Arsenal's final preparations for the Premier League clash against Burnley are complete.
The Gunners go into the game on Sunday afternoon still looking for their first win of 2022 after losing three of their last four outings across different competitions against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.
Victory over Sean Dyche's side could see Arsenal finish the weekend in fourth place in the Premier League table, but that is dependent on results from elsewhere going in their favour.
But the Gunners can only focus on themselves right now and what's important is to bounce back from crashing out of both domestic competitions before the end of January.
Revenge will be in the air when Arsenal face Burnley following a surprise defeat in the corresponding fixture last season and repeating the 1-0 scoreline from the reverse fixture at Turf Moor this season would be the perfect way to do just that.
Before the big Premier League game, Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff put the Gunners squad through their paces during a training session at London Colney on Saturday afternoon.
As usual, there has been media footage released to get fans in the mood.
Here's what we spotted from the training pictures and what it tells us ahead of the game against Burnley on Sunday afternoon.
A thin squad
It's a while since Arteta had the dream scenario of having every single Arsenal first-team player fit and available for selection heading into a fixture.
That's not changed ahead of Sunday's game against Burnley with Nicolas Pepe and Mohamed Elneny absent at the Africa Cup of Nations coupled with some injuries.
Furthermore, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sead Kolasinac, Folarin Balogun and Pablo Mari all departing during the January transfer window, it has really highlighted just how thin the Arsenal squad is.
So in order to make up the numbers, a host of Under-23 players were called up to Saturday's session.
Charlie Patino and Salah-Eddine were amongst the usual suspects involved, but there was also a chance for Tyreece John-Jules, Jonathan Dinzeyi and Nikolaj Moller to impress Arteta.
Whether any of the trio, who have recently returned from loan spells, along with Omari Hutchinson, Mika Biereth, Alex Kirk, or Ryan Alebious are involved on Sunday remains to be seen.
Quintet absent
It should be noted that the training pictures don't necessarily foreshadow who will be available for selection on a matchday.
But when certain players aren't spotted, it does bring about some concern amongst supporters and it's no different following the latest batch of images that have surfaced as those who don't appear to have trained on Saturday include Bernd Leno, Kieran Tierney, Cedric Soares, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Nuno Tavares.
Now, for two of the players mentioned, a reason for their absences has already been explained.
But in the cases of Tierney, Tomiyasu and Tavares should Arsenal fans be concerned about the first-choice right-back as well as their two left-back options not being involved in the session?
Injury boost
It's not all doom and gloom for the Gunners on the player availability front.
Ahead of the Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool a couple of days ago, it was revealed that Calum Chambers, Cedric and Leno would miss out through injury.
Of the trio, Chambers was pictured in training on Saturday. This is a massive boost as he could fill in at right-back or in central midfield for the visit of Burnley.
No rest for suspended duo
Speaking of players Arteta can't call upon against Burnley, that brings us to Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka.
The latter is serving the final game of his two-match ban after being sent-off in the Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg at Anfield, whilst Partey is suspended after seeing red on his surprise return for the second leg on Thursday night.
When Ghana were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations earlier in the week, it was considered a major boost for the Gunners as Partey would have been in line to ease the midfield crisis.
But the decision to name him on the bench and subsequently introduce him to proceedings at 2-0 down has ultimately backfired with Arteta once again down to one recognised senior central midfielder.
The good news is that Xhaka and Partey should be available for the next Premier League game against Wolves after the winter break.
Despite being suspended, the pair were involved in Saturday's session alongside Jack Wilshere who continues to train in the hope of finding himself a new club.
