Arsenal have released their training video ahead of Thursday's Dubai Super Cup clash against Lyon, and there was one notable inclusion.
From the clip uploaded to the club's official website, Emile Smith Rowe was shown taking part in an exercise with the ball alongside Marquinhos and Albert Sambi Lokonga. Although, it should be pointed out that the attacking midfielder wasn't shown taking part in any intense running, besides a small warm-up jog with Rob Holding.
Having been out of action since the end of September after undergoing surgery to correct an ongoing groin issue, it's no surprise that Arsenal are resisting the temptation to overload the 22-year-old as the sight of him in a training session is proof that great progress is being made.
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The Gunners arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Monday ahead of their participation in the Dubai Super Cup, with the senior squad players using the first day to build up their fitness after being given time off following the 2-0 win over Wolves, and in some cases, international duty.
Interestingly there was no sign of Oleksandr Zinchenko outside on the grass. Now the versatile defender is in Dubai with the squad having been spotted doing some gym work earlier in the day, but he didn't take part in any of the exercises outside and it remains to be seen if he will be involved later in the week.
For the rest of the Arsenal squad - including youngsters Ethan Nwaneri, Zane Monlouis, Catalin Cirjan, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Lino Sousa, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Nathan Butler-Oyedeji and Reuell Walters - it was straight to work and below is what else football.london spotted from the session.
Bromances being formed
Close friendships are being formed at Arsenal. Even before the players flew out to Dubai, just looking on social media provided evidence of this. There was the hilarious clip of Sambi Lokonga and Reiss Nelson joking around after returning to training and the latter referred to the former as his "young gunner" at the end of Monday's session.
This is quite amusing given Lokonga is actually older than Nelson - even if it's only by a couple of months.
Another bromance emerging at Arsenal is between captain Martin Odegaard and Mohamed Elneny. The pair sat next to each other on the flight, walked out side by side for the training session and then in the small-sided game the Egyptian hunted for possession after the Norway international had lost the ball.
As the players walked back to the changing room at the end of the session, at around the 6.15-minute mark, Elneny could be heard teaching Odegaard an Arabic term.
Shooting drills
After the small-sided game, it was time for Arsenal's attackers on tour to work on their shooting. Present for this drill was Eddie Nketiah, Marquinhos, Cozier-Duberry, Charles Sagoe Jr and Butler-Oyedeji. After the senior pair's first attempts were saved by Karl Hein, the forwards found their groove.
Nketiah found the net with a wonderful dinked effort, but arguably Marquinhos scored the best goal as he found the top corner with his supposed weaker right foot. There was also some nice interplay with the pair as the Brazilian assisted the Gunners number 14 for a tap-in and maybe more of the same will come in a competitive game.
'Leaked' team news?
Going by the bib and non-bib theory, from around the 3.16-minute mark when the mini-match is in session, the likes of Odegaard, Elneny, Nelson, Lokonga, Marquinhos, Cedric Soares, Rob Holding, Kieran Tierney and Gabriel Magalhaes were not wearing a bib whilst all of the youngsters were.
This could be a sign that Mikel Arteta is planning to name a strong starting line-up against Lyon on Thursday - containing the senior players available for selection - before ringing the changes at half-time perhaps to give the academy players a run-out in the second half.
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