At least seven Arsenal academy players have remained with the first-team squad following the tour of Dubai, ahead of Saturday’s friendly against Juventus.

Taylor Foran (R) challenges Eddie Nketiah in training with Arsenal (Photo via Arsenal.com)
Taylor Foran (R) challenges Eddie Nketiah in training with Arsenal (Photo via Arsenal.com)

Arsenal returned from Dubai on Wednesday, ending their participation in the Dubai Super Cup as the competition’s champions the previous day.

A lot of youth players travelled on tour with the first-team squad, partly because so many of Arsenal’s senior players were either absent for the World Cup or injured.

But with many of those players now returning, the youth contingent in training is seemingly being whittled down. From the latest batch of training photos, seven academy players could be spotted.

Nathan Butler-Oyedeji, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Taylor Foran, Ethan Nwaneri, Matt Smith, Lino Sousa, and Reuell Walters were all involved in the session, and some of them may be in the squad to face Juventus at 18:00 GMT on Saturday.

Arsenal have been slowly building up the match sharpness of their returning players, giving new returnees 45 minutes in their first match back before ramping that up with each appearance.

As a result, there will be at least a few players still not ready for the full 90 minutes on Saturday, and that’s where the youth will likely come in.

Matt Smith chasing down Granit Xhaka in training with Arsenal (Photo via Arsenal.com)
Matt Smith chasing down Granit Xhaka in training with Arsenal (Photo via Arsenal.com)

The good news is that the u21s (Sunday) and the u18s (Monday) don’t play until later, so any youngsters who don’t play a significant role against Juventus can still get a game in the next couple of days.