Saka and Saliba to miss Chelsea clash fears are inevitable after Arsenal training absence

On Friday afternoon when Arsenal released their training footage ahead of the Chelsea clash, some notable names did not appear in the video clip that lasted all of two minutes and 50 seconds.

Having said that, a few hours later additional images from the session did include Jorginho and fellow midfielder Thomas Partey. However, there was still no sign of Bukayo Saka, William Saliba or Leandro Trossard — who stayed behind for treatment over the past week instead of reporting for international duty.

Cue the inevitable fears among some supporters that the trio are set to miss the Chelsea game. In fairness, those concerns are not entirely misdirected as Trossard wasn't spotted in any of the 30 pictures released from the pre-North London Derby training session, fuelling rumours online that he may have pictured an injury.

As things turned out, the Belgium international ended up missing the 2-2 draw against Tottenham Hotspur and only recently returned to action before sustaining a hamstring injury that forced him off at half-time in the 1-0 victory over Manchester City just under a fortnight ago.

But does his — along with Saka and Saliba's — absence from Friday's training session mean they won't be available for selection as Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening? Well, at the time of writing, it's impossible to draw any conclusions as they could have been present at London Colney but simply not captured by the club's photographer.

Furthermore, this scenario was somewhat commonplace for Arsenal last season. Two examples that stand out are Saliba not being spotted in any of the pre-match training images ahead of the 3-0 win over Brentford, but being named in the starting line-up and Saka prior to the North London Derby