Arteta on Tierney’s ankle injury and possible return against Watford

Kieran Tierney

did not make an appearance in

’s victories over Aston Villa and Leicester City due to his ankle problem.

Mikel Arteta

, however, confirmed on Friday that the Scotland international has partially returned to training and is on the way to recovery and may appear on Sunday’s clash against

.

“

Kieran has been training the last two days, he’s been much better so hopefully he will be available,”

Arteta said.

Steve Clarke called up Tierney in his squad for the World Cup qualifiers this month, and when quizzed whether he will be fit enough to make an appearance, the Arsenal manager said: “

Let’s see in the next few training sessions. He’s done bits with the team but not fully trained yet, so in the next two days we’ll see where he is and how he’s feeling.

”

Nuno Tavares

has pulled off impressive performances since replacing the left-back in his absence and Arteta wants to see competition for places in his team.

“Hopefully we can have more of those [selection] dilemmas and have top players performing at the top level in many positions because that raises the quality, standards and the performance of the team,”

he added.

The Gunners may make it to third place in the Premier League table as they enter the international break but their goal differences with the top teams may make it unlikely.

Arsenal are enjoying their run of nine unbeaten games across all competitions since they were defeated 5-0 against Manchester City in August.

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