Arsenal’s final pre-season friendlies are now set, with the club to play Chelsea on August 1st and Sevilla later in the week.
On Wednesday, Arsenal announced that the friendly against Chelsea has been rescheduled, due to the Blues’ participation in the Community Shield, and will now take place on August 1st. Tickets went on sale on Friday.
Then, El Sevillista revealed Unai Emery’s men will play Sevilla at the Friends Arena in Stockholm on August 4th, where they had previously planned to face Chelsea. Arsenal subsequently confirmed the match on their website.
The delay in announcement until now was due to the change in the International Champions Cup format, and of course Chelsea’s additional scheduling difficulties, rather than anything on Arsenal’s end. It’s good to have it all sorted now though, so fans can book tickets and travel, and look forward to attending the matches.
The Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and PSG matches will all be part of the International Champions Cup. Whilst it was initially thought the August 4th match would just be a friendly, now it seems it will also be part of the pre-season competition.
Friendly schedule
- 14th July: Boreham Wood vs Arsenal – Meadow Park
- 26th July: Atletico Madrid vs Arsenal – Singapore National Stadium
- 28th July: PSG vs Arsenal – Singapore National Stadium
- 1st August: Chelsea vs Arsenal – Aviva Stadium, Dublin
- 4th August: Sevilla vs Arsenal – Friends Arena, Stockholm
Academy side to face Boreham Wood
Henrikh Mkhitaryan told the press in Armenia recently that Arsenal have a training camp in Singapore on the day of the World Cup final, which is the day after the Gunners’ scheduled fixture against Boreham Wood. It’s therefore very unlikely the first team will play a match in England one day before they’re training in Singapore.
Instead, we can expect a largely academy-based side to take part in the fixture.
No Emirates Cup
The Emirates Cup, a fan-favourite event in pre-season, won’t take place this year, as Arsenal undergo construction on Club Level. Improvements in disabled areas of the stadium brought the capacity of the ground below 60,000 in recent years, but the new expansion will bring it back up to 60,423.
The reason there’s no Emirates Cup this year or next is that Arsenal are adding an extra front row of seats to Club Level.
Capacity is now below 60k due to improvements to the disabled areas to comply with the relevant Act.
This will bring the capacity back up to 60,423. pic.twitter.com/bcoeo2YWOz
— Arsenal Fixture News (@AFCFixtureNews) June 12, 2018