Members of Arsenal’s first team squad were welcomed back to London Colney by Unai Emery on Friday as the Gunners kicked off their pre-season preparations ahead of a first friendly of the summer against MLS franchise Colorado Rapids.
Big names including Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alex Lacazette, Mesut Ozil and Bernd Leno were pictured alongside new boy Gabriel Martinelli and Academy graduate Bukayo Saka as the Spaniard and his coaching staff, including Freddie Ljungberg, held a first squad meeting since the Europa League final defeat in May.
Interestingly, Martinelli is seen wearing number 96 which would suggest we’ve not yet made our mind up as to whether he’ll be counted as a first team member or not.
Together again @Arsenal! pic.twitter.com/moJ1kW10cI
— Unai Emery (@UnaiEmery_) July 6, 2019
Our squad will fly to the United States on Thursday and will be based in Los Angeles, where it’s expected they will launch the new away kit, before travelling to Denver for our match with the Rapids the following Monday.
Stateside fixtures will also include tough tests against Bayern Munich, Fiorentina and Real Madrid.
This time last year, we fielded a strong side against Boreham Wood but with many players still on holiday due to international commitments, it’s been decided that our neighbours will face a team made up of under-23s and under-18s, coached by Steve Bould. That game takes place today at 3pm.
FULL LIST OF ARSENAL PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES 2019
July 15th – Colorado Rapids v Arsenal
July 17th – Arsenal v Bayern Munich (International Champions Cup)
July 20th – Fiorentina v Arsenal (International Champions Cup)
July 23rd – Arsenal v Real Madrid (International Champions Cup)
July 28th – Arsenal v Lyon (Emirates Cup)
July 31st – Angers v Arsenal
August 4th – Barcelona v Arsenal (Joan Gamper Trophy)
Giroud picked number 12 as that was his goal aim for his first season. Maybe gabriel is really ambitous.
Or maybe that’s the number of minutes he’s hoping for.
Or the minute he’ll be able to get on to the pitch
Secounds…
Anyone know if I can watch the game online anywhere?
Here we go again, another season. We might win something, maybe ? 1. League cup? No, Man City has a better 2nd team than our first team. 2. FA Cup? Nope, fking Man City!!! 3. EUROPA League? We could go to the final, but our players might not show up, and Man Utd will beat us. 4. The Premier League? ????? 5. Can we finish in the top 4 then? Only if we can beat the likes of Palace and Brighton at home. ??? 6. Will we qualify for the Europa league if we finish 6th or 7th? 6th yes,… Read more »
I take my hat off to Kroenke – robs the idiots of their money every summer and still they come back…
I’ve not seen Stan holding a gun to anyone’s head…mind you all those protests did put a stop to his hunting channel…so?
Mate can you at least wait until we lose the games before you whine about them? It will still be tedious but at least you’ll have some justification
To his defense, he may have done as you suggested for more than 10 years already.
Hopefully you are not a generic new gen football. Club fan, only concerned about bragging rights at school, club history and legacy considered irrelevant
I can fully understand a mental outburst caused by having Stan “Burns” Kroenke as our owner, but not so much comparing with A club with their club values drained in oil money
There’s nothing wrong with wanting a club that can compete, though.
But perspective is everything and recently our fans don’t have any!
Perspective or not, i think we all can agree that we’ve been in the decline for the past 10 years at least. And it is fair to say that some (if not most) of the problems come from kroenke
I try to stay away from football news these days because it’s just absolutely depressing. Didn’t even realize we’ll well be in pre season already. Yet the dead woods are still around, no clear plan on our transfer activities, and per usual nothing is heard from Stan Kroenke himself. This club is running itself into the ground and yet people still don’t understand this. Stan maintains just enough a profit margin with the kit deals, with season tickets always being sold off, and he’s milking the club’s stature globally; to generate enough profit while not giving two f**ks about winning… Read more »
Agree.
Those people on AFTV looks like clowns to me.
They moan after every losses but they haven’t done anything to hammer Kroenke. Robbie is such as yes man.
But i heard that Arsenal are suffering lowest sales in decades. Sanllehi is going to meet Kroenke soon and i hope that f*cking m*ron will consider letting our club go. The new stadium of L.A Rams costs him too much. There is no point in keeping another tier 2 club which is going to slip more when being underinvestment.
