Preseasons are strange. Some people take them too seriously. Some don’t take them seriously enough. For me, it’s about drawing the right conclusions and understanding why certain things happen as the team aims to get back up to speed.
At the time of writing, Arsenal’s preparatory games haven’t quite incorporated the glossy sheen of their status as Premier League champions. The Gunners trampled Girona, just relegated from La Liga, in their own stadium but have since lost to Real Betis and Borussia Dortmund. In both of those defeats they conceded three goals, a far cry from the defensive excellence we saw from the team last season. They continued to ship set piece goals due to sloppy defending. They’ve looked tired at times, unfocused at others, and disjointed throughout.
With the 2026/27 season initiating in about a week and a half (or in just a few days depending on how significant you consider the Community Shield), these lackluster showings have caused palpable concern among Arsenal fans. Many worry that William Saliba’s imminent months-long stretch on the sidelines and the lack of an upheaval in attack will combine for a tricky start to the campaign. The more extreme doomers are projecting a catastrophic title defense. The great summer vibes of long-awaited silverware have been replaced by the stress of keeping the crown.
The thing is, I made my peace with this preseason months ago.
From the moment I saw the squads going to the World Cup and which Arsenal players had been included in them, I knew there was no fighting the inevitable: the Gunners’ ramp-up ahead of the new campaign was going to be greatly hampered. Many of Mikel Arteta’s men have historically featured heavily for the highest-ranked national teams in the world. Surely at least a handful of key squad members would make it far enough into the tournament that their following holidays would keep them out of a substantial portion of the team’s summer conditioning.
And so things have played out — David Raya, Martín Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, Mikel Merino, Bukayo Saka, and Noni Madueke have missed all of preseason so far by virtue of England making the semifinals and Spain winning the World Cup. They only just returned to training on Monday according to the manager. Add to that group new signing Bruno Guimarães, who was unveiled at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday and also began acclimatizing to his new club within the last few days, and that’s quite the list of important pieces the champions have been without so far.
And so it begs the question, how much can we really read into what Arsenal have produced on the pitch in these last few exhibition games? What do we know about how the Gunners will play when it’s Kepa Arrizabalaga or Illan Meslier in goal? Or Myles Lewis-Skelly effectively playing as a lone six at times while Kai Havertz ventures forward with Viktor Gyökeres and Ethan Nwaneri has to cover the pitch behind the German?
An outsized factor in football is talent. And the fact is, most of Arsenal’s best talent have been on a well-earned holiday until this week. It is nigh on impossible to have any idea how good this team will be until its stars are back on the pitch.
This goes for overall tactical changes in the team as well. How can we tell if the Gunners will try to break the lines more often when Guimarães and Martin Ødegaard, the main midfielders who can do that to a high level, are still getting up to speed? How do you get a sense of our buildup when it’s Kepa standing too close to his defenders while they’re on the ball instead of his countryman in goal? How do you ascertain how viable Gabriel Martinelli can be this season when the entire starting midfield hasn’t played yet and Gyökeres is deployed at center forward?
As compelled as we feel to draw hard and fast conclusions, the reality is that there is precious little data on which to base those findings.
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Fortunately, Arteta seems optimistic regarding whether his players will be ready for the beginning of the new season. If the content put out by the club is anything to go on, their mere return to London Colney (I feel like I’m doing an endorsement whenever I say “Sobha Realty Training Centre”) will surely inject some more energy into the collective. And it doesn’t sound like we will go several weeks into the season without stalwarts like Rice and Saka as many of us predicted during the World Cup.
The important thing is that the team regains an acceptable fitness level between now and Coventry City’s visit to the Emirates next Friday night. In my opinion, that should be the priority for Arsenal. It’s also the basis of my main takeaway from the last pair of preseason games: the Gunners simply aren’t as fit as the teams they played.
Honestly, that makes plenty of sense. Despite the thorough loss, Girona enjoyed spells of momentum against Arsenal and on another day, might have scored another goal or two. They were also on their fourth preseason match while the Gunners were playing only their first. Betis had completed five friendlies before meeting Arsenal in Dublin. Dortmund’s victory in the Emirates Cup marked their fifth game of their preseason preparations.
Because of the involvement of so many of their players in the World Cup, the English champions have been forced to start their preseason later than many teams across the continent. 15 Arsenal players traveled with their national teams to the United States to participate in football’s greatest festival. All of them advanced past the group stage of the tournament. To have gotten the ramp-up underway without them would have essentially meant doing so with essentially academy footballers and a few stragglers from the first team.
Thus we have the compressed schedule by which Arsenal are operating ahead of the Premier League curtain raiser. And sure, that in itself is an understandable cause for concern; the Gunners’ key pillars do not have enough time to get fully fit before the season starts. They will probably be fit to play, sure. But they won’t be their tip-top selves for a little while longer. In the most competitive league in club football, that’s scary.
But I do want to stress that Arsenal are far from the only side dealing with this issue. Their rivals in the English top flight are also seemingly struggling in their respective preseasons. Chelsea have played two more friendlies than Arsenal have (or one more if you want to count that behind-closed-doors scrimmage against MK Dons on July 25). Those games have included a 6-4 shootout win against Western Sydney Wanderers, a 2-1 loss to ten-man Spurs, a 1-0 loss against Juventus, and a 3-3 draw against Johor Darul Ta’zim this past weekend.
