Arsenal’s first ever game with Unai Emery in charge is actually tomorrow afternoon (15th June) at Borehamwood. I have no idea who will be playing but I can’t imagine there will be any of our stars on show despite there not being many Gunners off to the World Cup this summer.
But our serious pre-season games don’t start until after the World Cup, and as there is no Emirates Cup scheduled this summer due to work on the stadium, and we start against Atletico Madrid in Singapore on Thursday, July 26 and follow that up against Emery’s old club Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday, July 28 at the same ground. These two games are part of the yearly International Champions Cup.
After that we are off to Dublin (in the green, in the green!) to play against Chelsea. Last years Champions have been in turmoil this season, not helped by sour relations between the UK government and Russia, and between Conte and Abramovich in fact as well. Perhaps they will have a new coach AND owner by the time we play them in the Aviva Stadium, on Wednesday, August 1, with a kick-off at 8.05pm (UK time). This is also part of the International Champions Cup, and will be swiftly followed by a pre-season friendly in Stockholm on Saturday, August 4, although our opponents are yet to be finalized.
And that seems to be it for now, although there will be quite a few more featuring our youngsters arranged for after the holidays. We are hardly likely to be going to Singapore or Stockholm but I could easily handle a few Guinesses in Dublin!
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