Arsenal have added two home fixtures to their pre-season schedule, with Spanish duo Villarreal and Athletic Club set to visit Emirates Stadium in early August.
The Gunners will take on Villarreal on Wednesday, 6 August before welcoming Athletic Bilbao for this year’s Emirates Cup clash on Saturday, 9 August. The latter is expected to be the final dress rehearsal ahead of the Premier League opener away at Manchester United on Sunday, 17 August.
Athletic this week confirmed a new deal for in-demand winger Nico Williams, so it’ll be a decent test of our defensive sharpness just days before the big kick-off.
Several first-teamers have already reported for a warm-weather training camp in Spain alongside club staff, ahead of the official start of pre-season at London Colney on Monday. They’ll get a couple of weeks of fitness work – and likely a behind-closed-doors friendly or two – under their belts before heading to Asia. It’ll also be a chance to work with Gabriel Heinze, who has taken over the assistant coach position vacated by Carlos Cuesta.
The summer tour includes stops in Singapore, where we’ll face AC Milan (23 July) and Newcastle (27 July), and Hong Kong, where a North London derby against Sp*rs (31 July) will be the first ever to be staged overseas.
Transfer-wise, the club is expected to confirm the signing of Martin Zubimendi early next week. Friday’s planned announcement was understandably postponed following the tragic death of Diogo Jota.
With Kepa Arrizabalaga already in the door, Andrea Berta and co. are working to strengthen in other areas. Talks are ongoing with Valencia’s Cristhian Mosquera, Brentford’s Christian Norgaard, Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze, Chelsea’s Noni Madueke, Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres, and RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko.
As for outgoings, Karl Hein, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior, Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Reiss Nelson have all been tipped to depart. The transfer window shuts at 7pm on Monday, 1 September. That means 59 days of transfer gubbins still to go!