Arsenal's preparations for Friday night's Premier League clash at home to Southampton are now complete.
The Gunners go into the game at the Emirates Stadium on the back of successive 2-2 draws away from home against Liverpool and West Ham United. Having led 2-0 in both fixtures, to not return to north London with six points has seen their title hopes dented to some degree.
With that said, Arsenal are still in control of their own destiny. Not only can they open up a seven-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the table by beating Southampton, but if they win their remaining fixtures then the Premier League trophy is heading back to N5 for the first time in nearly two decades.
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But as Mikel Arteta was quick to point out during his pre-match press conference, it's a matter of taking things one game at a time.
"That's it. That’s the conversation that we had the other day and nobody’s talking about what’s going to happen next Wednesday," the Spaniard told reporters. "We have to become really boring to everybody and be really repetitive and just focus on what we have to do this morning. That's it."
So with Arsenal's focus firmly on the Southampton game, Arteta and his coaching staff have put the first-team squad - and a few youngsters - through their paces during training this week and below is what football.london noticed from the footage that has been released by the club's official photographer.
Zinchenko hope
Oleksandr Zinchenko's status for Friday night is up in the air. The Ukraine international missed the 2-2 draw with West Ham as a precaution over a groin injury and reports this week claimed he was set to be available for selection against Southampton. However, as revealed by Arteta, it's not a certainty that the defender will return to the matchday squad.
"We will see with that one as well. It’s not certain," the Arsenal manager said in his pre-match press conference on Thursday morning. "It’s a muscular injury and it needs some time to heal, and we are not there yet."
Now, interestingly and perhaps crucially, Zinchenko was spotted in training on Wednesday. Of course, this was before Arteta's comments so the hope is that the Spaniard was simply keeping his cards close to his chest and that the player passes a late fitness test.
All smiles
From Reiss Nelson to Eddie Nketiah, the Arsenal players appeared to be in a relaxed mood ahead of the Southampton fixture. Having seen their lead at the top of the table cut to four points after back-to-back 2-0 draws in successive weeks, it wouldn't have been too much of a surprise if one or two were beginning to feel the pressure of the title race.
But as explained by Arteta, this group look ready to make amends. "What we can say is that our players have full faith in what they do," he said. "We know that what is at stake is incredibly beautiful. The best way to do it is continue to do what we want to do every single day. Tomorrow play really well, play with our crowd, create an incredible atmosphere and win that game.
"Twists and turns are part of everything that you do, especially in football. It’s not always going to be a linear progression. You have to know that and you have to be prepared for that. The way the team reacted was incredibly positive and we want to see that tomorrow night when we get onto that field."
Wonderkids train
A regular feature in almost every Arsenal training session this season are the youngsters that are involved as the likes of Ethan Nwaneri, Matt Smith and Amario Cozier-Duberry have all earned the chance to train with the senior players at some stage over the past nine months.
Aside from Reuell Walters, the likelihood of Arteta calling up more youngsters against Southampton is slim but Lino Sousa, Catalin Cirjan, Mauro Bandeira and Joel Ideh were among those who took part in Wednesday's session as they trained alongside Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Odegaard and Benjamin White.
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