Arsenal face Liverpool in a Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon, and the Gunners prepared for the encounter by training at the ground on Saturday.
Photos of the session don’t show every player involved, with Arsenal clearly trying to maintain some secrecy with regards to the fitness of a few key senior stars.
But the images do confirm that there were a few youth players involved.
Winger Ismeal Kabia, midfielders Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, right-back Josh Nichols, and goalkeeper Alexei Rojas were all involved with the first team, filling gaps in the senior squad.
Perhaps it’s unfair to refer to Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri as youth players at this stage, with Mikel Arteta recently confirming that he considers them to be first-team players now.
But the other three are certainly still academy youngsters, even if both Kabia and Nichols did make first-team debuts in the League Cup last month.
Rojas is the only player still waiting on a senior debut, having made the bench for that League Cup clash in September.
It’s harder to give a goalkeeper a cameo appearance, but the 19-year-old Colombia u20 international has been around the first-team squad a lot this season.
If any of the five are at all likely to play any minutes against Liverpool, it’s definitely Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri you’re looking at.
Though Lewis-Skelly is primarily a midfielder, he’s done a good job filling in at left-back for the senior side, whilst Nwaneri has shown glimpses of what he can do in Martin Odegaard’s usual role.
With the injuries to Odegaard and a few of Arsenal’s left-backs, there’s an opening for the duo right now.
