An Arsenal XI made up of mostly u23 players will take on Barnet on Wednesday night, after returning from their trip to Slovakia.

The u23s kicked off pre-season with the traditional curtain-raiser against Boreham Wood, before heading off with the u18s to play a few matches in Slovakia. Now Steve Bould’s side have returned to the UK to keep pre-season going with a game against Barnet.

The match will take place at 19:45 BST on Wednesday 24th July. At this point, it doesn’t seem as if it will be streamed. In order to watch the game, you’ll have to buy a ticket (available until as late as 19:15) and head on down to The Hive London.

Let’s have a look at our predicted team for the match.

Predicted Lineup (4-3-3) and Team News

James Hillson; Matthew Dennis, Harry Clarke, Joseph Olowu, Zak Swanson; Matt Smith, Jordan McEneff, Ben Cottrell; Xavier Amaechi, Trae Coyle, Folarin Balogun.

Of course, plenty of the u23s are still on tour with the first team, including Bukayo Saka, Robbie Burton, James Olayinka, Tyreece John-Jules, Dominic Thompson and Zech Medley. They won’t be available for this match.

Arthur Okonkwo has been conspicuously absent from pre-season so far, presumably with some kind of injury, given he attended the game against Boreham Wood.

Mark McGuinness is still away with the Republic of Ireland u19s, thanks to their progression to the semi-finals of the u19 European Championship.

It remains to be seen whether Redouan Taha el Idrissi will continue his trial with the club, after playing a couple of games for the u23s in pre-season. If so, he may well start at left-back with Swanson moving to right-back.

After missing out on the first-team tour, Xavier Amaechi is available for selection, and last season’s u18 top scorer Folarin Balogun will provide the threat up front.

There should also be chances to see the likes of Sam Greenwood, Nathan Tormey, Miguel Azeez and more from the bench.