Tierney antics, injury blow - Three things spotted in Arsenal training

Mikel Arteta has been putting his Arsenal side through their paces ahead of this evening's Europa League round of 16 second leg against Sporting CP at Emirates Stadium

Arsenal welcome Sporting CP to the Emirates Stadium this evening as they look to progress to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League.

The north Londoners played out a 2-2 draw in Lisbon in the first leg, with William Saliba's opener cancelled out by Goncalo Ignacio and Paulinho before Hidemasa Morita's freak own goal meant the spoils were shared at the Estadio Jose Alvalade. Ahead of the second leg, Mikel Arteta has been putting his side through their paces at the club's London Coney training ground.

Below, football.london takes a look at three things we noticed in the Gunners' latest training video.

Squad morale

There are plenty of reasons Arsenal currently sit on top of the Premier League table with less than a third of the season to go and one of the biggest of those is the excellent morale within the squad. Wednesday's session was no different.

During a drill that had players competing against each other to see who had the quickest reaction time, the players were seen in a great mood, erupting into a chorus of cheers when youngster Catalin Cirjan defeated Bukayo Saka in the final round. The likes of Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Martinelli all surrounded Cirjan, jumping up and down whilst cheering when the Romanian-born midfielder defeated Saka.

Nketiah blow

Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus have both returned to training in recent times, meaning that Eddie Nketiah is the only senior player in the Gunners' squad currently absent due to injury. The Hale End academy graduate was not spotted again during Wednesday's session and may not return to full training until next month.

In fact, Arteta will be without the 23-year-old until after the international break — late March to early April — due to his ongoing ankle injury, football.london understands.

Tierney antics continue

Since joining Arsenal back in the summer of 2019, left-back Kieran Tierney has been known to wear a t-shirt and shorts no matter the weather. The Scottish international is clearly used to the cold, often seen without any extra layers on even when the pitch is covered in snow.

In Wednesday's session, it was no different. Despite his teammates donning under armours and/or tracksuit bottoms, Tierney was seen in his usual t-shirt and shorts combination.