Excitement may be building amongst Arsenal fans ahead of transfer deadline day, but there's an important Premier League fixture taking place at the Emirates Stadium tonight.
The Gunners - the current league leaders and only team in the division with a 100 percent winning record heading into gameweek five after beating Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Bournemouth and Fulham - host Aston Villa hoping to continue their perfect start to the new season.
And ahead of kick-off, summer signing Marquinhos may have dropped a big hint about keeping his place in the matchday squad for the visit of Steven Gerrard's side as the Brazilian looks to get his first taste of competitive action in an Arsenal shirt following his £3m arrival from Sao Paulo.
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Regarded as one for the future, the teenager has been slowly phased in by Gunners manager Mikel Arteta so far. Instead of featuring in any of the first four games of the season, the winger was given opportunities with the U21s and he more than showed his promise with goal contributions against Manchester United and West Ham United.
Such has been Marquinhos' instant impact that the Spaniard revealed his plans for the Brazilian - at least for the first half of the season - amid talk of a loan move before the summer transfer window closes in order for the player to gain some first-team experience elsewhere:
"Very happy with him," Arteta told reporters. "He’s adapted really well. He's a really likeable figure even if his language is not great yet. We’re gonna keep him here for another few months and make sure he establishes himself and then see what’s best for his development."
Still to make his competitive debut for Arsenal, if the 19-year-old's social media activity is anything to go by, he will be involved in some capacity against Villa - most likely as a substitute - after doing his very best to hype up the big game in north London which all but suggest he is part of Arteta's plans tonight.
Taking to Instagram, the youngster posted an Arsenal vs Aston Villa match graphic onto his stories and given this was the exact process he took before being named on the bench against Fulham four days ago, it points towards him being included in the matchday squad once again.
Whilst it should be noted that Arsenal players such as Thomas Partey, for example, have done this in the past for games that they have gone on to miss, Marquinhos' chances of retaining his place in the squad are boosted by the fact that Mohamed Elneny is injured and will drop out.
Furthermore, following last week's transfer announcement regarding Nicolas Pepe's loan move to OGC Nice as well as Reiss Nelson not ready to return from injury just yet, Marquinhos has effectively jumped up a couple of places in the pecking order in terms of forwards available to Arteta right now.
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