Arsene Wenger provided the strongest indication yet that he will return to his policy of deploying youngsters when the Carling Cup returns tomorrow night, after the Frenchman oversaw a training session at London Colney this morning that was comprised primarily of players from outside of the first-team squad.

There were some comparatively familiar faces on show, too, with the likes of Marouane Chamakh, Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott set to be involved in some capacity tomorrow evening, whilst fellow first-teamers Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ju Young Park are likely to be handed their first starts for the club.

The intriguing aspect of today’s session, however, was the considerable amount of youngsters on show. Not all of them will be included in the squad for tomorrow’s fixture, but they will, nonetheless, have benefited greatly from training with the first-team coaches.

With Sebastien Squillaci still ‘injured’ and Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny unlikely to be used, there is a vacancy at centre-back on Wenger’s team sheet for Shrewsbury, with Ignasi Miquel, who already has three first-team outings to his name, likely to fill the void. Other contenders include Daniel Boateng, who also trained this morning, and 17 year old Martin Angha.

Sanchez Watt, who has scored three goals in three games so far this season at Reserve level, was also amongst the group and is expected to be on the bench tomorrow night in the absence of the injured Benik Afobe, despite the club openly seeking to sell Watt during the recently closed transfer window.

Emmanuel Frimpong and Francis Coquelin will both be pushing for starts and it would not be beyond the realms of possibility to see them both begin the game and rekindle their partnership that was so effective en route to the FA Youth Cup success in 2009. Oguzhan Ozyakup and Nico Yennaris also trained, and will provide back up in that position, although Yennaris has a further string to his bow in his ability to play at right-back, a position in which he could feature at some stage tomorrow.

Yossi Benayoun is also set to start after being an unused substitute against Blackburn at the weekend, and Ryo Miyaichi will make his Arsenal debut but may not play the full 90 minutes as he is still someway off peak fitness.

Chuks Aneke, in the light of recent comments from Wenger tipping him for a first-team breakthrough, was also present and should make the bench. Lukasz Fabianski is poised to start in goal, with either Wojciech Szczesny or Damian Martinez on the bench.

In all, judging from today’s session, it would seem that, although there will be some experienced players on show, the bulk of tomorrow’s matchday squad will consist of players itching to make a first-team breakthrough.