Arsenal continued their preparations for their Europa League last-16 clash with Sporting CP on Wednesday with a welcome boost at London Colney.
The Gunners travel to Portugal to face Ruben Amorim's side in the first-leg on Thursday before welcoming the Lions to north London for the return leg a week later.
Mikel Arteta's side come into the tie in title-winning form with four straight wins to gain a five point lead at the top of the Premier League. But, for the first time since November, the Gunners will put their league ambitions on hold to possibly win the club’s first-ever European trophy.
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Although the league will always take priority, the trip to Portugal provides Arteta an opportunity to hand a number of his players a much-needed rest. March is a difficult month with four games left to be played before the upcoming international break.
One area of the Arsenal squad that is currently loaded with options is the forward line. At the weekend, Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson marked their returns to action in style with one goal and two assists between them - including the latter's dramatic last-minute winner.
Smith Rowe replaced Leandro Trossard in the first-half after the Belgian went down injured. The Hale Ender lasted 47 minutes before being replaced by Nelson. “We didn’t plan to throw him in so early," explained Arteta.
"We knew it was difficult for him to last 70 minutes on the field after missing nearly five months. But I think he had a good impact but at the end, I felt we needed something else on the left because we were lacking threat and we were attracting more players into that (left) side. That’s why we made the decision to bring Reiss on."
Ahead of the first-leg, Arsenal have been handed possibly the biggest injury boost they could hope for. Gabriel Jesus has been out of action since suffering a knee injury at the World Cup and has left a gaping hole in Arteta's attack.
And after participating in the post-match warm-down on Saturday, Jesus returned to training alongside his teammates at London Colney. Arteta has previously hinted that the 24-year-old isn't far from returning and supporters may get to see the Brazilian back in action on Thursday.
football.london were in attendance at the Gunners training ground to watch training and the forward didn’t show any signs of anxiety or holding back, which could hint that he could feature in Portugal.
"He's not far now. I don't want to give a timeline but he's doing certain things with the team, certain things outside the team. He's not very close but he is not far at all," the Gunners boss said.
"He's feeling better every day and the doctors are confident with the way the injury is evolving and we are in a good place with him I think."
On Wednesday, there was no sign of Trossard or Eddie Nketiah. Left-back Kieran Tierney was also absent from training, but football.london understands the Scotsman is just unwell.
Arteta confirmed after the win over Bournemouth that Trossard would be assessed before the European tie, saying: "It is a worry, he came to me straight away and said he couldn't continue, he'd felt something when he was tracking back, so we had to take him off. We'll assess him and see how he is."
In Nketiah's case, the striker has not started since the 4-2 win over Aston Villa and missed the Bournemouth clash after seeming to limp following the Everton victory. "We are assessing him," Arteta said of Nketiah in his pre-match press conference for Bournemouth.
"It's a bit uncertain what will happen with him to be honest in the training sessions. Let’s see, let’s keep the options open. He’s very positive about it and hopefully he’ll be fine."
Whilst Arsenal will be without Mohamed Elneny in Portugal, Jorginho could restore his place in Arteta's midfield after being replaced by Thomas Partey last week against Everton. Arteta confirmed he was unwell and he was kept on the bench against Bournemouth.
But with Partey's injury concerns, Thursday's clash provides the perfect chance for the Ghanian to rest his legs and allow Jorginho to gain some valuable minutes.
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