Arsenal are back in action tonight against Chelsea as they look to end a run of three successive defeats and preparations for the Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge are complete.
Whilst those losses against Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton have dented the Gunners' top-four chances, they can move level on points with Tottenham Hotspur with victory over the Blues, and manager Mikel Arteta has set his side a challenge to overcome the 'best team in Europe'.
"We have to be at our best against the best team in Europe that showed last year what they can do with everything that they have and with the ability that we have as well," the Spaniard said in his pre-match press conference. "We're going to go there as always to win the match and that is going to be our intention tomorrow when we're at Stamford Bridge."
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Before the big Premier League game, Arteta and his coaching staff put the Gunners squad through their paces during a training session at London Colney on Tuesday afternoon with media footage released to get fans in the mood for a London derby under the lights at Stamford Bridge.
Of course, the big news from the session was the sighting of Takehiro Tomiyasu. The right-back hasn't featured for Arsenal since the end of January as he's been troubled by calf problems, but he's in contention to make a return to the matchday squad - along with Alexandre Lacazette who missed the Southampton loss due to a positive Covid test.
Although, Arteta was remaining coy about the pair's chances of being involved against Chelsea: "With Laca we are assessing him today to see if he is available with the team, obviously as you all know he had Covid so he’s been away for a few days. So we’re trying to get (how) he’s feeling and where he’s at if he can contribute somehow to the team. Tomi is very, very close. Whether this game is going to be too early for him or not, again we will decide it today after the training session."
The good news for Arsenal, judging by the images and social media activity, is that almost every single first-team player trained ahead of the Chelsea game. This includes Aaron Ramsdale, Bernd Leno, Arthur Okonkwo, Cedric Soares, Tomiyasu, Benjamin White, Gabriel Magalhaes, Rob Holding, Nuno Tavares, Mohamed Elneny, Martin Odegaard, Granit Xhaka, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka, Lacazette, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah and Nicolas Pepe.
Meanwhile, Omari Hutchinson, Miguel Azeez, Zak Swanson and Joel Lopez were the four youngsters involved in the session and there's a chance at least two will be named on the substitutes bench with Arteta set to be without a couple of senior players for the short trip to west London.
Unsurprisingly, with Kieran Tierney ruled out for the rest of the season and Thomas Partey likely to suffer the same fate, neither player was involved in the training session. However, the latter is already in rehabilitation mode after posting a clip of him on an exercise bike to Instagram.
