Mikel Arteta has the chance to name an unchanged starting XI as Arsenal host Leicester on Saturday afternoon with the aim of making it two wins from two Premier League games.
The Gunners got their season off to a perfect start on the opening night by defeating Crystal Palace 2-0 away from home thanks to Gabriel Martinelli's opener and Marc Guehi's own-goal. Arteta was delighted by the way summer signings Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus seamlessly slotted into the starting line-up, while William Saliba excelled on his long-awaited debut for the club.
Since the victory at Selhurst Park, the good news has kept on coming for Arsenal and numerous players have returned to training to give their manager a welcome conundrum. Takehiro Tomiyasu has rejoined his teammates to compete for minutes at right-back with Benjamin White, who deputed there against the Eagles.
Elsewhere, Kieran Tierney is fully fit once again after coming off the bench in South London, while new signing Fabio Vieira and No. 10 Emile Smith Rowe were involved in drills at London Colney to stake their claim for involvement. "They are in different phases, but some of them will be in the squad tomorrow," Arteta said of his returning players.
The Spaniard gave special attention to Vieira, who joined the Gunners in a £34million transfer from Porto in June. "He doesn't want to be locked in any one position, because he's so used to it, and that's a really positive thing for us," Arteta said of the midfielder.
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Turning his attention to the difficulty for Vieira to get physically ready to play Premier League football, the manager added: "It might take him now time to get there, depending on who he's playing with and how the game goes - it could take him no time to adapt. What I can tell you is that he's doing everything he can to make that process really short."
Arteta hinted Smith Rowe - one of the standout performers of his tenure as boss - has some work to do to force his way into the starting XI, which will likely require displacing one of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard or Martinelli. "He needs to stay fit, train well, and perform at the level he is able to perform because when he does that, it is really difficult not to pick him," the former midfielder said of Smith Rowe.
Arsenal predicted XI to face Leicester: Ramsdale; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Partey, Xhaka; Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Jesus.
