After 41 days, an Arsenal XI is back in action as their preparations for the 2022/23 season get underway with a behind-closed-doors friendly against Ipswich Town at London Colney.
As revealed by TWTD, the Gunners will welcome the Blues to their training ground on Saturday afternoon, but it's important to note that it will essentially be an U23s team on show for the north London outfit - although there is the potential that one or two more senior players will feature.
Now, the first batch of Arsenal senior players reported for pre-season training at the beginning of the week with the images that were released on Wednesday showing Eddie Nketiah, Bernd Leno, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Nicolas Pepe, Rob Holding, and Cedric Soares amongst those taking part.
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However, based on the aforementioned information, it may rule out the prospect of them featuring against Ipswich and the same may apply to returning loanees such as Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Pablo Mari, Hector Bellerin, Folarin Balogun, Reiss Nelson and Alex Runarsson.
With that said, Mikel Arteta could use the friendly to get some minutes into the legs of Thomas Partey and Benjamin White. The former missed the final nine games of last season through injury and whilst he returned to first-team training ahead of the 5-1 win over Everton, he will still be very short of match sharpness.
Meanwhile, White was clearly affected by a hamstring problem that saw him feature in just one of the final five matches and caused him to withdraw from the England squad for their UEFA Nations League games last month, so Saturday could be a chance to test out his fitness.
For the U23 players involved on Saturday, it could be an audition to be included in the senior Arsenal squad that will travel out to Germany next week for the first of two international tours this summer as there could be places up for grabs even if the likes of Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and William Saliba could be involved.
Given Charlie Patino, Omari Hutchinson, Salah-Eddine, Marcelo Flores and Miguel Azeez all trained with the first-team this week, one can assume they'll be in Mikel Arteta's plans for next week's pre-season training camp. The same may apply to Lino Sousa who could be required as cover at left-back if Kieran Tierney isn't named in the squad.
Zak Swanson and Mazeed Ogungbo - available for a loan spell next season - are also options at left-back whilst Zach Awe, Kido Taylor-Hart, Ryan Alebiosu, Khayon Edwards, Matt Smith, George Lewis, Reuell Walters and Ben Cottrell could also feature against the League 1 side.
The first pre-season friendly for the Arsenal senior side is against FC Nurnberg on July 8 at the Max-Morlock Stadion. They then return to London before flying to America for their second international tour of pre-season on July 13, where they will face Everton and Chelsea.
Currently, the Emirates Cup clash against La Liga outfit Sevilla on July 30 is the final warm-up game pencilled in before the Premier League opener against Crystal Palace, but football.london understands the club are hoping to arrange a behind-closed-doors friendly in between those matches.
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