Wenger on Dragomir, Gilmour, McGuane, Dasilva

No fewer than 846 players have represented our first team - and that number could rise on Thursday night.

Charlie Gilmour, Vlad Dragomir and Marcus McGuane have travelled to Belarus ahead of our Europa League game against BATE Borisov, along with Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock and Josh Dasilva, who all featured against Doncaster Rovers last week.

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“We see a lot of young players, they have a good future here, that’s my opinion, but you need to develop them in a lot of areas,” Per Mertesacker said at Wednesday’s pre-match press conference. “To train with us, to travel with us, it’s the big time for such a young group. But it’s now up to them to resist those pressure situations.”

So what can Arsène Wenger tell us about those young players?

“Gilmour is a defender or central midfielder,” the boss said. “McGuane is a defensive midfielder, and overall he can play as a wing-back or even a centre back in training. Josh Dasilva is a left wing-back or a left-centre back. Vlad Dragomir is a Romanian boy, he was with us for a few years, he’s a No 10, Wilshere-style, left-footed, a creative player.”