Arsenal first team stars including Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck, Sead Kolasinac and Per Mertesacker returned to London Colney yesterday as pre-season preparations began.

The lads will spend the next week or so star jumping, shuttle running and lunging in advance of their trip to Australia and China.

Darren Burgess, our shiny new cone boy, was spotted strutting his stuff alongside Arsene Wenger [lead image] and word has it Shad Forsythe’s callipers were out in force as the club checked on how tubby its multi-millionaire athletes have become in the space of five weeks.

The full squad won’t be assembled until the eve of the Emirates Cup with many players either on or about to take holidays following their respective international duties.