Arsenal’s pre-season preparations have officially begun with Mikel Arteta and his assistants welcoming the first wave of senior players back to London Colney.
While the majority of the squad – those who’ve been on international duty since the final game of the last campaign – aren’t expected back until early next week, there were still plenty of familiar faces taking part in the first session.
Ben White, Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Cedric, Rob Holding, Sambi Lokonga, Nicolas Pepe and Thomas Partey – back from the injury that ruled him out of the final weeks of the 21/22 campaign – were all involved.
Several players who spent last season out on loan were also welcomed back into the fold including Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Hector Bellerin, Reiss Nelson, Pablo Mari and Folarin Balogun.
Making up the numbers were several academy prospects, including a bulked-up Charlie Patino. He along with Miguel Azeez, Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand, Omari Hutchinson, Zach Awe and Marcelo Flores will be hoping they get to be involved with upcoming training camps in Germany and the USA.
As far as we can tell, none of the new boys – Marquinhos, Fabio Vieira or Matt Turner – were there, but we expect they will be next week.
Amazingly, it’s only nine days until our first friendly with Nurnberg after which the boys will decamp Stateside for further matches with Everton, Orlando City and Chelsea.
An Emirates Cup showdown with Sevilla will round things off and before you know it we’ll be 2-0 down to Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace in the season opener on 5 August.
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For pictures of the lads in action, head to the official website.
Last paragraph had me chuckling!
Me too 😂
Why are the players listed with their first and last names except for Cedric? The poor man just can’t get a break can he?
He doesn’t need two names. He’s a legend like Madonna or Elvis
At least he is more photographed than Madonna or Elvis!
No space to write “The Entertainer”
I get cross.
Bulked up Charlie Patino is good news. Charlie Fatino.
Platino*
Guess Arteta has been busy doing some cooking
Charlie Proteino
Charlie Big Potatoes.
Seems like the season just ended
Blogs is ready for the new season. 😂
If there are two early goals at Selhurst Park, it will be written 0 – 2; we’ve got Jesus, and everything will be alright.
Jesus! We got Mohamed too. Talk about over kill. Ain’t no messing around this coming season.
Victor Moses, where are you?
I guess we’ll also soon be making a bid for Gautam (Buddha) Virwani from Mumbai FC and Siva Narayanan from Bengaluru FC just to round off the big religions.
Get Abraham in here too and sure enough we’ll be invincible again.
Credit to Willian for trying to look like Buddha when he turned up for last season’s pre-season training. The fat fuck.
😅
Vieira needs bulk up and morph into the Flying Spaghetti Monster if he’s going to terrorise the premier league
And three Archangel Gabriels 😆
You can add William Alain André *Gabriel Saliba to the list…
Chelsea in pre season. Expect some mistimed tackles. We’ll need to buy more players.
Yep… would be wise to not play Partey in that game
Oh fuck. Here we go again!
Marquinhos, Fabio Viera, Matt Turner, has the home grown rule changed? Remember Arteta sell some foreign grown to allow himself flexibility. Now we are back to square one.
Martinelli and Saliba now count as home-grown: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-transfer-martinelli-saliba-arteta-27316104
Cedric…….
😞
Hope Partey remembers what happened last time we played the Chavs in a pre-season friendly.
More importantly let’s hpoe Arteta remembers and leaves him on the bench. Which will delay his injury until McArthur kicks the shite out of him at palace…
Zach Awe is my superhero name.
Welcome Jesus to asenal
When’s Tierney back?
Once he’s run out of Buckfast, chucked a pair of boots and a second pair of Y fronts in a placcy bag and hitched back down to join the soft, southern pansies.
Definitely in better shape than the start of last season. The first eleven in those first few matches was not great. We really need to start off with a win against Palace (or just not lose)
That wasn’t a lineup that was going to scare anyone, was it? I just had a look and it was:
Leno
Chambers, White, Mari, Tierney
Xhaka and Lokonga
Pepe, ESR, Gabi
Balogun
This season opener it could be:
Ramsdale
Tomi, White, Gabriel, Tierney
Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard
Saka, Jesus, ESR/Gabi
I feel confident with that starting 11
Agreed. Much much stronger!
Smashing Palace at their ground on a Friday night would be such a confidence boost….bring it on !
The lads are in the pink.
https://youtu.be/bii-PIGprv8
Looks like Odegaard has got himself a new motor.
😂
Looks like we’re missing out on Raph, but so too could Chelsea, if Barca have their way – how hilarious would that be… If I were Arteta, I’d now move heaven and earth to get Tielemans in, to bolster our defensive midfield and provide adequate cover for an injury-prone Thomas Partey. Likewise, we need to get this Martinez deal over the line (piss off Man U), which would provide cover for Tierney and our centre halves. But the most glaring hole in the squad that needs to be filled at the moment is decent back up for Tommi. Hector wants… Read more »
I kind of like that Raphinha won’t work out. He is good and wouldn’t have minded at all, but there has to be wingers of similar ability or similar potential. World football is littered with tricky winger types. There must be a French or German kid out there to bring in for much less. Then, like you say, bring another midfielder like Tielemans to play deeper
I actually still think Pepe could do a good job for us as cover for Saka on that right wing. But he must have hidden Arteta’s hair gel or something, because the manager has clearly got a problem with him.
Totally agree regarding Cedric. The bloke was panicking like mad against United at home. He is definitely a liability and the weakest link in the team, although Tavares pushes him close. We really need to get shot of them both and get in some decent replacements, no question. What’s the point of having all that attacking talent up front and in midfield when some idiot at the back is going to ship you goals?
Agree on tielemans being a good target for covering Partey, we are very thin in that area. Still think we need a big target man to lead the line. Spurs signing Richarlson worries me…Kane, son, Richarlson…that’s a very strong front 3. We should have moved for him or someone like him. I don’t want Jesus to be the Brazilian Danny welbeck…but I do have my doubts…
I wouldn’t waste any time worrying about Tottenham.
They’ll be what they’ve always been – a bunch of classless No-Title-Since-1961 Spursy Cunts, forever in our shadow.
And they’ll STILL win fuck all. 😉
I want toreira to stay at arsenal…. Things may work out well