Arsenal could be without as many as five first-team players when they take on Chelsea this weekend, as they look to close out their tour of the US with a 100% record.
The Gunners have already earned wins over Everton and Orlando on their travels, as well as beating Nurnberg in Germany before that, and we will now take on our London rivals Chelsea before returning to England.
We look set to remain without five players however, with all of Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kieran Tierney, Alex Runarsson, Bernd Leno and Emile Smith Rowe all currently nursing injuries.
Ben White could feature having made his return to the bench in our most recent outing, while Fabio Vieira is also believed to be in contention as he eyes his pre-season debut after his move from Porto this summer.
As much as I hope White is ready to get back in action, I’m more than happy for Saliba to get further minutes so that he can integrate into the team more, and it will certainly be interesting to see how he deals with the challenge that Chelsea possess.
This will be our biggest test of pre-season so far, but I still expect the manager to rotate the squad heavily as he prioritises readying his players for the new term over a win over our rivals, although there is no harm in wanting both.
Which players are you hoping will step up in the absence of those injured stars?
Patrick
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Watch highlights from Arsenal’s open training session on our preseason tour of the USA
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