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Arsenal face Tottenham in a North London Derby this weekend with Mikel Arteta preparing his players for the huge clash on the training pitches
Mikel Arteta looked to be without four Arsenal stars for their final training session before the North London Derby against Tottenham. The Gunners head into the short trip across London having dropped points in their last two games and with just two wins in their last seven.
Despite that, Manchester City are still in second but have the chance over the coming weeks to leapfrog their title race opponents. Arsenal will be keen to make sure that does not happen with victory against their bitter rivals.
Arteta has been handed some positive injury news coming out of the 2-2 draw against Wolves on Wednesday with Bukayo Saka not injured after being forced off. There was some concussion concerns over Leandro Trossard but Arteta revealed he will not need to serve protocols.
Despite that, the Belgian was noticeably absent from the training pictures uploaded to Arsenal's website. Replays did show he took a significant hit to the jaw from Santiago Bueno and thus could still be in pain.
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While one winger was not out on the grass at London Colney, another that has been out for two months was part of training and that was Max Dowman. He was captured focused on a drill with a snood covering his face in cold conditions.
The 16-year-old has been missing since December because of an ankle injury, but Arteta delivered some good news on his potential return earlier this month when asked how his recovery was going.
He said on February 11: "He's doing very well. I think he will be with us in a week or so, and then he just needs to pick up the rhythm and be available for us."
That update arrived before the draw at Brentford with Kai Havertz also picking up a muscular issue in the build up to that away game while Arteta lost Martin Odegaard to injury at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Arteta has however stated that it is "a big possibility" for them to both return this weekend, but neither were pictured in training. The Gunners head coach also claimed it would likely be decided on Saturday whether or not that they feature in the derby.
Though all of Trossard, Odegaard and Havertz were not in any of the pictures, the trio could have still partaken in the session and therefore also be in the squad at Tottenham.
Mikel Merino was also not in any of the snaps uploaded, but he has already been ruled out for the weekend and several other games after that because of a foot injury that required surgery.
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Spurs look set to be heavily depleted for the visit of their local rivals with Destiny Udogie, Lucas Bergvall, Kevin Danso and Pedro Porro among the key names out injured.
Club captain Cristian Romero will also not feature due to suspension. Interim head coach Igor Tudor has confirmed however that Richarlison, who scored in the reverse fixture, is available
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