What Mikel Arteta forced Myles Lewis-Skelly to do for Arsenal before PSG as Martin Odegaard fights

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Mikel Arteta took his final Arsenal training session ahead of the biggest match in his managerial career. It is arguably the most important he has been involved in either as a player or a coach.

The preparations are now done. His team will travel to Paris on Tuesday afternoon before facing the media in the evening. The time for talking is almost over.

Arsenal know that they will have to go to the Parc des Princes and win. If they want to avoid penalties then they will need to do it by at least two goals. With a 1-0 deficit to overturn from the Emirates Stadium last week, the task at hand is huge.

Ousmane Dembele's goal separates the two sides after his fourth-minute strike in north London. Paris Saint-Germain will now have their own supporters behind them and stand on the cusp of a second final in five years.

Ahead of the game Arsenal trained publicly briefly. Here football.london has some of the main points spotted from the session.

Injury lookout

Arsenal have been dealing with a host of injuries all season and had a number of doubts once more for this match. Jurrien Timber missed the loss to Bournemouth with an unspecified problem and Arteta had been extremely coy on a potential timeline for his return.

Jorginho and Riccardo Calafiori were long-term problems with the former a doubt not to play again this season after taking a blow to the ribs. This session brought only positive news, though.

Timber was quickly spotted in training as he walked out next to captain Martin Odegaard. He followed a large group of William Saliba, Gabriel Martinelli, Kieran Tierney, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Bukayo Saka. Raheem Sterling walked out on his own in the middle of all this.

The surprise inclusion was Calafiori, who was among the final players to be seen at the Sobha Realty Training Centre. He came bounding out over the grass to join his teammates. The left-back will be a major boost if he can be named in the squad.

Kai Havertz remains out. Gabriel Magalhaes, Gabriel Jesus, and Takehiro Tomiyasu are all sidelined for the rest of the season as well.

Youngsters involved

Arteta has hardly had a bench to choose from at times of late. Sterling has often been unused as a substitute with Tierney preferred as an attacking reinforcement.

Ethan Nwaneri is only 18 and is the most impactful of the choices for Arteta. There are no senior strikers on the bench with Nathan Butler-Oyedeji the closest thing Arteta has as a natural No.9. Mikel Merino has been playing that role but was moved back into midfield for the first leg due to Thomas Partey's suspension.

In order to fill the squad, Arteta has turned to the Hale End academy to bolster his numbers. Included in the session here were midfielders Jimi Gower and Michal Rosiak. Both have been involved previously this season. Butler-Oyedeji was also present as the trio walked out together to represent the club's youth system.

Despite making the step up to senior training on several occasions this year, 15-year-old Max Dowman was not seen. Saka and Myles Lewis-Skelly continue to fly the flag and were both in the first few to appear, showing their eagerness to get started.

Rice hug

Once very early stages of this session got underway it was eventful for Declan Rice. He has been a standout for Arsenal during this Champions League run and took some time to relax his way in here.

When running through a set of poles in a warmup drill, he decided to blast his volley back to the coach and sent it a long way beyond the waiting hands. He then turned round and jumped into a pole, giving it a brief hug and seemingly pretending to ride it like a broomstick, leapfrogging as he went.

Just behind him was Saka and Zinchenko. As Saka waited for his short volley pass, Zinchenko came from behind him and pushed him out of the way, disrupting the flow. Saka then turned with a childish grin on his face and laughed.

Shortly after, a fun drill aimed at protecting the ball around a cone saw Odegaard come face-to-face with Leandro Trossard. The Belgian forward had his body between Odegaard and the ball, bending down to make it hard for his teammate.

Odegaard wasn't having any of it, though, and jumped onto Trossard's back, trying to push him out of the way. They then tangled in a play fight with Trossard sent tumbling.

He was soon joined on the floor by Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri. Spotted by Arteta doing something wrong, the pair were told to drop and do some press ups as a funny punishment.

Arsenal plan

Unlike PSG for the first leg, Arsenal decided against travelling to train at the stadium the day before. It is increasingly uncommon for English clubs in Europe to do this, especially for shorter trips on the continent.

However, ahead of such a crucial game, many might question why Arsenal have not taken the chance to get accustomed to their surroundings with it being a new ground for most. Instead, Arsenal's players will complete their training session at London Colney before heading out later in the day. They will not train again until the match.

Some prefer clubs to be in the game environment as soon as possible but Arsenal have not used the ploy this season. They have picked to continue working at their own facilities.

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