{"id":1108,"date":"2026-04-08T08:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2026-04-08T08:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:02:44","slug":"arsenal-handed-significant-boost-as-declan-rice-and-gabriel-in-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=1108","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal handed significant boost as Declan Rice and Gabriel in training"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Ahead of their trip to Lisbon to face Sporting CP in the Champions League quarter-finals, Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have been handed a significant boost in their pursuit as Declan Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes have both been spotted in training.<\/p>\n<p>Looking to get back to winning ways after crashing out of the FA Cup on the weekend at the hands of Championship outfit Southampton, having as many players as possible will be good news for the Gunners.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal\u2019s quadruple hunt has been halved in just a couple of weeks \u2013 having lost to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and their subsequent defeat to Saints \u2013 and they\u2019ll need to turn the screw in weeks to come.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:<\/strong> Sporting CP vs Arsenal: TV channel, kick-off time &#038; how to watch<\/p>\n<p>Not only do Arsenal have a chance to progress into the latter rounds of Europe\u2019s most prestigious competition in the coming weeks but their Premier League encounter with City later this month could also determine the champions of England.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Rice and Gabriel back in training ahead of Sporting encounter in Lisbon<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Midfielder Declan Rice, who was absent for his side\u2019s shock defeat away at Southampton, has been pictured with his teammates in training at London Colney on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Gabriel, who was among the many Arsenal players who withdrew from international duty in the weeks just gone, played at St Mary\u2019s on the weekend \u2013 but the Brazilian picked up an injiry and was unable to continue beyond the 72nd minute.<\/p>\n<p>The defender has also been spotted in training which is another encouraging sign for Arteta\u2019s side in such a tricky period of fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>That said, the fact that the talismanic Bukayo Saka was absent from training will ring alarm bells for the travelling Emirates Stadium faithful \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean that he won\u2019t be part of the squad for Sporting.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\/>\n<p>Elsewhere, left winger Leandro Trossard \u2013 who also missed his side\u2019s FA Cup trip down south \u2013 is likely to travel to Portugal. <\/p>\n<p>As mentioned, Arteta and his entourage will be eager to have as many of their first-team players ready and raring to go for such an important tie. Not having Saka on the right-hand side could be a big miss though.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Predicting Arsenal\u2019s XI for Sporting Champions League clash<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Arsenal boss Arteta made plenty of changes for his side\u2019s away encounter at Southampton\u2026 but he\u2019s unlikely to not go down the same avenue for Tuesday night\u2019s trip to the Portuguese capital. <\/p>\n<p>David Raya, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes are destined to form the three-man defensive unit at the back with Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber (if he passes fit!) on either side of the back line.<\/p>\n<p>Timber was absent from the above footage and Ben White would operate in the Dutchman\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n<p>Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi and Martin Odegaard are likely to operate as the three-man midfield with the latter taking on an advanced role with the other two doing the dirty work behind him.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/ltKDEQjqTuOt-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-132398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/ltKDEQjqTuOt-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/ltKDEQjqTuOt-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/ltKDEQjqTuOt-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/ltKDEQjqTuOt.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Viktor Gyokeres is bound to start after scoring Arsenal\u2019s solitary goal in their FA Cup demise against Saints \u2013 with Trossard starting on the left.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that Noni Madueke was put through his paces at London Colney on Monday means that he could be the replacement for Saka on the right flank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ahead of their trip to Lisbon to face Sporting CP in the Champions League quarter-finals,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}