The fate of all of Arsenal’s World Cup last-16 players is now known, and 10 of them are set to miss the start of pre-season this summer.
Arsenal’s players have largely been successful in the World Cup round-of-16, with only Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Magalhaes facing elimination with Brazil.
William Saliba and France progressed to the quarter-finals with a 1-0 win over Paraguay, whilst Brazil’s exit meant Martin Odegaard and Norway went through too.
Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Declan Rice, and Noni Madueke made the last-eight with a 3-2 win over Mexico, with Rice and Saka pivotal in the opening goal.
Mikel Merino scored the winning goal in Spain’s victory over Portugal, taking David Raya and Martin Zubimendi through with him, and Leandro Trossard provided an assist as Belgium thrashed the United States.
As a result, 10 Arsenal players have now made the World Cup quarter-finals, and all of them are expected to miss the start of pre-season.
France play soonest, on July 9th, but even a defeat in that game would see Saliba on his summer holidays until July 31st at a minimum, the day before Arsenal’s first friendly. Players get at least three weeks off, and Saliba’s injury issue means he’ll likely need more.
Pre-season will start earlier than July 31st, allowing the players involved to have a few sessions prior to that opening game.
The other nine Arsenal internationals will play their World Cup quarter-finals on July 10th and 11th, giving them even less time before Arsenal’s friendly matches get underway.
The situation will only get more congested for at least some of Arsenal’s players following the quarter-finals, as any players who progress will face a semi-final and either a third-place play-off or the final.
Given Spain play Belgium (Merino, Raya, Zubimendi vs Trossard), and Norway play England (Odegaard vs Saka, Rice, Eze, Madueke), a bare minimum of two Arsenal players will be at the World Cup until the final weekend. That number will go up if France, Spain, or England win.
On the other side of things, there’s a good chance everyone who wasn’t called up or has been eliminated so far will be able to play the entirety of pre-season. Assuming that’s the case, let’s look at the squad Mikel Arteta will have from the start.
Arsenal’s early pre-season squad
Goalkeepers
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Tommy Setford
Defenders
Cristhian Mosquera, Ben White, Piero Hincapie, Gabriel Magalhaes, Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori
Midfielders
Myles Lewis-Skelly, Christian Norgaard, Fabio Vieira, Ethan Nwaneri
Forwards
Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Viktor Gyokeres, Reiss Nelson, Kai Havertz
Senior players only, youth players such as Max Dowman and Marli Salmon will also be called up but haven’t been included here
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