Many of the inclusions of academy players in Arsenal’s travelling squad for the training camp in Dubai were unsurprising, but one selection in particular caught the eye.
Zane Monlouis has only recently returned from an injury that kept him sidelined for several months but the centre-back was chosen to travel with the first-team.
It was anticipated that Zach Awe, who has been a mainstay for the U21s and has previously been involved with the first-team, would have been included in the travelling party.
However, Mikel Arteta instead elected to take Monlouis, who has been very highly rated within the club for several years, to Dubai, while Taylor Foran was also included.
Arsenal have been managing Monlouis’ return carefully at U21 level and now he will face a considerable step up in intensity as he is involved with the senior side.
Monlouis usually plays in the left-sided centre-back position and is an impressive reader of the game as well as being talented technically. He did previously tend to make errors with regularity, but those have become less frequent in recent seasons.
The 19-year-old is likely to go out on loan at some point in the next year and this experience with the first-team will be hugely useful for him. After featuring in the friendly against Watford, Monlouis will hope to get minutes against Lyon and AC Milan.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Sad for Zach not to get a place, but hopefully there’s a good reason for it
Any channels showing the friendlies apart from arsenal.com