It is a little over two weeks until Arsenal play their first competitive match of the new season when they take on Manchester City in the Community Shield on August 16. Mikel Arteta’s side will be full of confidence having claimed their first Premier League title in 22 years and the clash at Wembley presents an immediate opportunity to win more silverware ahead of what is expected to be another competitive campaign.
Before that the Gunners will play four pre-season matches with the first taking place in Spain this evening as they travel to take on Girona at the Estadi Montilivi. The match is Arsenal’s first public pre-season game of the summer having beaten MK Dons in a behind closed doors fixture last week.
New signings Christos Tzolis and Illan Meslier featured in that match and both have been selected for tonight’s squad. So too have five players freshly back from the World Cup with Piero Hincapie, Viktor Gyokeres, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Magalhaes all training during the week.
Arsenal are also circling more incomings with Newcastle’s Bruno Guimaraes heavily linked to make the move to the Emirates and Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr a rumoured possibility. Arteta though will only be focused on tonight’s match and continuing pre-season with a win.
*Follow all the updates from Girona v Arsenal with our live blog below: *
When is Girona vs Arsenal?
Arsenal’s pre-season friendly with Girona kicks off at 7pm BST on Saturday 1 August at Estadi Montilivi.
Arsenal v Girona
Arsenal take their pre-season campaign in front of fans for the first time with a trip to Catalonia as they take on LaLiga outfit Girona.
The Gunners eased past MK Dons in a 3-0 behind-closed-doors win a few days ago, with Mikel Arteta hoping to go two for two as preparations continue for their Premier League title defence.
Fans have been whipped up into a frenzy by the Vinicius Jr transfer saga but all eyes will be on Christos Tzolis, the new arrival from Club Brugge who is set to get his first official run-out.
A number of World Cup stars have also rejoined the squad so could be in line to feature for the first time since the end of last term, with the last sight of Arsenal being their Champions League final shootout defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
Good afternoon!
Welcome to The Independent’s coverage of tonight’s pre-season friendly between Arsenal and Girona.
The Gunners had travelled to Spain for their first public match of the summer and will hope to kick off proceedings with a win.
They are only two weeks out from a competitive clash against Man City in the Community Shield and Mikel Arteta will be hoping to get his men up to speed as soon as possible.
Kick off for this one is at 7pm and we’ll have all the build up beforehand so stick around.