Eight Arsenal players were absent from training on Friday ahead of the FA Cup tie at Mansfield as a handful of youngsters looked to stake their claim.
The Gunners head to the One Call Stadium on Saturday lunchtime for a fifth-round tie - their third in a row against EFL opposition, to follow respective wins over Portsmouth and Wigan - with a place in the quarter-finals on the line.
Mikel Arteta is expected to heavily rotate his team against opponents who currently sit 16th in League One under Nigel Clough, having had a short turnaround from the midweek win over Brighton in the Premier League and with their first-leg trip to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League last 16 coming on Wednesday.
Mikel Merino is a definite absentee as he continues to recover from surgery on a rare foot injury, while defenders William Saliba and Ben White remained doubts, along with Martin Odegaard.
Saliba missed the Brighton game with a minor ankle issue, while White has sat out the last three matches with an unspecified knock.
Captain Odegaard, meanwhile, missed the meetings with Chelsea and Brighton after Arteta explained that he still did not feel fully comfortable following a recent knee injury, while Norway coach Stale Solbakken has suggested that he may not be back in action until late March.
None of that trio was involved in a final pre-Mansfield training session at Arsenal’s London Colney base on Friday that was live streamed via the club app, while Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber, Gabriel and Martin Zubimendi were also absent, per football.london.
It seems likely that the latter quartet are all being rested as Arteta prepares to make sweeping changes in Nottinghamshire and give a number of his most important players a breather amid a hectic fixture list as the Premier League leaders - who face Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final later this month - continue to fight for silverware on four fronts.
Rice was substituted against Chelsea late on after an injury scare, but returned to start and play the full 90 minutes at Brighton.
Myles Lewis-Skelly would almost certainly have started for Arsenal against Mansfield, but will instead serve a one-match FA Cup suspension after picking up yellow cards against both Portsmouth and Wigan.
Max Dowman will be hoping to play some part after recovering from an ankle ligament injury and featuring for the Under-21s, while the same is also true of fellow 16-year-old Marli Salmon, whose chances of starting in defence will be significantly boosted if Gabriel, Saliba, Timber and White all don’t play.
18-year-old striker Andre Harriman-Annous and defender Jaden Dixon - a £3.2million January signing from Stoke - also reportedly trained with the Arsenal first team on Friday ahead of possible involvement against Mansfield.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Cristhian Mosquera, Christian Norgaard, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Jesus will all be expected to play prominent roles for Arsenal, with Riccardo Calafiori potentially starting at left-back with Piero Hincapie likely rested and Lewis-Skelly suspended.
