By Andrew Beasley
After beating MK Dons 3-0 in a training-ground friendly last weekend, Arsenal truly begin their pre-season programme against La Liga outfit Girona on Saturday evening, 1 August.
It marks a return to action for the Premier League champions, who will want to show their success last season was not a one-off.
Retaining the English title is incredibly difficult if you are not Manchester City.
No other club has done it since Manchester United won three in succession from 2007 to 2009.
Chelsea have done it once, Liverpool have not managed it for more than 40 years, and it is the best part of a century since Arsenal retained the crown.
Mikel Arteta faces a sizeable challenge.
Reaching a second successive Champions League final will not be simple either.
Manchester City in 2021-22 are the only one of England’s previous five finalists who made it as far as the semi-finals the next season.
With the Premier League stronger than ever, competing on two fronts has never been tougher.
Transfer business may improve Arsenal’s chances, though their spending has been modest to this point. More than half of the £79m spent was on making Piero Hincapié’s loan permanent.
Elsewhere Arsenal have replaced Leandro Trossard with Christos Tzolis, a Greek winger, from Club Brugge. Seven years younger than the Belgian, his arrival is a logical move in future-proofing the squad.
Can They Land Left Winger Vinicius?
However, the left side of Arsenal’s attack would be elevated to truly elite level if they could secure reported target Vinícius Júnior.
The on-field argument speaks for itself. Vinícius made 92 carries of at least five metres that ended with him either taking a shot (49) or creating a chance (43) last season, the most of anyone in Europe’s top five leagues.
Open-play threat, for a side that has often relied on set pieces, would be considerably increased.
Those holding the purse strings at Arsenal may have pause for thought.
Capology’s wage data estimates that Vinícius is the joint-third highest paid player in Europe’s top five leagues, earning in excess of £100,000 a week more than anyone at his potential new club.
Vinicius earns an eye-popping £416,725 weekly while Arsenal’s current highest earner, Bukayo Saka, is on £300,000 a week!
Would Arsenal be willing to rewrite their wage structure? They should expect calls from the agents of their current players if they are.
In this sense, Bradley Barcola, with whom they have also been linked, makes a more plausible target. The issue there would be competition from Liverpool, who are in far greater need of wingers.
This is the test facing Andrea Berta, Arsenal’s Sporting Director: Improving a squad that is already one of the best around is not easy.
When Berta arrived last year, the club’s primary targets were said to be Alexander Isak and Benjamin Sesko, both of whom joined rivals instead. The pool of players who could add something significant to Arteta’s options is drying up.
Fitness Of Available Players
Keeping existing players fit may be more beneficial than enhancing the squad. Arsenal did well to win the league given only a handful of clubs had players that missed more games.
Kai Havertz was reportedly their top earner before Saka signed a contract extension in February, but he only started seven league games.
The captain, Martin Ødegaard, was also unavailable for spells, meaning he and Saka started only 10 Premier League matches together in 2025-26. One of them coincided with the only game for which Declan Rice was injured (the 4-1 home win over Aston Villa), another (another home win, 2-1 against Brighton) when he started at right-back.
This meant Arteta was rarely able to give key men a breather.
Huge Minutes For Club & Country Mean Little Rest For Key Men
Arsenal have five of the Premier League’s top 20 players for club minutes in all competitions since the start of last season.
Granted, the goalkeeper David Raya is one of them. But their outfield players with more than 4,200 minutes were Rice (4,456 minutes, the 11th most for a Premier League club), Martín Zubimendi (4,298, 15th), William Saliba (4,254, 17th) and Gabriel Magalhães (4,210, 19th), all vital components of the side’s spine.
Saliba also played 795 minutes for France, pushing him past 5,000 minutes before his World Cup was prematurely ended by a back injury that looks likely to sideline him for some time.
It is remarkable Rice was able to play 1,026 minutes for England on top of his Arsenal commitments, not least as he has managed nerve pain in a hamstring throughout 2026.
This workload clearly impacted his ability to contribute at his best for Thomas Tuchel this summer, and that will be a concern for Arteta.
With Viktor Gyökeres also clocking up plenty of playing time for Sweden, Arsenal have six players with at least 4,400 minutes for club and country since the start of last August.
This may have been a factor in Arsenal opting for a relatively low-key pre-season.
They visited Asia last summer, but the trip to Catalonia to play Girona is the furthest they will travel this year.
Arsenal also have games in Dublin (against Real Betis) and Cardiff (the Community Shield against City) sandwiching home friendlies against Borussia Dortmund and Como.
With players still recovering from their World Cup exertions, it may be some time before we see the true Arsenal.
A combination of fatigue, injuries and potential squad additions means the process could take far longer than would be ideal.
*PHOTO CAPTION: Mikel Arteta (2nd left) indulges in a bit of training-ground banter with first-team coach Miguel Molina in Girona.
