Ahead of their North London derby against Tottenham today, England-born Nigerian youngster Bukayo Saka trained with the Gunners’ first team, giving him a glimmer of hope he could make his side’s matchday squad.

The Gunners welcome their fierce North London rivals to the Emirates on Sunday evening and finetuned preparations for the clash with a final training session on Saturday evening, with Saka featuring in the first team session.

Manager Unai Emery called up the teenage Nigerian winger to train with the first team at London Colney in St Albans on Saturday.

Star names like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pépé, Reiss Nelson and Henrikh Mkhitaryan took part in the session and this suggests that Saka has a slim chance of making his first appearance of the season against Spurs.

To date the Hale End Academy product has played four matches for Arsenal’s first team, the last coming against Blackpool in the FA Cup about eight months ago.

Despite Saka’s limited first team experience, he showed signs of promise in the five matches he was involved in during the pre-season. The 17-year-old has featured in only one match for Arsenal U23s in the current season, against Everton on August 23.