Arsenal's Partey to train ahead of north London derby against Spurs

Arsenal star Thomas Partey will return to training alongside his team-mates ahead of the north London derby with Premier League leaders Tottenham, according to Mikel Arteta.

Partey has been sidelined with a thigh injury sustained in Arsenal's defeat to Aston Villa at the beginning of November.

The 27-year-old Ghana international had been training on his own as part of his recovery, but will now join up with the rest of the Arsenal squad.

Speaking after the Gunners' 4-1 win over Rapid Vienna in the Europa League on Thursday, Arsenal manager Arteta suggested Partey could play a part in Sunday's showdown against Spurs.

"Well, he's putting a lot of pressure on us," Arteta told a media conference.

"He's training tomorrow [Friday] with us and let's see how it goes in the next couple of days."

Arsenal made it five wins from as many Group B matches against Rapid as they were afforded some respite from inconsistent displays in the Premier League.

It was only the second time the Gunners have achieved the feat in Europe, having done so during the 2005-06 Champions League in which they reached the final.

Welcome back, we’ve missed you! @Arsenal pic.twitter.com/EFbJuIzwzm
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Arteta also urged his players to show the same fight as they did in the win over Rapid in the clash with Jose Mourinho's high-flying Tottenham.

"We've been really consistent in this competition I think the boys showed great energy, character and aggression," he explained.

"Right from the beginning you could feel that they were touched from the last defeat and everybody individually played a really good game.

"Again, we were in the final third really aggressive with the ball. We created many chances for goals and probably should have scored more.

"Now, let's take that into Sunday a very special game, we're all looking forward to it and let's do it again."

Arteta made 11 changes for the match against Rapid from the side which lost 2-1 to Wolves in the Premier League last week, but hinted a number of players have put themselves in the frame to face Spurs.

He added: "I try to use different competitions to put two different teams. It's because as well we are using them with the amount of injuries, suspensions and things that we had.

"You've seen that in the last few games we've used some players on Thursday and they played on the weekend.

"The performance level that they can give is very good and you can see tonight that some of them might deserve to start the game on Sunday."