Laurent Koscielny is preparing to ease Arsenal’s injury problems at centre-back on Saturday by returning for the match against Watford, despite only limited first-team training.

The France defender missed both recent internationals and has not played since Arsenal’s 2-0 win against West Bromwich Albion more than two weeks ago due to an ongoing achilles tendon injury, but there is hope that the period of rest will be sufficient for him to start.

Koscielny has been managing the problem for several seasons and, although he had not joined in full training at the start of the week, the intention is for him to resume with the squad ahead of Saturday.

Koscielny’s possible return has taken added importance this week amid Shkodran Mustafi’s definite absence following a thigh injury while playing for Germany that is expected to result in a relatively long-term issue.

Shkodran Mustafi picked up a knock playing for Germany credit: GETTY IMAGES

Sead Kolasinac was also forced off at half-time for Bosnia on Tuesday night but it is understood that there was nothing severe and he will be available on Saturday. It means that Kolasinac should be able to continue at left wing-back and leave Koscielny in centre defence with Rob Holding and Nacho Monreal.

Mesut Ozil and Danny Welbeck have also resumed full training following injury and will be pressurising the places of Alexandre Lacazette, Alex Iwobi and Alexis Sanchez, who have all contributed goals or assists in recent matches in their absence.

Sanchez played late on Tuesday night as Chile exited the World Cup and so manager Arsene Wenger might be tempted to initially start with him on the bench. Theo Walcott is also pushing for a starting place after scoring three times in his last two starts in the League Cup and Europa League.

Alexis Sanchez suffered World Cup disappointment with Chile credit: AFP

As well as Sanchez, Wenger will be mindful of the World Cup disappointments that have been suffered by Aaron Ramsey with Wales, Granit Xhaka’s Switzerland and Kolasinac with Bosnia.

Talks also remain ongoing over plans to stage Arsenal’s home match with Liverpool on Christmas Eve, although the time slot of 12.30pm rather than later in the afternoon is emerging as the most likely compromise.

No decision will be taken until next week but Sky Sports may now show only one game at an earlier time slot and it would then come down to a choice between the Arsenal-Liverpool match and Manchester United’s fixture against Leicester City.

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An earlier timeslot would ease Arsenal’s wider problem of sourcing sufficient numbers of stewards for the game. Arsenal had been concerned that they would be unable to get a safety certificate for any 4pm kick-off due to a shortage of staff willing to work at that time.

Should the match now take place on Christmas Eve, Arsenal would then want the Boxing Day fixture against Crystal Palace moved to December 27 so that they were not forced to play twice in three days. The wider perspective of having their four festive matches potentially crammed into one fewer day would also be concern, although the fixture against Chelsea on New Year’s Day could well be another television choice and be subject to a later kick-off time or date.

As part of the Premier League’s £5.135 billion broadcast deal, Sky owns the rights to three matches each weekend; two on a Sunday and one on a Saturday. BT Sport have one match on a Saturday but, should Sky moves its Christmas Eve choice back to the Saturday, it would effectively lose its ‘Super Sunday’ picks.