Gareth Southgate believes Jeremie Aliadiere has learned the lessons of his dismissal at Liverpool as the French striker prepares to face his old club Arsenal.

The former Gunners forward returns to the Emirates Stadium for the first time since signing for Middlesbrough last summer, having served his ban for an altercation with Javier Mascherano.

Aliadiere's suspension was increased from three games to four by the Football Association after they ruled that Boro's appeal against his sending off for striking out at the Argentinian across the face was "frivolous".

The decision incensed Boro chairman Steve Gibson and Aliadiere's absence was notable as the team bowed out of the FA Cup so disappointingly against Cardiff at the weekend.

But he is available for Saturday's encounter and - according to Southgate - wiser for the experience as he gets set to run out against the club where he began his career.

"Jeremie will have learned a lesson from what happened at Liverpool," said Southgate.

"His ban has been quite costly to us as a team and a club but we can only move forward and look forward to his contribution on the field now.

"It would mean a lot to him to be involved in the squad and he will want to be on the field at some point."

Southgate is glad to have Aliadiere back as the pacy front man had been in a rich vein of form.

The 24-year-old - who won a penalty in December's reverse fixture as Boro inflicted Arsenal's only Barclays Premier League defeat so far this season - had scored the match-winning goal in two of the Teessiders' three previous league games.

Southgate said: "We've missed Jeremie and the threat of his pace. He gives us something different to the other strikers that we've got and for him it's a big occasion going back to Arsenal.

"He had a long time there, not as many opportunities as he would have liked, but when you looked at the quality of strikers they had at that time it was no surprise.

"We've been the beneficiaries of Arsene Wenger reluctantly allowing him to move on."

Southgate feels Aliadiere's enforced absence will not have blunted his sharpness and insists Boro have no regrets over their failed appeal.

"He is one of the fittest lads we've got and the break won't have done him any harm," said the former club captain.

"He has had a lot of games this season, it's his first full season really so he will be refreshed.

"He is a fantastic athlete and he is getting stronger now for having the games."

He added: "I think with the appeal, as a club we decided it should have been a situation where we had nothing to lose.

"We felt it was a very harsh decision. That is a disappointment but we can't look back, we can all learn from the experience and we've got to get on with the last nine games."

Southgate has a wealth of attacking options to choose from for the trip to the league leaders, club record signing Afonso Alves having recovered from the illness which forced him to miss Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Aston Villa.

The Brazilian - still looking for his first goal since a £12.7million January switch from Heerenveen - is pushing for a start alongside Aliadiere, Mido and Tuncay Sanli.

"Alves being fit gives us more options because the lads have put in a good shift this week and a strong bench will be important as well for us," said Southgate.

More news from SportingLife.com