Arsenal host Como in the final preseason match of the summer. After today, it’s Manchester City in the Community Shield on Sunday. The Premier League season opens with Arsenal hosting Coventry City on Friday, August 21st. We’re almost there.
The England and Spain World Cup contingent have returned to training — they’re in the images published by the club — but it’s not clear if they’ll feature today. William Saliba will be out for a while recovering from a back fracture. Jurrien Timber is “weeks”
away as he recovers from the groin problem that kept him out of the World Cup. I’d expect Bruno Guimaraes to make his first appearance in an Arsenal shirt today.
Now is the time for Mikel Arteta and his squad to be making their final preparations for the long season ahead and putting themselves in the best position to hit the ground running. Whether that is accomplished by getting as many first choice players “game situation” minutes or progressing them back into the swing of things with limited time is a question best answered by the significant amounts of information, data, and health / fitness assessments available to the club and not to us. Basically what I’m saying is we shouldn’t read anything into who plays and for how long.
One thing I would keep an eye on (and take with appropriate preseason grains of salt) is who looks good individually. The team stuff will come when the right combinations of players are on the field together. So far this preseason, Kai Havertz, Chritos Tzolis, and Martin Ødegaard have looked particularly good. Max Dowman is playing well and pushing for more regular involvement once the season starts. Ethan Nwaneri put in a solid performance against Dortmund after being disappointingly anonymous earlier in preseason.
Lineups will be posted when available. For most of y’all, the match will be available to stream on Arsenal’s YouTube channel. If it isn’t, check here for where it is being shown in your region.
