Arsenal will play a behind-closed-doors game against Austrian side LASK Linz today as Unai Emery and his staff step up preparations for the Europa League Final .
The fixture, played at Arsenal's London Colney training ground, will help bridge the 17-day gap between the end of the Premier League season and the final against Chelsea in Baku on May 29, while Danny Welback is likely to get a chance to prove his fitness to Emery to feature in one final game before leaving the club this summer.
Linz are second to Red Bull Salzburg in the play-off for the Austrian title and are not the first to be invited for a behind-closed-doors game by Emery, with his side having faced Brentford, Crawley Town and Crystal Palace in similar games since his arrived.
The Spaniard, who won three consecutive Europa League titles with Sevilla, says this final is their first real chance to reduce the gap between themselves and Chelsea.
“We want and we feel this competition as an important competition for us. We want to feel a special moment, and this is a special moment.
In Pictures | Arsenal training ahead of Europa League final | 22/05/19
"We want to enjoy it, whether it’s very far or not for the supporters. The match is the same importance.
“I think it’s very special in two ways. One is because it’s a derby we are going to play away but we are going to feel the same. We need to battle against them.
"We finished behind them in the Premier League, and last year they were in front of us.
“Our ambition is to reduce the difference with them in all the competitions. Our first possibility, our challenge is in this final.”