Manchester United have played four preseason friendlies, beginning with a 1-0 loss to Wrexham. Manchester City have played three games in their preparations, including a loss on penalties to Inter. Liverpool are at four friendlies and their last two involved blowing two-goal leads and losing to both Leeds United and Monaco. New head coach Andoni Iraola came out after the Monaco defeat and stated that his players cannot run for more than 30 minutes. Aston Villa have lost to Porto, Real Sociedad, and Bayern Munich as they try to get fit for the new season.
Everyone is stumbling. Everyone is losing games and looking far from their best. The struggle is widespread. And that is because the whole point of preseason is to get players reacclimated to the immense physical demand of the campaign ahead and to iron out some of the kinks before the games of actual consequence get underway. Do that and, regardless of your results on tour in a different country, you’re golden.
With all that in mind, I do think a lot of the hand-wringing around what we’ve seen on the pitch is a tad overblown. Again, we’re watching Arsenal sides far from full-strength, unable to properly stress test certain tactical tweaks, and simply trying to get some rejuvenating minutes into the legs against opponents further along in that process. Essentially, what should have been a typical preseason that has been infringed upon by an international tournament.
However, I do think there are a few enlightening crumbs to glean from what we’ve seen so far. First there is the rather encouraging first impression we’ve seen from Christos Tzolis. The Greek forward, freshly arrived from Club Brugge, now boasts a goal, three assists, and a won penalty in his first four games for the Gunners. He isn’t a flashy dribbler who breezes past defenders with ease, but he is a smart, two-footed player who keeps the ball in the final third and makes good decisions in possession. I’m also really impressed by his ability to get shots off quickly as well as his set piece delivery. I think Arsenal have made a very savvy signing with Tzolis.
Additionally, the two 16-year-olds who broke into the first team last season continue to look gifted beyond their years. Max Dowman has perhaps been one of the most consistent performers throughout preseason. He was terrific at Girona, scoring and assisting in that match. Against Betis the youngest Premier League goalscorer displayed some heartening tenacity in his duels off the ball, winning the ball in his own half more than any of his teammates did that night. At the Emirates on Sunday the young Englishman was one of Arsenal’s most threatening players.
Marli Salmon looks to have taken a step forward in his progress as well. In the second half against Dortmund, he came on in place of Gabriel and played at right center back for the final half hour of the match. In possession, I liked his calmness and pass selection. Off the ball he looks extremely comfortable, even against high-level opposition. The highlight of course was his last-ditch tackle to prevent Serhou Guirassy from running in on goal. All in all, I have a feeling that he can contribute on the right side of defense, especially in the opening stages of the season.
Even though he has only played 30 minutes against Dortmund so far, I also want to shout out Ødegaard. The Norwegian returned from his post-World Cup holiday last week and made his first preseason appearance at the Emirates Cup. And, as we all gear up for our preseason predictions and hot takes, I can’t help but feel like a bounce-back season is on the cards for the skipper. He looked sharp on Sunday. He repeatedly threaded the ball in behind the opponents’ back line with real intent. I think his good showing in the States may have restored his mojo.
Of course, there are some worries. I’m not trying to propose that everything is perfect and Arsenal are going to win every game this season as things stand. There are still issues that need to be addressed.
For instance, Cristhian Mosquera has not really convinced me that he can fill in for Saliba for a few months as we expect the Frenchman’s back injury to require. In the defense that is likely to start against Coventry, Mosquera has been shaky. For Betis’ first goal, I don’t love how the Spaniard was prevented from reaching the cross that ultimately fell to the goalscorer. He also let Samuele Inácio run off his blind side too easily to score Dortmund’s first at the Emirates. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but in his case I feel like preseason should be treated as an audition for that replacement role. So far he isn’t exactly nailing it.
Speaking of not nailing auditions, Kepa… yeah. It’s not great. He has made a silly error in basically every game so far — completely failing to claim crosses, not positioning himself well to save some shots, and needlessly handing possession back to the other team are the main faux pas the Spaniard has committed. After ending the season far outside the good graces of supporters and with Meslier breathing down his neck, the past few games required him to re-establish himself as Raya’s primary backup. Instead, Meslier might have overtaken him in the pecking order now.
Those are my takeaways from preseason so far. Again, I don’t think it is worth the time and effort to project Arsenal’s destiny based off the last three games. There is just very little information; for most of the players on the pitch and the ones returning, these matches are a workout a level above training sessions to help them get back in shape for the new season. But here and there are individuals who are playing for a little bit more, who are trying to prove themselves to the manager one way or another. That is where small conclusions can be drawn. Anything greater in scale than that right now just feels like a need to have a take.
Ultimately, I expect Arsenal to be ready to go for game one of the Premier League season. We’re talking about coaches and fitness experts who know the regiments and programs to prepare the players, and footballers who have spent the summer wanting to come back and win more trophies; far be it from me to tell the experts how to do their jobs (we can revisit this if Como win 10-0 on Wednesday). In truth, the concerns we have stem from the Gunners’ transfer activity — they still need to bring in a defender and they probably still need new attacking personnel of some sort. But only confirmation bias would make these preseason games seem like supporting arguments for those worries.
For now, I would advise people not to panic. Peak fitness is something teams almost always find over the course of a season’s first phase. I expect that will be the case here too. And there is still enough time for Arsenal to make some moves in the window. Let’s see what happens.
I can’t promise that the Gunners will get everything right and win all the trophies. It is of course possible that things go terribly wrong from here, and for the reasons you currently expect. But at this moment, I’m confident that what we’re seeing is just part of the process.
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