Who has a spare £1.2 billion to spend on a franchise that makes no money and needs to be completely rebuilt under the financial fairplay restrictions?
We are stuck with Kroenke and Sanllehi.
And unfortunately we are stuck with Emery which is the most depressing of all.
Emery is the worst mistake of all…
With our restrictions on funds I really cannot think of a manager who could have achieved more than Emery did last season. We improved on the previous campaign so I think he must be given more time
I have to disagree with this, as I do think there are better managers out there that could have achieved more with our squad. Whether we would have been able to secure those managers is a different story. I think Emery struggled last season because he didn’t, despite his storied interview, know our club, squad, and league as well as he thought he did. I can agree that we improved a bit over the previous campaign, but not much considering the new coach received 4 new players for the starting 11 and had Auba and Laca to bail us out… Read more »
“The team lacks a style and identity” If you don’t like the way Arsenal play, just say that. But modern football fans love to parrot meaningless pundit-speak. Arsenal does have a style or an identity – it’s “Champions League attack, Intertoto Cup defence”. In other words, we’re a top-heavy attacking side that exploits wide spaces well but lacks imagination and power in the centre of midfield when we try to press and counter-attack. In top-6 games we set out to neutralise the opposition and our pressing game is worked pretty well. At home and during the run to the Europa… Read more »
Kaius – You can call it inconsistent, but it looks like a lack of a style or identity to me. I mean those terms like we would use them to describe current iterations of Liverpool, City, Chelsea (under Sarri or Conte before him) and Wenger’s Arsenal prior to the last season he managed the club. You know how those teams are going to play: you know the way they like to move the football, they way they press, they way they move off the ball. Arsenal didn’t seem to figure out who they wanted to be under Emery. Injuries hurt,… Read more »
It’s amazing how some fans still think everything was fine at Arsenal until Wenger’s last season. In truth, we’ve been inconsistent since at least 2013. But the thing is, we know Wenger was a great coach. But due to a tight owner who was more interested in the balance sheet than trophies, Wenger ended up coaching a group of players who weren’t good enough for Arsenal. That’s not making excuses for Wenger – that’s describing context. There’s context to Emery’s first season too. I think Arsenal should hire Erik ten Hag for 2020 – but I’ll always defend any Arsenal… Read more »
Thought I provided some context to the criticism, and indicated that I nonetheless support Emery for the upcoming season (as everyone should), but that the excuses made to suggest he’s doing the best job he can do with what he has on hand are weak ones. I don’t think Ljungberg was promoted to the first team to pat Emery on the back for the great job he’s doing. I’m not comparing Emery’s first season to Klopp’s or Pep’s machines, merely using those iterations as examples to define the terms identity and style (also pointed to Wenger’s less successful teams near… Read more »
No, he was in position at the begining to realise the potential of this squad. He was talking in the interview about building the team around Ramsey. Where is AR now? But the opportunist lier as a limited manager is still here.
Guys, guys, we all know that Emery isn’t the best coach available. But the fact that no one wants this job. There were rumours that Allegri, Luis Enrique wanted at least 200 mil for the rebuilding project. Simeone was the one i wanted most but he turned us down at the beginning. Face it! Not many famous coaches want to work with a tied hand! Even when we were looking for a technical director. Overmars rejected the offer. Monchi case was even more mysterious. I still find it difficult to understand why he rejected. Emery worked well with him. The… Read more »
What is ‘we all’ ?
Who are ‘we all’ ?
Who would solve all ‘your ‘ problems?
Oh my, I don’t feel sorry for Emery or the players or the suits at all — they all need to work harder and to do their jobs better. Fine is never good enough in sports.
When Monchi left Roma, the owner James Pallotta released an angry statement on the official club site basically accusing Monchi of being full of it and incompetent. No wonder he wasn’t ready to jump from the guy to Kroenke.
Sad to see Monchi go back to Spain, and Mislintat back to Germany, but as Tim Stillman pointed out, very few of the famous DoF’s have been able to translate their success over to a different league/country. One too many variables maybe.
I think you are right on Emery but eating my hat would be a dream.
Frankly, you can’t run a fan’s TV if you don’t buy season tickets.
>Yet you see these people on AFTV moaning every week yet they’re the first to >renew season tickets. Does my bloody head in. Yeah this absolute fucking idiot on there Heavy D was ranting and raving at Kroenke, in a new jersey. Interviewed by Don Robbie, also with a new jersey. Then that bellend Turkish “leading” a Kroenke Out protest talking about how he’s a “mug” because he’s bought season tickets. YEP. Good little consumers. But most people are conformist sheep who have no interest in confrontation. Tyrants feed off of it. Billionaires aren’t the most moral people in the… Read more »
Stan Kroenke is brilliant. Gives that little bit of hope to the supporters and delivers nothing. All the revenue from season ticket renewals, matchday revenue and merchandise. All that additional revenue in the bank, linked with every player under the sun, get Sanllehi to talk about ambition and winning big trophies – just enough for everyone to be fooled into parting with their money. Its so easy… We have just over a month left of the transfer market. It would not surprise me if nothing happened in that time.. Not that I’m too concerned. I never wanted Emery at Arsenal… Read more »
Root against Kroenke, sure. That’s deserved. Everyone knows that.
But rooting against Emery? You’re taking being a shyte fan to a new level.
Oh come on – did you watch Arsenal play last season? He could’nt decide on any tactical approach, defending was WORSE than under Wenger. He couldn’t motivate them to beat teams like Palace at home when we had Champions League football in our hands. He couldn’t even motivate them to play well in the EL final. Terrible manager. He should have done the decent thing and left straight after the EL final shambles but no – he had to stay for another season just to prove he is incapable of delivering anything of worth to the club. Sooner he is… Read more »
Who wouod you have signed instesd of Emery?
Hoping he fails instead of hoping he leaves the club in good standing fir the next manager is why you’re considered a shyt fan
Allegri turned us down and he was the ideal person but your negativity towards Emery is embarrassing.
Agreeing with Martin, and having to give him a thumbs up, is like a dagger digging straight into my soul…. but when your right your right. Emery did a good job last season, the squad just ran out of legs, and unfortunately we didn’t have the quality in depth, or the right squad balance to get us over the line. Losing our two best balling playing defenders for the season hurt us, losing Welbeck was also a big blow, then losing Rambo again at the end, was the final nail in the coffin. Emery has publicly asked for wingers and… Read more »
My negativity is based on what I see.
Had Emery actually delivered anything that could be construed as progression or improvement I would happily sing his praises but to me he looked directionless and his team reflected that.
And with such importance placed on this transfer window his inactivity has been shocking.
Tierney, Zaha, Saliba are not players that will get us into the CL.
I don’t blame Kroenke.
Kroenke doesn’t have any influence on tactics…
Good ebening.
Emery is on notice after a feeble, crap-Arse end to last season and now faces the toughest pre-season in the history of the universe.
At least Stan’s Rapids are relatively shite after losing their first 11 games of MLS before stabilising.
The fans are getting stiffed at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park too.
15 minutes gone at Boreham Wood and Arsenal are 0 – 2 down.
Chants of – ‘We want Kronke Out’ audible ?
All hail the second half comeback. Final score 3 – 3
He is not made redundant yet?! #EmeryOut
Halftime:
Arsenal 1 – 3 Boreham Wood
?
Just saw Vic Akers on the Boreham Wood bench. I didn’t realize he joined them.
I realize this is speculative but, if AMN is actually a midfielder, if he has both played well AND done all that was asked by playing out of position at RB for the teams interests. Doesn’t he at least deserve to be given a chance in his natural position?
More concerned about new signings.ike this Tierney feller for example. Any movement there? What about other areas that need improving? Any suitors for Mustafi yet?
What a disappointing effort in the transfer market, particularly shipping out those players who are superfluous.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/arsenal-s-bizarre-luis-suarez-bid-explained https://www.squawka.com/en/news/arsenal-ozil-transfer-man-utd-spurs Two insightful snippets into the workings of the transfer market beyond the know it all punditry and the sheep that follow. First one about our infamous 40m and 1 quid bid. As Law explains, it was merely to open negotiations. Did not matter if it was one quid, 2 quid or 50m more (well maybe)…but in the end Suarez himself did not want to move. The second as I have mentioned always was a real coup for us. We had to employ a lot of ground work and real subtefuge to blind side Levy at Spurs as the… Read more »