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Arsenal boss Unai Emery works with Aubameyang ahead of Chelsea clash

  /  autty

Unai Emery and his Arsenal players stepped up their preparations for their Premier League clash with Chelsea on Saturday as they look to bounce back from an opening weekend defeat to Manchester City.

The Gunners' new era under Emery got off to an underwhelming start as they were blown away by Pep Guardiola's Premier League champions at the Emirates on Sunday.

And the Spanish manager was seen getting particularly hands on with his squad during Wednesday's session at their London Colney training base and star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was one of those to receive some physical instructions.

The squad looked to be going through some offensive drills as the former Dortmund man tries to regain the form that saw him score 10 goals in 13 appearances for Arsenal last season.

Mesut Ozil was also pictured taking part in the training session and images showed him looking particularly sharp during some exercises. New signing Lucas Torreira also played a part and the Uruguayan will be keen to win a starting berth at Stamford Bridge after being left on the bench against City.

Goalkeeper Bernd Leno was also captured in action as he continues his battle for a starting place with Petr Cech. The former Chelsea man came in for heavy criticism following the City defeat and there have been calls for Emery to hand the new recruit from Bayer Leverkusen a chance.

Young midfielder Matteo Guendouzi may be the man to make way if Torreira is handed a full debut on Saturday and the Frenchman jostled for possession against team-mate Henrikh Mkhitaryan during training.

Spanish defender Hector Bellerin was one of the more impressive performers on Sunday afternoon and he once again looked focused as he prepares to go head-to-head against Eden Hazard at Stamford Bridge.

Emery was pictured barking at the team throughout as they ran through more tactical aspects of the game. New defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos marshalled the defence as he attempts to tighten the Gunners' back line ahead of another game against a 'top six' rival.

Spirits seemed to be high within the camp though as French strike Alexandre Lacazette high-fived Rob Holding as Aubameyang laughed away in the background.

Speaking after the defeat to City, Emery admitted Maurizio Sarri's Chelsea team will pose an entirely different threat to his team than the Premier League champions did.

'Each match is different,' the former Sevilla and PSG boss told the club's official website.

'We want to prepare for each match with the difficulty and demands of the opposition.

'But today, I think the team in more time, we are playing with this personality and we need to improve this personality with better performances on the pitch.

'In the next week we are continuing this work and against Chelsea we are going to analyse the opposition. We are going there to win, with this intention against Chelsea.'