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[Photos] 17-year-old wonderkid trains with Arsenal first team ahead of Tottenham game

By on September 24, 2021

The Arsenal squad have been putting in the work on the training field today ahead of this weekend’s huge North London Derby against Tottenham.

We welcome our rivals to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon with Mikel Arteta looking to make it four consecutive wins in all competitions. Having beaten Norwich City and Burnley in the Premier League, Arsenal beat AFC Wimbledon 3-0 in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.

It will be a much stiffer test when Tottenham come to town on Sunday but Arteta is in the rare position of having his entire first team squad fit and available for selection this weekend. Honestly can’t remember the last time that happened.

Mohamed Elneny has recently recovered from a thigh injury while Granit Xhaka is back in contention after completing his three-game ban having sat out the Wimbledon game in midweek.

Kieran Tierney had a bit of cramp during the final stages against Burnley but he’s fit to face Tottenham on Sunday and Arsenal didn’t pick up any fresh injury concerns during our League Cup win on Wednesday.

So Arteta has a big squad to choose from this weekend and I’m sure he has some selection dilemmas to deliberate over but it’s certainly a good position for us to be in considering the vast injury issues we’ve had to contend with over recent years.

The boss is expected to make wholesale changes to the starting eleven that featured in the Carabao Cup with the likes of Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel, Ben White, Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all pushing for recalls. Our key men were all in training at London Colney today so they should come back into the side against Tottenham.

Many Arsenal fans wanted to get a glimpse of Charlie Patino against Wimbledon but he wasn’t included in the squad. The 17-year-old is a HUGE prospect and looks to have a big future at the club. Arteta has confirmed the teenager is close to breaking into the first team set-up and Patino trained alongside the first team on Friday ahead of the Tottenham game.

Patino has virtually no chance of being involved on Sunday but it’s great to see him training with the big boys and I hope it won’t be too long before he’s given a chance. Perhaps he might feature in the game against Leeds in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

Here are some photos from today’s training session courtesy of Arsenal.com: