Most of the Arsenal squad are in Azerbaijan at the moment, limbering up in unison ahead of Thursday night’s Europa League outing against Qarabag.
We say ‘most’ of the squad as the Gunner have been forced to leave several keys players behind: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who is ill, Aaron Ramsey whose wife is expected to give birth any moment and Henrikh Mkhitaryan who, as an Armenian, cannot enter Azerbaijan for fear of being hung, drawn and quartered political reasons.
The travelling contingent geared up by training at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, although it wasn’t long before their preparations were interrupted by a tactical visit from the stadium’s adorable little head of security…
Arsenal club photographer Stuart McFarlane got a few more photos of the Qarabag cat, including one of stout centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos sizing him up like a particularly flouncy opposition striker…
We were welcomed by this little fella before tonights training session at the Olympic Stadium in Baku. #afc #arsenal #europaleague pic.twitter.com/6ZImamMgqH
— Stuart MacFarlane (@Stuart_PhotoAFC) 3 October 2018
Awww.
Sadly, Unai Emery’s mob don’t stand a chance after having their hearts melted like that.