Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Arsenal plan to put on a friendly match in the coming days, with reports suggesting they’ll face a Manchester United XI.
Earlier this week, one report suggested that Arsenal planned to hold a behind-closed-doors friendly match to help some of their injured players to get up to speed, most notably Gabriel Jesus but also perhaps the likes of Viktor Gyokeres.
Jesus has been a regular in training with Arsenal in recent weeks, but after more than 10 months without a competitive fixture, he’s going to be somewhat out of practice.
The report claimed Arsenal intend to put on a friendly match against a Manchester United XI behind closed doors on Thursday, November 27th.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mikel Arteta didn’t explicitly confirm the date or opponent for the match, but he did verify that they’ll hold a match for Jesus to play in.
“Yeah, he’s quite close to be fair, and it’s earlier than we expected,” Arteta began. “In the next few days he’s going to have another step to make, with a game that we’re going to organise for him.
“After that he’s just going to be knocking on the door, because he’s Gabriel, a winner, that’s how it’s happened.”
It’s likely the majority of both teams will be comprised of u21 players, with neither club having many upcoming matches at that level.
The Arsenal u21s are on a winter break from competitive fixtures until January, and Manchester United only have a few English National League Cup and Premier League International Cup fixtures between now and 2026.
But the United first team are obviously also free, as they don’t have any European football to fill their midweeks. So the game may well end up being a mix of academy players and first teamers.