As Arsenal got off the coach at the US Naval academy for day two of their pre-season training camp in Baltimore, the sheer scale of the operation was unmissable. The club had hired out separate buses just to transport all their training kit from their inner city hotel out to the training campus, while tens of coaches and staff also travelled for the session. Undeniably though, the largest contingent of the sizeable Gunners group on Tuesday was the players.
Mikel Arteta surprised many by naming a 33-man squad for the tour to America. Other clubs like Tottenham have decided to leave big name players who seem to have no future at the club behind as they travel overseas to prepare the coming campaign, but Arsenal have chosen the opposite approach.
The likes of Runar Alex Runarsson, Hector Bellerin, Lucas Torreira and several others seem almost inevitably on their way out of north London, but here they are still in Baltimore. Despite their fate though, each of these players has maintained a level of professionalism that Arteta is keen to reward.
