Arsenal were handed a double fitness boost after Bukayo Saka and Oleksandr Zinchenko both took part in first team training ahead of tomorrow night’s Europa League clash against FC Zurich.
England international Saka has been in sensational form of late but he was forced out of Sunday’s 5-0 win over Nottingham Forest after taking a kick to his left ankle.
Saka attempted to play on after he was fouled by Renan Lodi but was reluctantly forced to come off in the 27th minute.
Mikel Arteta insisted it was too soon to diagnose the severity of Saka’s injury in his post match press conference on Sunday after the Gunners regained leadership of the Premier League following their biggest win of the campaign to date.
Saka, however, showed no ill-effects during Wednesday’s session and looks likely to be available for selection with Arsenal needing a win to guarantee they go through to the knockout stages as group winners ahead of PSV Eindhoven.
The Gunners face a quick turnaround with Sunday’s London derby at Stamford Bridge kicking off at midday.
Whether both games will come too soon for Zinchenko, meanwhile, remains to be seen with the Ukraine international having missed the last eight games in all competitions.
The summer signing from Manchester City made a major impact during the early weeks of the season but are are blessed with top class back-up in that area of the pitch with both Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu excelling in the Ukraine international’s absence.
Tierney has had to settle for more of bit-part role in recent weeks with Arteta preferring the right-footed Tomiyasu on the left flank much to the surprise of former Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre.
‘It’s true that the manager [Mikel Arteta] is using options that we wouldn’t guess at the beginning of the season,’ Silvestre told bettingexpert.
‘You know, Ben White at right-back and Tomiyasu at left-back against [Mohamed] Salah, for instance.
‘There’s a lot of competition. Tierney is a good player so again, it’s not easy to deal with these situations.
‘But he also has a very good mentality, he just needs to keep patient and wait for opportunities. There will be a lot of games to play.’
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