Even when you can pick whoever you want out of all the football clubs in the world…Arsenal decides to play Bayern Munich. Again.
No warm balls. No shady conversations in the dark corridors of UEFA HQ. Nope, none of that. Just a quick call from Ivan Gazidis to the Allianz Arena, presumably with a ‘double or quits’ quip thrown in, and we’re off to China to play our German overlords.
Interestingly, the friendly match forms part of the International Champions Cup – a weird conglomeration of fixtures that takes place each summer across the globe. It’s mostly just a jumped up brand awareness exercise.
Our match with Bayern Munich will be played in Shanghai on Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Perhaps we can get the kick-off at ten minutes to the hour. Ho ho ho.
The inevitable defeat to Bayern will be followed by a friendly against Chelsea on Saturday, July 22 in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium. Remember, we’ll be in Sydney for a couple of games in mid-July too. Someone at the Emirates is racking up the Avios points.
A week later we’ll be back in more familiar territory as the Emirates Cup kicks-off. The club are yet to confirm who has been invited, but the way things are going you’d not bet against it being Bayern, Bayern Reserves and 11 Arjen Robben lookalikes.
It’s all a far cry from shuttle runs in the shadow of the Alps but then, who knows, maybe Arsene won’t be in charge this time?
Cant be worse than the last three results against them. Three 5-1s. Man they left us no dignity amoung top clubs.
yes, but hopefully with a new manager in our dugout too.
I don’t care if we play the ghosts of Brazil 1970, as long as we’ve got a new man in the tugout, new ideas, new mentality, new belief, I’ll be so so happy. If we start next season with Wenger I just can’t do it anymore. My soul won’t take it.
Like this is so mental. That’s the perfect way to start preseason, travel halfway around the world for no reason at all, to get a hiding off a team much much better than us.
Remember the days when Arsenal would just do a quietly little jaunt in Austria or somewhere else low key in Europe come back fresh and then proceed to actually start the season well? and when I say well, I mean, by not getting absolutely shafted at home by a totally pony side.
That’s a next level of masochism.
After all Arsene did say he is a specialist in masochism
he won’t be around for it.
You sound like an insider.
Kinky
We are like the little brother who gets severly beaten by the older brother every time only to come back for more because we so so want to be like the older brother but alas never will be because he is muscular and godly and we have brittlitus of the spine.
Just even in brand management terms, that is amazingly tone deaf.
Yay Sydney this yr. Got my tickets for both games. My 3 kids are coming with me to the Wanderers game… hoping the 2 girls come away supporting the Arsenal!
Would love to see Blogs down under.
We will beat them in a meaningless friendly and then get hammered by them when we next manage to reach the top four and qualify for the Champions League, probably in 2020/21 or worse.
My confidence is shot to pieces.
I want the boss to leave with dignity and with the respect of the fans and his legacy still relatively in tact , but the more we have no solid facts or even indications about his future ,the more I think he will sign the deal and be here for another 2 years (at least). I think we should all get prepared for another 2 years of #AKB.
Remember when preseason was just Arsenal fucking off low key to Austria for a while? Dare i say it was probably a better preparation than the game of carmen san diego they’re doing now?
Out of curiosity, is there also a movement to make the comments section about Wenger out regardless of the news item that precedes it….
I think Arsenal v Bayern in China will be fantastic from an Asian fan perspective…chances of seeing them in the Champs League are pretty slim for us out here
“Someone at the Emirates is racking up the Avios points.” HAHA – well played!
That’s a great challenge for the players better than some easy friendlies were we learn nothing for the new season. Play the best teams in pre season and get players ready. No team that wants to win the league can afford a slow start and drop x amount of points, while trying to find the best formula/players. Take the kiddie gloves off with these players and give them a pre season from hell, maybe even some kind of boot camp style training that could Weed out the busted, broken, weak ones right at the start and then move forward with… Read more »
Play Bayern if you want to get better – play Barnsley if you don’t care
Those who expect a new manager for next season prepare yourself for a bit of disappointment.
Surly to move the team forward test your self against the best.
It should be a game that the players want to play in and learn from, to get rid of the inferior complex that always seems to show up in any big game.
I think we have a chance in this kind of match where both teams still in preparation for the next season.
I hope we can see a lot of new faces at Arsenal.
Can’t wait to embarrass ourselves on a different continent. It’ll be awesome for shirt sales in Chinese fancy dress shops
Knowing arsenal very well, we’ll beat them in china – it’s a non-pressure game then turn into chicken when we meet them in a competitive fixture