Arsenal may once again have to field a makeshift left-back when they take on Sporting CP on Thursday night in the Europa League. Stephan Lichtsteiner had to fill in on the left side of defence when the Gunners hosted Leicester City on Monday night due to injures to Nacho Monreal and Sead Kolasianc. Both regular Arsenal left-backs damaged their hamstrings during training in the build-up to the game against the Foxes and they are major doubts to face Sporting in Lisbon on Thursday night. Arsenal released an update saying Monreal and Kolasinac were continuing to be assessed, although they did stop short of ruling them out of the Europa League clash altogether. In better news for Unai Emery, three players have now returned to full training and are available once again. Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who could even cover at left-back on Thursday night, is now fully recovered from the fractured leg he suffered against Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season. And both Sokratis – who suffered an ankle injury during the international break – and Petr Cech, who limped off during the win against Everton with a hamstring problem, are back in contention to feature. Players who are confirmed to have travelled to Portugal are Bernd Leno, Emiliano Martinez, Sokratis, Danny Welbeck, Mohamed Elneny, Lucas Torreira, Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Emile Smith Rowe, Alex Iwobi, Matteo Guendouzi, Alexandre Lacazette, Rob Holding and Carl Jenkinson. Arsenal say that captain Laurent Koscielny is being ‘integrated’ back into full training following the ruptured Achilles he suffered in May. Meanwhile, Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has singled out Bernd Leno for praise following Arsenal’s 3-1 win on Monday night. The Gunners were forced to come from behind against the Foxes to extend their winning run to seven games in the Premier League and 10 across all competitions thanks to Mesut Ozil’s equaliser and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s brace. Although, as pointed out by head coach Unai Emery in his post-match press conference , the north London outfit were made to suffer by the visitors inside the first 30 minutes. Before Ben Chilwell’s cross was turned into his own net by Hector Bellerin, City had threatened through Kelechi Iheanacho in particular, while James Maddison was pulling the strings from a number 10 position. What has somewhat flown under the radar is the brilliant save from Leno to deny Harry Maguire. The England international must have thought he scored when headed towards goal only for the German international to get down sharply and push the ball away from danger. Watching that save from the opposite end was Schmeichel and he’s pointed to that moment as a reason for Leicester’s defeat. “It is a cliché of a game of two halves,” Schmeichel told Sky Sports. “We were by far the better side in the first half and their keeper was probably the man of the match. “If he hasn’t pulled off the saves he h
