Rob Holding, Danny Welbeck and Hector Bellerin have joined the Arsenal squad for the trip to Dubai where the team will do some warm weather training and play a friendly game against Al Nasr next week.
The two defenders have been sidelined with cruciate knee ligament injuries, while the England international has been out of action since last year following a broken ankle.
The trip is as much about team bonding as staying fit – they could have done that much more easily in England – so it’s nice to see the lads who otherwise would be on the fringes involved with their teammates.
Senior players on the trip include Mesut Ozil, Petr Cech, Bernd Leno, Alex Lacazette, Denis Suarez, and Shkodran Mustafi, while youngsters like Dinos Mavropanos, Charlie Gilmour, Ben Sheaf, Tyreece John-Jules, Xavier Amaechi, Zech Medley, Jordi Osei-Tutu and Julio Pleguezuelo have also travelled.
The squad picture does not include Laurent Koscielny or Nacho Monreal, while other first team players involved in Interlull duty for their countries are obviously not involved.
??✈️??
Traveling in style with @emirates – see you soon, Dubai?#ArsenalInDubai pic.twitter.com/HRRTM9n8SU
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) March 21, 2019
Update: Thanks to all our eagle-eyed readers who have pointed out that in another picture Koscielny was pictured front and centre with Unai Emery.
The Gunners flew out of Heathrow on an Emirates flight this morning and will touch down at 8pm local time at Dubai International airport. They will stay at the Ritz-Carlton.
Gulf News reports that in addition to training sessions and the friendly, players from the Arsenal party will visit the Rashid Centre For People With Determination on Sunday before meeting with Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance, who has been the Chairman of Al Nasr since 1960.
May this trip be the catalyst for the form that will make us finish third.
This is a great opportunity for the youngsters to make a good impression and book their spot in next seasons preseason tour. If they impress there again then who knows, maybe they could stake a claim for the first team (not getting carried away but optimistic about it). This could also act as a mini preseason for Dennis Suarez. For me he hasn’t done enough to impress and has been a bit underwhelming. But considering he’s barely played any league football this season at Barca, and the fact that he needs time to adapt to the physical demands of the… Read more »
Dennis needs to start making a very strong impression.
Thus far it has been slightly timid albeit last match he got stuck in better.
Otherwise ‘panic loan’ (courtesy of Sven and Raul) will end, we will have to find alternative solution.
why does the faces look like a poor photoshop job???
While there can they get one those rich rulers to give us a billion pounds or so.
Or buy the club outrightly.
Let’s hope that they all come back refreshed and ready to give 100% in all the remaining games this season. This will be make or break of course and although Emery hasn’t been in post very long (but he’s nearly halfway through his initial two year contract – albeit it with an option of a third year) we’ll see how much difference he’s managed to make very soon. Fingers crossed everyone.
I think we’ve already seen that he’s made a massive difference in less than a year.
True, he’s certainly has made a positive difference in a short time, but I’m not sure we can say that it’s a “massive” difference quite yet. A top four finish will cement all his good work so far, but if we don’t manage it will it be a “massive” improvement? A Europa League trophy would be great of course, particularly if we don’t get a top four finish, but we’re still a way away from that with Napoli (certainly no Bate or Rennes) coming up. We’ll see.
It would have been better if he hadn’t nearly blown it somewhere in the middle, but am happy with the way things are going at the moment
If he finishes top 3 above Spurts plus a Europa, it would be an improvement.
Top 4 no Europa is not much improvement.
Who is that tall fella on the far right at the back
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjCsPWesZPhAhUy2eAKHecVC9YQzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arsenal.com%2Fnews%2Fyoung-gun-arthur-okonkwo&psig=AOvVaw0R682eP_zz352dh27q97w8&ust=1553262871633124
That is Arthur Okonkwo, a Goalkeeper with the U-18s and 23s
Boris Johnson?
Yep, Arthur Okwonko.
6ft5″ Goalkeeper
Looking forward to finding out which of our players are people with determination, as I assume that’s what the center of the same name tests for.
Who is the very tall player on the far right?
Found it! Arthur Okonkwo
Koscielny is in this photo as well. I would recognise that white trainer between Tyreece John-Jules’ legs anywhere. Also explains what/who Rob Holding is laughing at.
Koscielny is spotted on another picture on arsenal.com
Wonder why they would bring welbeck who is likely to be injured and unavailable until the time his contract runs out?
If he, Holding, and Bellerin are not going to hurt their rehab by tagging along, they can spend some time bonding with the team, who they’ve presumably been around less frequently since they’ve been out of training.
Could also be commercial reasons.
Maybe they are concerned about their mental health. Welbeck is still an Arsenal employee after all.
I’m at home with a broken leg right now and recovery is slow, boring, and very isolating. I’d love a trip to some warm weather!
They’re there for PR reasons to represent Arsenal. Welbz is injured but still contracted till end of season.
Holiday.
Also shop window.
Need to free up wages thanks to Raul and Sven overloading.
Welbeck will likely free 90K, Cech too. Also Koscielny may retire. Lichsteiner cost us 90K a week. Ramsey will free up some wages too. Have to sell Elneny and Jenkinson (if there are buyers even)
Thereafter maybe Ozil dependent on offers which will be the big one.
Don’t expect much else outgoing as it would mean filling in more spaces again and will detract from where we need to spend on quality.
The contracts for Welbeck, Cech, Lichsteiner, Ramsey (maybe more, not sure) are all ending this summer, so we hardly need to put them in the shop window???
Strange, I expected Saka also to be on that trip..
Saka is playing and scoring for England U19s
Good to know.
Dino mavarapanos must start in premier league . Next to socratis. Until rob gets back
Why so?
He has yet to be proven.
Doesn’t make any sense.
And so what happens to Koscielny…?
And the team is going to visit the center for kids who cant read good and want to learn how to do other stuff good too
Is that Boeing 737 Max?
No, and do I know you?
It’s an Airbus A380 (note the two rows of windows).