Arsenal players are holding an unofficial start to pre-season in Marbella this week, ahead of their official first day back next Monday.
Arsenal Fixture News reports that the first-team players who didn’t go to the World Cup are believed to be flying out to the Marbella Training Centre in Spain today, for fitness training.
The same source adds that those same players will then reunite at Arsenal’s London Colney training centre on Monday for screening and their official pre-season training start.
Simon Collings confirms for The S*n that Arsenal will indeed hold a training camp in Marbella this week, continuing a recent tradition of holding a mini training camp before pre-season properly gets underway.
Collings adds that Arsenal are making a later start to pre-season than usual, and a later start than some other Premier League clubs, as they’ve decided on a lighter pre-season load due to so many players being at the World Cup.
None of those players will be involved in training yet. Kai Havertz was the first Arsenal player eliminated from the World Cup on June 29th, so his minimum three weeks off will only end on July 20th.
Next week will be the very earliest Havertz could return to training, and the other 14 players who attended the World Cup won’t be available until even later.
Eight Arsenal players are still in attendance at the tournament to this day, and will require three weeks off beginning this weekend.
The following players should all be available to return from day one of pre-season, if fit:
- Goalkeepers: Meslier, Kepa, Setford
- Defenders: Mosquera, White, Timber, Calafiori
- Midfielders: Lewis-Skelly, Norgaard, Vieira, Nwaneri, Dowman
- Forwards: Jesus, Nelson
Youth players will likely fill the remaining spots at first, with Marli Salmon one of many likely to be involved.
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