When Arsenal announced their pre-season schedule, more than a few eyebrows were raised at the decision to take on the likes of Newcastle and Sp*rs in Asia – especially given how physical and intense those fixtures tend to be during the regular season.
You’d think avoiding the sharp elbows of lumbering eejits like Joelinton might be a priority while trying to build match fitness. But while availability and commercial appeal undoubtedly played a role in the selection of opponents, Mikel Arteta insists that playing style was also a key consideration when mapping out the summer plans.
The same logic applies to the upcoming Emirates friendlies against Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao, both of whom are preparing for Champions League campaigns.
“We know what we want from pre-season, which is why we have planned the schedule like this,” Arteta told the club’s in-house media team this week.
“First we played Watford at Sobha, then we went to Singapore to play against AC Milan and Newcastle, before facing Tottenham in Hong Kong.
“So we’ve been changing conditions, changing contexts, and now we are playing at home against two teams preparing to be in the Champions League this season.
“Villarreal are playing at the highest level, and they have a manager in Marcelino who likes to play a very specific type of system and formation that we will find in the Premier League this season.
“But also we are playing against Spanish opposition, so that will require other things from us as well, and I expect these to be really good games.
“When we arrange these pre-season matches, I always look at how the manager sets up his teams, how they coach their team, the kind of players they have, how they train different phases of play against different blocks.
“We have a very good mixture this pre-season. The knowledge and experience that we gain from these games all goes into our ‘database’ to help us throughout the season and it helps for the way we have to evolve our game models.
“Each game is going to demand something from you physically, and the spaces you have to attack or protect, and different ways they can play in their build-up as well. So we have to nail that and improve that.”
Unlike some supporters (mainly those watching on laptops), who were less than impressed by the 1-0 defeat to Sp*rs, Arteta seemed fairly pleased with what he saw in Hong Kong – a match that featured unofficial debuts for Cristhian Mosquera and Viktor Gyokeres.
With Noni Madueke now involved in first-team training, there’s a chance all six of Arsenal’s summer signings could see minutes over the next few days at a sold-out Emirates.
Arteta is clearly keen for the fans to start forging a connection with the new arrivals, no doubt with one eye on building confidence and momentum ahead of a tough start to the campaign.
“We want our people to start connecting with our players straight away, to start to build momentum, and to start to feel that at home, we are invincible,” he said.
“That we play here with such passion, energy and connection with our people, that we’re going to win the game. Let’s bring that conviction to the stadium again for these two matches.”