After a two-hour flight, the party, headed by President Sandro Rosell, arrived in London ahead of this Saturday’s game against Manchester United. The players are settled in now at The Grove Hotel.

Day full of changes

It’s been a busy evening for the squad who had originally planned a training session at 19.00 and another one on Wednesday, before flying to London on Thursday. However, all the various options were weighed up on Tuesday and it was finally decided that with the concerns about travel difficulties deriving from the volcanic ash cloud threatening UK air space, the trip would be re-arranged for Tuesday night.

The squad finally trained on Tuesday at 18.30, half an hour ahead of the scheduled time, with the news of Gaby Milito’s medical OK undoubtedly the best news of the day.

Arsenal provide training facilities

The training sessions which had been scheduled for the rest of the week in Barcelona will be held at Arsenal’s training facilities, with the originally arranged schedule to be followed from Thursday onwards.