Mikel Arteta put his Arsenal players through their paces at London Colney this afternoon.
The Gunners welcome Burnley to the Emirates Stadium tomorrow and Arteta’s troops will be determined to put Thursday behind them.
They lost 2-0 in a League Cup semi-final to Liverpool and now it’s all about finishing in the top four in the Premier League for Arsenal.
One interesting sight from Arteta’s latest training was that of Arthur Okonkwo.
The 20-year-old goalkeeper, who stands at 6’5, looks one hell of a unit and in one photograph, we saw a reliable metric of his scale after towering over Alexandre Lacazette and Ben White.
Opportunity knocks
These next five months could be absolutely massive for the Arsenal academy graduate.
Okonkwo, who’s never played in the Premier League but made the bench five times earlier this season, is behind Aaron Ramsdale and Bernd Leno in the pecking order.
However, the young stopper could potentially get a promotion.
That’s because Leno is linked with a transfer to Newcastle United and should it happen this month, he’d be have a good opportunity at becoming Ramsdale’s understudy on a regular basis.
Let’s not forget that Arteta also has Karl Hein in his ranks, and he’s a full Estonia international.
But Arteta clearly fancies Okonkwo if he’s permitted to train with the senior players, which he obviously has done quite a lot.
Come next season, the Arsenal youngster might just be pushing Ramsdale instead of being third or fourth down the pecking order but, again, that’s entirely up to him and how he performs in training.
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