26-year-old Arsenal player is now back in full training ahead of Nottingham Forest clash

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Mikel Arteta has received a boost as Oleksandr Zinchenko has returned to full Arsenal training ahead of the Premier League starting.

In a video shared by Arsenal on their official website, the Ukrainian international is spotted alongside his teammates going through their final preparations.

Arsenal will be going into Saturday’s match against Nottingham Forest.

After years of waiting, Mikel Arteta finally got the better of his old mentor Pep Guardiola on Sunday.

It took a very late deflected goal from Leandro Trossard and a penalty shootout to do it, but Arsenal lifted the Community Shield after defeating Manchester City.

They will know they can’t take Nottingham Forest for granted this weekend, despite the visitors’ atrocious away record last season.

All eyes will be on Mikel Arteta’s starting line-up this weekend, given the plethora of options he has at his disposal.

Oleksandr Zinchenko returning to Arsenal training might just give him a conundrum in defence.

His chosen back four that day thwarted the best attack in the league.

Their performance may just allow the 26-year-old some extra rest, which could be welcomed given his recent injury record.

Zinchenko back in Arsenal training

The video shared by Arsenal shows the entire squad doing some high-intensity passing drills.

Youngster Amario Cozier-Duberry is among those involved, as is Cedric Soares despite his future at the club being in severe doubt.

Zinchenko is amongst the players hard at work and will know he’s got a job on his hands staying in the team.

On Sunday, Arteta selected Jurrien Timber at left-back to deal with Manchester City’s attacking options.

It would have been a blow to Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu who regularly filled in for Zinchenko when he was injured last season.

Timber did brilliantly and it says a lot that Cole Palmer got the better of Tierney minutes after he came on.

Zinchenko is still Arsenal’s best inverted left-back but Arteta will be working on the team’s shape in training to allow them to invert from the right now that Timber has arrived.

What that means for Zinchenko’s status as first-choice left-back remains to be seen.

But there has to be a reason why Arteta is keen to keep Tierney and Zinchenko at the club when they appear to have fallen down the pecking order.