Arsenal expect Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool to go ahead on Thursday night - with five players set to return from Covid isolation and injury

• Premier League granted Arsenal's request to postpone north London derby
• Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was without at least 14 players for Sunday's game
• Gunners still waiting to hear when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will return 

Arsenal’s Carabao Cup tie with Liverpool on Thursday is set to go ahead.

Arsenal are confident that some of the injury issues that contributed to their request to postpone Sunday’s north London derby will have eased sufficiently ahead of Liverpool’s semi-final second leg visit to the Emirates.

Mikel Arteta was without at least 14 players last weekend, prompting Arsenal’s appeal to the Premier League.

But Martin Odegaard’s Covid isolation is over while a number of players including Bukayo Saka, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Calum Chambers and Cedric Soares were battling small injuries Arsenal hope will have cleared up.

Meanwhile Arsenal are still awaiting contact from Gabon over when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be released to return to London after his country announced he was due to return for medical checks after suffering post-Covid complications.

While Arsenal have been in touch with Aubameyang and received confirmation he is fine they have had none with Gabon.

Subsequently, due to the lack of communication, Arsenal insiders also dismissed claims from boss Patrice Neveu that the club had put Gabon ‘under pressure’ to release Aubameyang.