Arsenal's Pre-Season Preparations: Key Players and Challenges
Arsenal’s summer is already moving at full speed, but the real noise starts next week.
After a quiet return to the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Monday, with a Marbella camp in the legs and the World Cup contingent still on the beach, Mikel Arteta has been putting in the hours with the players who carried none of that international mileage. This is the stripped‑back version of Arsenal: hungry kids, returning loanees, new faces trying to impress before the big hitters walk back through the door.
Early birds and returning faces
The first wave is a mixed group. Ethan Nwaneri, Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira are back from loan spells and back under Arteta’s microscope, their futures not yet fully defined. Cristhian Mosquera has reported in too, with a clear opportunity in front of him as he looks to stake a claim while William Saliba recovers from injury over the coming months.
Illan Meslier has already joined his new team‑mates, settling into life as Arsenal’s latest goalkeeping option. Around him, academy prospects Marli Salmon and Max Dowman have been folded into the senior sessions, a reminder that this staff will always look down the pathway before they look to the market.
There is experience among them. Riccardo Calafiori has been involved, as have Myles Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Jesus, while Ben White’s presence is perhaps the most encouraging sight of the week. The right-back missed the run‑in last season with a knee problem, but his rehabilitation has tracked perfectly: work in Marbella, then straight back into the group at London Colney.
Jurrien Timber is also back with the squad, though not yet at full tilt after minor groin surgery. Arsenal will not rush him. They cannot afford to.
Countdown to Girona
The first official pre-season fixture, against Girona on August 1, is now looming. Arteta will not have a full squad by then, but the landscape will look very different.
World Cup players are guaranteed a minimum of three weeks’ rest after their international commitments. After the relentless schedule of last season, Arsenal may stretch that for some, but the staggered returns are already mapped out.
Kai Havertz is due back in the coming days after Germany’s early exit in the round of 32. The forward has been keeping himself sharp at Bayer Leverkusen’s training ground, preparing to drop straight back into Arsenal’s work.
Piero Hincapie and Viktor Gyokeres have completed their three‑week break and should rejoin next week. Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli, who went a little deeper with Brazil, are also expected back at the start of next week and are likely to be part of the group that travels to Spain.
That Girona game, though, will come too soon for Martin Odegaard. The captain reached the World Cup quarter-finals with Norway before losing to England on July 11, which pushes his return to training into the week commencing August 3.
Arsenal head to Dublin to face Real Betis two days after Odegaard is due back, then return home to host Borussia Dortmund and Como. It is a tight, carefully plotted schedule with one glaring complication.
The late arrivals
Eight Arsenal players went all the way to the final weekend of the World Cup. Their reward is a curtailed pre-season.
August 10 is the earliest they can report back, a mere six days before the Community Shield against Manchester City. From there, they will have just 11 days to climb towards full fitness before the Premier League opener at home to Coventry on August 21.
Some are better placed than others. David Raya and Martin Zubimendi barely played at the tournament and should be able to hit the ground running. Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino saw more action, but none carried a crippling workload across the summer.
The real tension lies elsewhere.
The Rice and Saka dilemma
Two names sit at the heart of Arsenal’s pre-season calculations: Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka.
Rice has been managing neural pain in his hamstring for more than six months, an issue that has required careful handling and constant monitoring. He also battled sickness during the World Cup, a double strain on a player who rarely steps off the pitch.
Saka’s situation is just as delicate. Thomas Tuchel admitted during the tournament that he had to hold the winger back, revealing Saka was still playing through the pain of an Achilles problem. Arsenal know exactly how much he has been carrying.
Both will be assessed the moment they walk back into London Colney. The temptation will be to throw them straight into the rhythm of pre-season, to sharpen them quickly for City, then Coventry, then the long haul. The smarter call may be different.
More rest could be the only way to guarantee full fitness when it matters most. The question for Arteta and his staff is simple and brutal: can Arsenal afford to ease off their two most important outfield players now, to protect them for the months when trophies are decided?
