Arsenal Preseason Tour Squad (via Arsenal.com)
Now that the dust has settled from the Declan Rice arrival celebrations, it’s time to focus once again on the football, and the Arsenal squad traveled to the United States ahead of their pre-season tour that will see them take on MLS Stars in Washington DC on July 19th, Manchester United in New York on July 22nd and Barcelona in Los Angeles on July 26th.
These are some high profile matches that will see quality football on display, so I will be expecting Mikel Arteta to field his strongest starting XI in preparation for the forthcoming campaign, but as you’d expect from any pre-season encounter, there will be a host of substitutions at half time to allow other players get a chance to shine.
Without further ado, let’s review the squad on a positional basis.
GOALKEEPERS
- Aaron Ramsdale
- Alex Runar Runarsson
- Karl Hein
Arsenal will have their entire goalkeeping contingent with them on this trip to the United States, and I’m very certain that local lad, Matt Turner, will be joining his teammates, following his Gold Cup exertions for the USMNT. Turner led his team to a semifinal berth in the tournament, saving a couple of penalties in shootout encounters along the way, but USMNT fell short to Panama in the semis, who went on to lose to the eventual winners, Mexico.
One keeper that would be keen to impress is Karl Hein, who played a role in the unfortunate own goal Jorginho scored in the 1-1 draw with Nurnberg. He also showed some nerves when he flapped at a long range shot from Ali Loune, allowing Christoph Daferner to loop the rebound over him, but the cross bar spared his blushes.
DEFENDERS
- William Saliba
- Kieran Tierney
- Ben White
- Gabriel
- Jurrien Timber
- Jakub Kiwior
- Rob Holding
- Takehiro Tomiyasu
- Auston Trusty
- Oleksandr Zinchenko
Arteta has a stacked defensive guard for this MLS tour with a host of options to choose from. A keen eye would be on the likes of Timber and Trusty, who would be looking to integrate themselves into the team and show what they are made of. Trusty was fortunate to experience English football last season, following his move from the MLS’ Colorado Rapids, and he was an instrumental player for Birmingham City in the Championship, winning the Player of the Year award in his maiden season with the club. That would spur him on to believe he can fight for a place in the Arsenal first team, but he will have to contend with the likes of Saliba, White and even Timber.
Timber is one player I can’t wait to get my eyes on, as I have had the chance to watch him at Ajax as well as for the Netherlands, and he is a fantastic addition to the squad. Hopefully, his football will do the talking as the fans will get a glimpse of their shiny new Dutch toy.
MIDFIELDERS
- Martin Odegaard
- Jorginho
- Fabio Vieira
- Mohamed Elneny
- Kai Havertz
- Declan Rice
After the long wait, Declan Rice is finally ours and I am certain that the Arsenal faithful in the United States will give our record signing the adulation he rightly deserves. With Thomas Partey not joining the traveling squad (more on him anon), Arteta will get the opportunity to test out playing Rice as the anchor man behind two No. 8’s in Havertz and Odegaard, which might just be the theme of the midfield for the forthcoming campaign.
It will also be nice to see Mo Elneny in action again, after he did well to recuperate from a major knee injury that sidelined him for a considerable chunk of last season. Odegaard had a slight knock in the warmup to the Nurnberg game and had to be replaced by Fabio Vieira, so the medical staff would give Arteta the required updates regarding his captain.
FORWARDS
- Bukayo Saka
- Gabriel Jesus
- Gabriel Martinelli
- Eddie Nketiah
- Leandro Trossard
- Flo Balogun
- Marquinhos
- Amario Cozier-Duberry
Kudos to Cozier-Duberry for being the only Academy player to join the first-team squad for this trip to the United States. However, this will be a homecoming for Flo Balogun, who is reportedly in the market for a move out of Arsenal, so putting up some great performances in front of his countrymen can only do well for his stock. Saka has already got off the mark in pre-season, and he would be looking to add more goals to his collection.
NOTABLE OMISSIONS
- Thomas Partey
- Albert Sambi Lokonga
- Reiss Nelson
- Cedric Soares
- Nicolas Pepe
- Emile Smith-Rowe
- Nuno Taveres
For these omissions, it is quite interesting to see the names that on this list.
We know that Smith-Rowe and Taveres featured regularly for their respective nations in the recently concluded Euros Under-21s tournament, so they are having well deserved break ahead of the new campaign. While Taveres may not necessarily have a future with the club, being so far down the pecking order on the left back berth, Smith-Rowe has high hopes of breaking in to the first team setup again, and plans to fight for his place.
Nelson probably suffered a knock in the Nurnberg game and will be working on his fitness to return to action, while we were already informed that Lokonga had a muscular injury, even though he’s hoping to join his former boss, Vincent Kompany, at Burnley.
This leaves us with the experienced combo Cedric, Pepe and Partey. Cedric and Pepe were shipped out on loan last season with hopes of the loaning teams retaining their services, but in reality, it was never going to happen, as Cedric couldn’t get ahead of Tete at Fulham, and Pepe massively underwhelmed at OGC Nice, while having some injury concerns as well. Both players have a year left on their contract, so it’s either they are sold for cheaps this summer, or go for free next summer. There is the third option, one of Arteta’s faves, cancelling their contracts to let them go anyway this summer, but it’s evident from their notable omission that Arteta doesn’t feel they can contribute to the exciting ongoing project at Arsenal.
Partey’s case is a bit shaky, as he has been reported from ITK tabloids that he has agreed to move to Saudi Arabia to earn some big greens, despite being a massively important player to the club. I don’t know whether he feels threatened by the acquisitions of Havertz and Rice, or he just feels that his time is up after three seasons with us, but Partey has two years left on his current deal, so Arsenal still has some power regarding his transfer. If the Saudi teams provide an offer Arsenal cannot refuse, then maybe Partey might be allowed to go, and plans will be in place to secure Romeo Lavia or another defensive midfielder from Krypton.
The website officially stated that ‘Partey would return next week’, so I will take that at face value.
Sayonara.
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