.

"They've been playing the whole time.

"So it's a big game and we're here to get a result. We have a lot of respect for the opponents."

The Gunners squad were put through their paces at London Colney on Wednesday afternoon ahead of jetting out to Belgium for the early evening kick-off.

Youngsters Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe, Tyreece John-Jules, Robbie Burton, Zech Medley and James Olayinka were all present.

As were the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mesut Ozil and David Luiz.

But there was a surprise face in the training session.

As seen in the YouTube video uploaded by Press Bureau TV, one of the first players out to train was Dejan Iliev was he walked out alongside current no.1 Bernd Leno and the pair were in deep conversation.

The goalkeeper is currently on loan at SKF Sered and is back in England as the league in Slovakia has paused for the winter break.

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