Arsenal Pre-Season: Early Arrivals and Key Decisions
Arsenal’s training pitches are filling up again. The holidays are almost over, the World Cup dust is still settling, and Mikel Arteta is about to discover exactly what kind of shape his squad is in.
The Gunners officially kicked off pre-season at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Monday, fresh from a warm‑up camp in Marbella. For now, it’s a stripped-back group: players who skipped the World Cup, loanees returning to stake a claim, youngsters chasing a breakthrough, and a handful of senior names working their way back from injury.
Early arrivals and returning loanees
Arteta and his staff have been drilling those who didn’t travel to the tournament. That group includes returning loanees Ethan Nwaneri, Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira, each trying to convince the manager they deserve a place in a squad that is edging closer to title contention.
Cristhian Mosquera is back too, with a clear opportunity in front of him. With William Saliba sidelined for the next few months, the defender knows this pre-season could define his role in the opening stretch of the campaign.
New signing Illan Meslier has already joined his team-mates, starting the process of bedding in behind a back line that demands precision with the ball and authority without it. Around him, academy prospects Marli Salmon and Max Dowman have been folded into the main group, getting an early taste of first-team standards.
Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis‑Skelly and Gabriel Jesus are all involved as well, offering Arteta a useful core of senior quality to set the tone. Ben White is back in the thick of it, too. The right-back missed the final weeks of last season with a knee problem, but his rehab has gone smoothly. He trained in Marbella, has been back out on the grass at London Colney this week, and looks on track to be ready when the real games start.
Jurrien Timber is edging his way back. The defender has rejoined the group but has not yet made a full return after minor groin surgery, with Arsenal taking care not to rush a player whose versatility could prove crucial over a long season.
World Cup contingent filters back
The first official pre-season fixture comes on August 1 against Girona, and by then the picture should look very different. Arsenal’s World Cup players are entitled to at least three weeks off after their international duty, and after last season’s relentless schedule, the club may decide some deserve even longer.
Kai Havertz is due back in the coming days. Germany’s exit in the round of 32 has given him a longer runway, and he has been keeping himself sharp by training at former club Bayer Leverkusen this week.
Piero Hincapie and Viktor Gyokeres have now completed their three-week breaks and are expected to report back next week. The same applies to Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli, who went a little deeper into the tournament with Brazil but should still be back in time to join the squad that travels to Spain.
For Martin Odegaard, the wait is slightly longer. His Norway side reached the quarter-finals before losing to England on July 11, so the captain will not be available to train again until the week commencing August 3. Arsenal head to Dublin to face Real Betis two days later, then host Borussia Dortmund and Como in quick succession, so his pre-season minutes will have to be managed carefully.
Eight Arsenal players went all the way to the final weekend of the World Cup. Their summers have been short, their rest precious, and their pre-season will be squeezed. August 10 is the earliest they can rejoin training, leaving just six days before the Community Shield against Manchester City and only 11 before the Premier League opener at home to Coventry on August 21.
Some, at least, should be physically ready to hit the ground running. David Raya and Martin Zubimendi barely featured during the summer and arrive with lighter workloads. Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino played more, but none endured a punishing run of minutes.
The Rice and Saka dilemma
The real tension lies elsewhere. Two names, two pillars of Arteta’s project, and two complicated decisions.
Declan Rice has been nursing neural pain in his hamstring for more than six months. He battled through it, then battled through sickness at the World Cup on top of that. The temptation will be to throw him straight back in; the reality is that Arsenal cannot afford to misjudge his recovery.
Bukayo Saka presents a similar puzzle. Thomas Tuchel held him back for much of the tournament, later revealing the winger was still playing through the pain of an Achilles issue. Saka has carried Arsenal for long stretches of recent seasons. At 22, he already feels indispensable.
Both will be assessed when they return to London. The medical team will pore over the data, Arteta will listen, and the club may yet decide that the smartest move is to delay their full return, even if that means starting the season without them at peak sharpness.
Arsenal’s pre-season, then, is about more than minutes and match fitness. It is a balancing act between momentum and preservation, between chasing early-season rhythm and protecting the legs that carry their title ambitions. How bold will Arteta be with his two biggest assets?
