Arsenal have returned to the Sobha Realty Training centre for pre-season training ahead of the group’s flight to America on Sunday. The Gunners will take on Bournemouth and Manchester United in Los Angeles before facing Liverpool in Pennsylvania.
Many of the first team are still away on their delayed holidays having taken part in either the European Championships or the Copa America. Some will return in time for the tour, others will join up part-way through and then the final group including Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice are expected to miss the tour entirely barring any decision to cut their break short.
Good spirits
The first thing that is noticed is how positive the group clearly is to be back. Playing games before some serious drills with games of “no bounce” including Mikel Arteta is great to see.
Arteta’s involvement in elevating the togetherness of the group is well-known and credited as one of the key factors in how this side has entered and established itself in the title races. There are, however, still potential threats to upset the balance with many players who could be sold still with the club with the chances of getting regular chances this season very slim.
Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson are all being linked with moves away from the club. If indeed their summer goes on with this cloud of uncertainty, there is always the chance of it affecting some of the harmony which the club will look to combat as soon as possible.
Youth promotion
In the early portion of the video, only a select group of younger players were involved in the drills. Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ayden Heaven were spotted in the two-sided passing and shooting drill.
All three are very appreciated by the club although Heaven has been linked with a potential exit. But Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly have committed their immediate futures to Arsenal, signing professional contracts.
Many hope that they will be part of the US tour, getting the opportunity to play games with their senior teammates. Considering how many are yet to be part of the group this is a real possibility.
Coaching team
One thing that perhaps stood out at the end of the video was a shot of all the players getting a group talk from Arteta. He was joined by the usual faces of Nicolas Jover and Albert Stuivenberg but there must have been another potential 20 members of staff.
These likely included members of the physiotherapy team and medical staff. However, there were easily as many staff members as there were players in the shot and it goes to show just how many people are involved in the operation behind the scenes at the club to get the maximum from the group.
