Arsenal's preparations for the Premier League restart are now complete.
The Gunners, who face West Ham United at the Emirates Stadium on Boxing Day, beat Lyon and AC Milan to clinch the Dubai Super Cup earlier in the month whilst also losing to Watford and Juventus in addition to drawing 0-0 with Luton Town as Mikel Arteta kept his players nice and sharp.
Now with the big Premier League fixture just around the corner and a chance to maintain a five-point lead at the top of the table, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff put the first-team squad - and a few youngsters - through their paces during a training session at London Colney on Saturday.
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Footage of the session has been released via a succession of images and it should be noted that Oleksandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Emile Smith Rowe, Kieran Tierney and William Saliba were among the senior players not pictured alongside injured pair Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Jesus.
However, it should also be pointed out that their absences doesn't necessarily mean they have been ruled out of the West Ham game at this stage. On numerous occasions this season, for example with Zinchenko and Saliba, players have missed a training session but been included in the squad the following day.
Furthermore, Arteta did say that the Frenchman was due to train with the squad on Friday so it could be a case that the aforementioned senior stars were present at London Colney but simply weren't snapped on camera by the club's photographer.
For the rest of the Arsenal squad - including Rob Holding, Gabriel Martinelli, Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, captain Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale - it was straight to work before spending some time with their families and below is what else football.london spotted from the session.
Happy Eddie
Gabriel Jesus' injury opens the door for Eddie Nketiah to get a run in the Premier League team having failed to make a single start in the competition since the final game of last season. That's not to say he has lost trust from Arteta, in fact the Spaniard has no problem calling upon the Gunners' number 14.
"It's a huge blow for us, obviously," the Spaniard explained. "He's such an important player: he's brought something very different to the team and it's impossible to replace him. But we have other players, other alternatives and we'll try to get that sorted. The transfer window is another option.
"I think [Jesus] is a unique player but Eddie has incredible qualities as well for the way we want to play. We have other alternatives in that we can play Martinelli up front as well. We are currently a little bit short in terms of upfront positions but getting Emile back is going to be a big one."
Nketiah has looked sharp in the warm-up games and that vote of confidence from Arteta seemed to have worked wonders as he was all smiles in training.
Cedric wins
In a week where Cedric Soares has been tipped to leave Arsenal amid interest from London rivals Fulham, Arteta remained rather tight-lipped with regards to letting first-team players depart in the January transfer window.
"We know where we are in terms of the squad and numbers that we have," the Spaniard told reporters on Thursday. "We’ll be extremely cautious about what we want to do in the window."
Nevertheless, the experienced full-back was able to put any transfer speculation to one side to put his best foot forward in training and he was rewarded by being on the winning side with the likes of Saka, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Matt Turner and Gabriel Magalhaes after one particular drill.
Wonderkids called up
To celebrate his three-year anniversary as Arsenal manager/head coach, it was only right that Arteta continued his habit of calling up some of the club's most promising youngsters to train with the first-team squad. Already this season, the likes of Ethan Nwaneri, Lino Sousa, Reuell Walters, Taylor Foran, Catalin Cirjan, Khayon Edwards, and Amario Cozier-Duberry have benefitted.
Ahead of the West Ham game, Sousa, Walters, Cirjan, Foran, Cozier-Duberry were involved once again and they were joined by talented winger Nathan Butler-Oyedji and goalkeeper Hubert Graczyk.
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