Arsenal Pre-Season Begins: Key Players Return and Challenges Ahead

Arsenal’s summer is already moving quickly. The players are back through the doors at London Colney, the first pre-season fixture is looming, and Mikel Arteta is juggling fitness charts, World Cup hangovers and a couple of big calls on his two most important outfielders.

Core group back on the grass

The official start of Arsenal’s pre-season came on Monday at the Sobha Realty Training Centre, after a warm‑up camp in Marbella. Arteta has so far worked with the group untouched by World Cup duty, a mix of senior pros, returning loanees and ambitious youngsters trying to catch the eye.

Ethan Nwaneri, Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira are all back from loan spells and straight into the main sessions. Cristhian Mosquera has reported in too, eager to make his case as cover for William Saliba, who faces a spell out injured in the opening months of the campaign.

New signing Illan Meslier has joined his team‑mates for the first time, while academy talents Marli Salmon and Max Dowman have been drafted into the senior group. Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Jesus are also involved, alongside a very welcome sight for Arsenal supporters: Ben White back in full training.

The right-back missed the run‑in last season with a knee problem, but his rehab has gone to plan. He trained in Marbella and has stepped straight back into the work at London Colney this week.

Jurrien Timber is again with the squad, though his own return is being managed carefully after minor groin surgery. He is yet to resume full training but is edging closer.

World Cup contingent filters back

Arsenal’s pre-season schedule starts for real on August 1, when they face Girona. By then, Arteta expects the first wave of World Cup players to have checked back in.

Those involved at the tournament are guaranteed a minimum of three weeks off. After the relentless pace of last season, Arsenal may yet stretch that for some of them, but a number are already on the brink of returning.

Kai Havertz is due back in the coming days. Germany’s exit at the round-of-32 stage means his break is over, and he has been keeping sharp by training at his former club Bayer Leverkusen.

Piero Hincapie and Viktor Gyokeres have completed their three-week holidays and are scheduled to rejoin the group next week. Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli, who went slightly deeper into the competition with Brazil, are also expected back at the start of next week and should be part of the travelling squad to Spain.

That Girona game will come too early for Martin Odegaard. The Arsenal captain reached the World Cup quarter-finals with Norway, losing to England on July 11. His three-week rest period means he will only be available to resume training in the week commencing August 3.

Arsenal then head to Dublin to face Real Betis, before home fixtures against Borussia Dortmund and Como round off a compact but demanding pre-season slate.

Tight turnaround for late World Cup finalists

Eight Arsenal players went all the way to the final weekend of the World Cup. Their reward is a medal – and a brutally short pre-season.

August 10 is the earliest any of that group can report back, just six days before the Community Shield against Manchester City. From there, they will have only 11 days to build enough fitness for the Premier League opener, when Arsenal host Coventry on August 21.

Some, at least, should be ready to hit the ground running. David Raya and Martin Zubimendi saw limited minutes during the summer and will return with relatively light workloads in their legs. Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino played more, but not to the point of complete exhaustion.

The Rice and Saka dilemma

Declan Rice has been nursing neural pain in his hamstring for more than six months. He still played through it, and he also battled sickness during the World Cup. Bukayo Saka’s summer told a similar story: Thomas Tuchel admitted he held the winger back for much of the tournament as Saka continued to manage an Achilles problem.

Both will be assessed in detail when they walk back into London Colney. Arsenal know the temptation: get them on the pitch, get them into rhythm, lean on their quality as early as possible.

But the medical data and the evidence of last season point in another direction. Rice needs that lingering hamstring issue fully resolved. Saka, who has carried a heavy load for club and country for years, cannot afford to drag an Achilles problem into another 60‑game campaign.

Arteta and his staff must decide how hard to push, how much to hold back, and whether a little more rest now might be the difference between a fast start and a fit squad in April.

Pre-season is under way. The fixtures are set. The squad is filtering back. What Arsenal choose to do with Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka over the next few weeks may say everything about how they plan to last the distance this time.