Arsenal are just days away from kicking off the new Premier League season against Crystal Palace, and preparations are almost complete for the trip to Selhurst Park.
Pre-season got underway at the beginning of the month with the Gunners recording a 5-1 win over League One outfit Ipswich Town with Eddie Nketiah scoring a hat-trick. That was followed up with a training camp in Germany which concluded with a 5-3 victory against FC Nurnberg on Gabriel Jesus' debut.
And more recently Arsenal have been in the USA for their second overseas tour of the summer. Across a 10-day period, it is safe to say that everything went to plan with three wins over Everton, Orlando City and Chelsea, whilst Oleksandr Zinchenko sealed his transfer from Manchester City.
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Back on home soil and, today (Tuesday, July 27), the majority of Mikel Arteta's first-team squad have taken another step towards full fitness as they welcomed fellow Premier League outfit Brentford to London Colney for a behind-closed-doors friendly and details of the match have been revealed.
Despite another goal in pre-season for Nketiah, Arsenal's 100% winning record came to an end as Brentford claimed a 2-1 victory with Bryan Mbeumo and Ryan Trevitt getting on the scoresheet for the visitors.
Interestingly, the Gunners side wasn't as strong as many may have expected with Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel Jesus, William Saliba, Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli not involved. Although, there were some minutes for Marquinhos and Charlie Patino.
Arsenal team: Turner, Cedric, Walters (Awe 46), Holding, Tavares (Souza 76), Elneny, Lokonga, Maitland-Niles (Patino 85), Marquinhos, Nelson (Sagoe Jr 90), Nketiah
This is not the first time over the past year that Arsenal have played a behind-closed-doors friendly against their London neighbours. Last September they claimed a 4-0 victory over Thomas Frank's side with goals coming from Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe while Cedric Soares netted a brace.
Then later in the season, Lacazette netted a hat-trick as Arsenal comfortably beat a Brentford B side 4-1 with Rob Holding also getting in on the act in a match that featured youngsters such as Mazeed Ogungbo, Miguel Azeez, Charles Sagoe Jr, Bradley Ibrahim and Charlie Patino.
Currently, the Emirates Cup clash against La Liga outfit Sevilla on Saturday is the final warm-up game pencilled in for the Gunners before the Premier League opener against Crystal Palace.
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