Three regular Arsenal starters absent from training pictures ahead of Aston Villa clash

Arsenal were back in training on Monday ahead of tonight's crunch Premier League title clash against Aston Villa

Arsenal's preparations for tonight's blockbuster clash against Aston Villa were in full swing at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Monday.

The Gunners had Sunday off after narrowly pipping Brighton 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

Now Mikel Arteta's side are out to end Villa's 11-match unbeaten streak as they also seek to get their revenge on Unai Emery's men, who beat them 2-1 at Villa Park at the start of the month.

There is some concern though from an Arsenal perspective that the squad might not be at full strength.

Cristhian Mosquera and Ben White have been sidelined in recent weeks with ankle and hamstring issues respectively, while Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori also missed the win over Albion.

Neither player was spotted in Arsenal's Monday training photo gallery and crucially, Declan Rice was also absent.

Rice slotted in at right-back against Brighton and missed the 3-0 Champions League win at Club Brugge earlier in the month due to illness.

As ever, it's still possible that Timber, Calafiori or Rice may have trained and just weren't pictured to create a sense of mystery.

In the past, players have been absent from the training pictures and then featured in matches the following day.

It's also possible that those players did not train but might still be available for Villa.

Last week, Piero Hincapie was not spotted in the training pictures and did then miss the Carabao Cup quarter-final triumph over Crystal Palace.

The Ecuador international collided with Calafiori in the 1-0 Premier League win at Everton and was forced to sit out of the nail-biting penalty-shootout victory over the Eagles.

The rest of Arsenal's key stars were in training and a number of youngsters also supplement Arteta's squad for part of the session.

The Spaniard knows full well that it's going to be a tough game against high-flying Villa, stating ahead of the contest: “We have a really tough match. We know their level, what they are doing, but it's a beautiful game as well to prepare and play. [Villa] merit to be there. Look at what they are doing and how consistent they've been, and what Unai has done with the club.

“I think they fully deserve that credit because they are doing it on the pitch where you have to show your level. We'll watch [the previous meeting] back. I have a few ideas and things that we have to do better. It was quite cruel as well, the way we lost it, but we'll learn from it."