Arsenal Pre-Season Training Kicks Off

Arsenal’s training pitches are filling up again. The holidays are almost over. The decisions are about to get serious.

Mikel Arteta had his players back at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Monday for the official start of pre-season, fresh from a warm‑up camp in Marbella. For now, it has been a stripped-back group: those who did not go to the World Cup, plus returning loanees and a handful of youngsters trying to catch the manager’s eye.

Names like Ethan Nwaneri, Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira are back in the fold, hoping this summer is the one that changes their status from squad options to genuine rotation pieces. Cristhian Mosquera has reported in too, with a clear opportunity in front of him as Arsenal navigate the coming months without the injured William Saliba.

There are new faces and new stakes. Illan Meslier has joined his team-mates for the first time after his summer move, settling into the rhythm of life at London Colney. Marli Salmon and Max Dowman are among the academy prospects drafted into the main group, a valuable early look at the standards required.

Riccardo Calafiori has been involved, as have Myles Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Jesus. Ben White is back as well, which is no small detail for Arteta. The right-back missed the closing weeks of last season with a knee problem, but his rehabilitation has tracked positively: he trained in Marbella and has now stepped back into full sessions in north London.

Jurrien Timber is edging his way back too. The defender has rejoined the group but is still short of a complete return after minor groin surgery, Arsenal taking no risks with a player they expect to be central once fully fit.

World Cup contingent trickling back

The calendar is tight. Arsenal’s first official pre-season fixture comes on August 1 against Girona, and Arteta will begin to welcome back his World Cup contingent before then.

Players are entitled to a minimum of three weeks off after international duty. After a draining campaign last season, Arsenal may choose to extend that rest for some. The balance between sharpness and burnout is delicate.

Kai Havertz is due back in the coming days after Germany’s exit at the round-of-32 stage. The forward has not been idle; he has been training this week at former club Bayer Leverkusen to keep his levels up before rejoining Arsenal.

Piero Hincapie and Viktor Gyokeres have also completed their three-week breaks and are expected back next week. Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli, who went slightly deeper into the tournament with Brazil, are on a similar schedule and should be available at the start of next week, likely part of the group that travels to Spain.

That Girona match will arrive too soon for Martin Odegaard. The captain reached the quarter-finals with Norway, losing to England on July 11. By the club’s timeline, he will be cleared to return in the week commencing August 3, just as Arsenal head to Dublin to face Real Betis before home games against Borussia Dortmund and Como.

Time running short for late World Cup arrivals

Eight Arsenal players went all the way to the final weekend of the World Cup. Their reward is a longer break, but it comes at a cost: a truncated pre-season.

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

Some are better placed than others. David Raya and Martin Zubimendi barely played across the summer and should return close to match-ready. Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino saw more minutes, yet none carried the kind of relentless workload that defines a full tournament run.

The real anxiety sits elsewhere.

The Rice and Saka dilemma

The biggest calls Arteta and his medical staff must make revolve around Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka.

Rice has been managing neural pain in his hamstring for more than six months, an issue that never fully cleared and was compounded by bouts of sickness during the World Cup. Saka, meanwhile, spent much of that tournament held back by Thomas Tuchel, who revealed the winger was still playing through an Achilles problem.

Both are linchpins. Both finished last season visibly running on fumes.

When they walk back into London Colney, the temptation will be to fast-track them. The stakes of the new campaign demand it. Yet the data, the medical reports and the evidence of the last year may point in another direction entirely.

Arsenal will put them through full assessments on their return. If the verdict is that more rest is required, Arteta faces a familiar modern dilemma: push his stars to start the season at all costs, or gamble on patience now to avoid breaking them later.

Pre-season has started. The squad is reforming. The fixtures are looming. The next few weeks will tell whether Arsenal enter August with a fully armed Rice and Saka, or whether the club chooses the harder path of restraint in pursuit of a longer, healthier run at the title.