Unai Emery says that Laurent Koscielny is starting to join full training with the first team for some things, a development which he describes as ‘very positive’.

Arsenal fans are excitedly awaiting the return of their club captain from an Achilles injury he picked up late last season. Koscielny had to undergo surgery on a rupture, which meant a very lengthy recovery.

The defence isn’t doing so well in his absence, with Petr Cech having to make 4.3 saves each game, compared to just 2.7 last season, when Koscielny was playing. Bernd Leno is making 4.0 saves per game, so things haven’t improved much in recent weeks either.

However, Emery had good news on Koscielny’s return, despite initially urging caution on rushing the defender back.

“We need to be calm with him,” Emery said. “Calm because we need more than a month. He needs to feel [well] first, if he is doing some things, then he is doing well. Then when he can play and is available for games in the training, [then] we can think he is okay to play.

“He is very important for us because he is our captain. He is starting this week to do some training with us together and it is very, very good news for us.

“I think we need also to give confidence to him, to be close with us, because it was a big injury. But now he is getting better, he is training with us in some things and this is very positive.”

Arsenal.com give the date of the 33-year-old’s return to full training as November, so if he’s already starting to take part in full sessions then it seems he’s at least on schedule for that.

The question is how long it will take for him to return to full match sharpness after that. Looking at the fixture list, maybe it’s best to write off getting regular starts in November and just focus on being ready for the start of December when Arsenal face Tottenham and Manchester United. We’ll see how things go.