A few Arsenal youth players took part in first-team training this week and appear set to make the first-team squad against RC Lens on Wednesday night.
The latest team news ahead of Arsenal’s match against RC Lens on Wednesday night suggests Fabio Vieira will miss the match after an operation on his groin, but Ben White should be fit to feature.
Emile Smith Rowe, Thomas Partey, and Jurrien Timber are all longer-term absentees, leaving Arsenal with a senior squad of 21 players.
UEFA competitions allow for a 12-player bench, meaning a total squad of 23, giving Mikel Arteta two free spots to call up youth players – should he choose to do so.
Arteta hasn’t always utilised free squad spots in the Champions League, choosing to leave a spot unfilled against PSV. But he did then call up Charles Sagoe Jr. and Amario Cozier-Duberry to the bench against Sevilla.
The early signs suggest he’s set to call a couple of players up again on this occasion.
A number of Arsenal youngsters could be seen taking part in first-team training on Tuesday, including Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Reuell Walters, James Hillson, and Osman Kamara.
But it’s unlikely Walters and Kamara will feature in the first-team match, as they’ve both been named in the u19 squad to face RC Lens in the UEFA Youth League earlier in the day.
The Youth League squad doesn’t include Lewis-Skelly or Nwaneri, which could be a hint at potential call-ups for the duo, and Cozier-Duberry, Bradley Ibrahim, and Sagoe Jr. also aren’t involved in the u19 squad.
Though Hillson isn’t in the u19 squad, the goalkeeper is unlikely to be called up to the first team, as Arsenal already have Aaron Ramsdale, David Raya, and Karl Hein to fill their three spots.
With only two spare spaces likely to be on offer, we won’t see all five of the u19 absentees in the first-team setup.
But Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri seem like good bets given their participation in first-team training and unexpected absences from the u19 squad.
The midfield pair just recently returned from the u17 World Cup, in which they featured regularly for England.