A number of details about Arsenal’s pre-season have emerged in the last few days, so let’s round up what we know so far about the club’s plans.

Final pre-season friendly announcement this week

According to rumours on social media, Arsenal will announce their final decision on pre-season friendlies this week. The delay in announcement until now is due to the change in the International Champions Cup format, and Chelsea’s participation in the Community Shield.

As a result of those two factors, a number of matches needed rearranging. Most importantly, Arsenal’s game against the Blues, which now clashes with their trip to Wembley.

World Cup clash

One detail of pre-season that caught the attention of Arsenal fans was the date of the friendly against Boreham Wood.

It takes place during the same weekend as the World Cup final, which means some Arsenal players may still be on International Duty, and you can back England for World Cup Winning team here.

However, it now appears the first-team won’t be taking part in the friendly anyway. Henrikh Mkhitaryan told the press in Armenia that Arsenal have a training camp in Singapore on the day of the final, making it pretty much impossible that they’ll play a match in England one day earlier.

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.

Friendly schedule (so far)

  • 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
  • TBC: Chelsea vs Arsenal – Friends Arena, Stockholm