Most of the Arsenal players are preparing for Unai Emery’s first season, although Danny Welbeck will be the last to return having played a gruelling 11 minutes at the World Cup Finals. The friendlies have begun with the 8-0 drubbing of Boreham Wood which saw Sokratis and Guendouzi make their debuts, swiftly followed by the unpublicised 9-0 win over Crawley Town in which Bernd Leno kept his first clean sheet for the Gunners.
These were gentle warm-ups for the serious stuff, after flying to Singapore this Sunday we start against Atletico Madrid 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 to play against Chelsea. Last years Champions have been in turmoil last season, but Abramovich has now appointed Sarri to take over from Conte but he hasn’t had much time to get to know his players yet. We get to 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, where we will play Lazio rather than Sevilla who have had to pull out for unknown reasons.
That will be our last publicized game until we face the Champions Man City in Emery’s first official game as Arsenal boss, and I for one cannot wait to see our new line-up in action.
Come on you Gooners!!!
Admin
i’m buzzing too. The friendlies are not the real thing buy they will give us an insight to what the team will look like when the season finally kicks off.
The good pre-season matches will make Arsenal almost ready for the upcoming season
I like how Emery used the young players’ energy to apply high pressure on the opponents
I think we would see some of the current squad rotation players replaced by Rowe, Maitland-Niles, Adelaide and Nelson
Emery prefers the 3 man central midfield formation.
Torreira , Ramsey and Maitland Niles can form a formidable trio, full of energy and aggression.
So the 3 man attack would be – Laca , PEA , and Mkhi/Ozil
Good to see a three man midfield without the man himself.I’m hoping players are not shoehorned into the starting line-up.It’ll be interesting to see that 4-3-3 with Laca and Auba because these two are not very good in 1v1 situations.Its not only about how good they are but note that every formation comes with it’s needs.
… and whi said Auba is not good in 1v1? do you know how many of the he has scored? you think you know everything.
Oga, keV knows everything.
And transfer news boss keV?
I think he meant 1v1 as in dribbling not finishing, he is trying to say he would not like to see auba or laca on the wings because they aren’t natural wingers and he doesn’t feel they would be good in the 1v1 against a fullback.
Almost agree with that line-up, except Ozil sucks on the wings.
I have a feeling Ramsey would not continue with Arsenal, hence Ozil would play in the middle (but deeper) and Aubameyang/ Mkhitaryan/ Perez/ Nelson would compete for the wing positions
Hope you guys remember way back when from my research I said Kelechi Nwakali to Porto was a done deal?
We are still very very much interested in a winger and the likes of Dembele,Coman and Lozano are still on our list.But the Coman deal at this stage is unlikely to happen.We are very much interested in Dembele but Barca need another winger for this move to become reality.We want a special talent for our wing position.
I read somewhere that Emery has decided against signing Soyuncu because of Chambers.If this is true I now understand why the links have died down.He may still come if Mustafi leaves but should we not sign Soyuncu if he leaves it means he has actually decided against signing him.
Good prediction on Nwakali @kev
Dembele would be good, but it is also okay if he doesn’t come, because he was not impressive at Barcelona and World Cup. I hope Barcelona take Hazard or Willian, because both possess world class ball control and dribbling skill
I hope Man City can sell Bernardo Silva to Arsenal, since they have four very good wingers now. If Sokratis doesn’t perform well at the upcoming pre-season matches, Arsenal might as well keep Mustafi
Talking of pre season friendliest, we lost 1-2 at home to Brentford yesterday. Auba got our goal but aparantly a Leno mistake let Brentford score the winner. Let the doom and gloom begin……….. ?
I saw the score but didn’t know that happened!! Oh Jesus……… ☹
It was just a friendly, but I hope Leno doesn’t have the old erratic behaviour the media reported
Yes I’m not too worried just yet…. if it happens again next week against Atletico & PSG then I will be!!!
Made the call when we were in for Leno told you guys he was very error prone and already made a blunder please do not let this guy start as our number 1 we will have to score 3 goals a game to give us a cushion for his mistakes!!!
He made the most errors leading to a goal in the Bundesliga last season, a not very impressive 16 goals.
I’m trying to be optimistic about about our signings, but some of them are not too inspiring, I really hope I’m wrong.
I read that Cech will still be our number one
in other news, The legendary Arsene Wenger has once again rejected Madrid offer to be their headcoach, hereby being linked to the Japan national team Job .
only one Arsene!
Really?It was my understanding Real Madrid secured the Spanish National Team Manager BEFORE Athens World Cup started.The “Legendary Arsene Wenger” was not even considered for the job.In fact the “Legendary Arsene Wenger” is now down the order of Third Rate has Bernd who can only find work in the lower doldrums of International Football.I truly hope he gets the job.Id hate the thought of him coming back to Arsenal to try and spunk some job or another.
Hahahhha welbeck had a gruelling 11 minutes at the world cup. I hope we sell him and buy Coman or Zaha.
there was no COHESION between the Spanish media and the Real madrid president thus making the news unknown to so many of you ???
And before anyone gets me started with “He’s gone now, let him be.” we still talk about Graham , Henry , Bergkamp ! Dein , ? I don’t get why some of you feel the need to defend Wenger whenever his name is being brought up ???
No chance I will ever defend Wenger.He should be prosecuted for crimes against Arsenal Football Club for the way he mis/managed our club the last few seasons.Im more than pleased to dig him out with anyone who sticks up for him
Ive heard Emery is giving the players tough training sessions. That’s good news if it’s true. It shows he knows what he is doing and hopefully the players will respect that