Arsenal have confirmed the 20-man squad that will face Ligue 1 side Angers at Stade Raymond Kopa this evening.
It’s a mix of youth and experience with a few notable absentees. Bernd Leno and Alex Lacazette (presumably not being risked after his ankle knock) have not made the trip, while, Sead Kolasinac and Mesut Ozil, who missed the Emirates Cup game against Lyon on Sunday after last week’s awful carjacking attempt, have stayed in London.
Late returnees, including Alex Iwobi, Lucas Torreira and Mohamed Elneny are also still sidelined. Dani Ceballos is also absent.
The match, which kicks-off at 6.30 pm (BST) will be aired in the UK on Premier Sports.
This is our penultimate publicised pre-season friendly. On Sunday we face Barcelona at Camp Nou and then there’s a week before we take on Newcastle.
We suspect there could be a behind-closed-doors match organised at London Colney in that little gap.
Full squad
Keepers: Emiliano Martinez, Matt Macey
Defenders: Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Calum Chambers, Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis, Zech Medley, Nacho Monreal, Dominic Thompson
Midfielders: Matteo Guendouzi, Granit Xhaka, Joe Willock, Robbie Burton, James Olayinka, Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Attackers: Reiss Nelson, Gabriel Martinelli, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Eddie Nketiah, Tyreece John-Jules
Willock and Guendouzi to boss the midfield! COYG
That’s a composed midfield pivot if ever I’ve seen one.
With an average age of less than 20 years old!
Possibly, but surely the only test of their composure will be what they do in the match – not before a ball has been kicked.
Hopefully they don’t look back in Angers.
Well, at least we got that one done early.
Leno looked bad enough in the last game, for me. He needed more practice but is absent. I only watched the goals against though.
Where is Dani Boy? No Ceballos on squad sheet ?♂️
Leno? Please tell me there isn’t an injury there!
I guess maybe they have to give some preseason game time to one of the second/third choice keepers too.
Martinez has looked goof pre-season and can benefit from more prep time.
I mean good…hehe. Goof is his hair.
Neither of the new signings going either? Mustafi going but hopefully just to catch a bus down to Monaco!
Martinelli is on board. He looked quite good from what I’ve seen so far. Think he can become a real baller.
We’ll, I can hear the bus coming but I think it unlikely Mustafi will catch it to take a pay cut. However, stranger things have happened at sea – although not much stranger unfortunately.
I’m not a mustafi fan but if he ends up staying we all need to get behind him because a mustafi with no confidence scares the shit out of me. I will support every player while they are still a gooner.
Well said.
He’s not the best defender but if we aren’t bringing a strong CBack in, we are looking extremely thin at the back. Even if we should bring in a stop gap as a compromise, it may make sense to keep him for half a season at least as insurance depending on the quality of the player coming in.
I don’t think Chambers is any more water tight at this stage. Both Sokratis and him did not defend against Dembele for the first goal sufficiently well enough.
Is Ceballos the 20th man not written in the Full squad?
Ok, I just found out, that Ceballos is not going. The one not mention by blogs is Martinelli, as he’s the one that’s going with the squad.
Yep, sorry about that
No ceballos?
Where’s Dani
If I was Maitland-Niles, I’d be pretty pissed off that I wasn’t being given opportunities to play in central midfield. How many seasons is it now that he’s been deputising at right back?
Maybe he’s happy to be playing in the first team more than he’s sad to be playing out of his ideal position?
Maybe? But it’s always been a temporary fix and everyone recognises that we need a proper backup to Bellerin- so when that backup arrives, he’ll find that he’s spent his best years playing out of position and looking for a new club that’s probably below the level he could have reached if he’d played more at his best position. If there isn’t a resolution soon, I imagine he’ll be wanting to head off fairly soon
AMN is clearly the player I like in the team. It isn’t for his performances but for no reason, I would say. But the boy needs to understand the opportunity for him to play in the PL is at right back at Arsenal and put all his efforts to it. The manager is never going to play him in midfield ahead of Guendouzi and Torreira. If he doesn’t understand this and continue walking when the team needs to prevent a goal against because Mustafi is always blamed for, he will have to play right back (not midfield) in championship.
I remember Ramsey played as a RB or RW for quite a bit of time before finding his best form for us. So might not be a bad thing really for AMN. He still has his best years ahead of him. As Rob said better be involved in any capacity with the 1st team rather than sitting out just because you want to play a certain position; read also Sergi Roberto.
I don’t get where the info of AMN being a midfielder comes from. He mainly played as a winger for the youth teams & Ipswich.
The transition from RW to RB has been pretty successful for a certain Spaniard of our own. So why not for him?
Ceballos?
As unlikely as it is, it’d be interesting to see us starting with 4-3-3 with a midfield trio of Guendouzi, Xhaka & Willock and an attacking trio of Mkhi, Aubameyang & Nelson.
Agreed. Assuming Pepe goes through would love to see the same later in the year but with Torreira for Willock (arguably Xhaka but need a little experience somewhere) and Laca and Pepe for Nelson and Mkhi respectively. Just copy the Liverpool model!
Surely rest Xhaka too as he has played in all the pre-season games so far?! People are saying they’re excited for a midfield of Torreira and Ceballos, but I really don’t think we’re going to see that – Emery obviously sees Xhaka as the guaranteed starter for EPL games.
We need Xhaka as trim as possible to give him any extra pace we can squeeze out of him lol
Where’s Dani, and our Brazilian wonderkid
I really hope that the car jacking incident doesn’t have a real negative effect on Ozil. He was making all the right noises and putting in some decent performances in pre-season before it happened. The guy is only human after all, so it’s possible that he is badly shaken and that it has effected his confidence. Heck, I had my bike stolen in Islington last week and I felt like shit after it – and that wasn’t by confrontation or at knife point. I’m really hoping for a happy and determined Mesut Ozil this season, as it’s clear he’s sticking… Read more »
I think you forgot Martinelli.
Martinelli is also in the squad
No Pepe ??
Ceballos still recovering from his instant impact on sunday?
No Jenkinson?!?
Surely a great opportunity to try out new center back combinations. Hopefully, Mustafi will be exiting (although I’ll believe it when I see it as the grip of his inflated wage packet is so strong) and we really need to see what other options work anyway. It would have also been a chance for Bielik but he’s clearly not in the running now – which is a real shame.
1) If Mustafi is being sold we better play Sokratis-Chambers as much as possible to get them up to speed. Last game they lost track of Dembele for the first goal. options are thin (till September)if we do not bring in a Cback should the German get sold. 2) Ceballos probably has to be settled in. Would like to see more of Guendouzi who is just returned to squad. 3) AMN if he’s fully fit only bc he had a bit of bruising last match. Noticed no Jenkinson. May have to rotate Chambers and Mustafi at Rback. 4) Nelson-Nketiah-Auba would… Read more »
Don’t know why ‘Mkhitaryan’ is there or why he went on the USA tour. Just leave him here ‘Find a new club’ Surely with Pepe, Willock, Ceballos etc, he’s surplus now. Worst swap deal ever.
I truly hope we are going to sign a Cback (instead of Tierney) bc without Holding, that selection at Cback looks very thin.
The fact that we are prepared to sell Mustafi and Bielik should point to a new arrival but you never know the thinking.
Let’s thrash Barcelona as a warm up to our quadruple