5 takeaways from Arsenal's pre-season so far

2 defeats in 3 pre-season games and iffy performances. It’s not been smooth sailing for Arsenal in preparations for the new season - in this piece I look at why and what we have learned during the three games.

Thanks to World Cup, much of Arsenal’s core have been on extended holiday - some are only just returning to training.

We have one friendly game to go (Como on Wednesday) and David Raya, Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Bruno Guimaeres, Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino are yet to play a minute.

Due to this prolonged absence, in these three games Mikel Arteta has had to play Myles Lewis-Skelly as a lone midfielder. The £75million addition of Bruno Guimarães indicates that Arteta would like to play with a midfield pivot pair, likely that two of Guimaeres, Rice, Zubimendi and Myles will start at all times. Ahead of them, more often than not it will be Odegaard or Eze and they’ve had 30 minutes of time between them so far (Odegaard vs. Dortmund).

So Arsenal’s midfield and therefore identity is yet to be reintegrated, we will likely see some of those previously mentioned get a small amount of minutes against Como and more meaningful minutes in the Community Shield, to help them prepare for the Premier League opener vs. Coventry on Friday 21 August.

I imagine with some minutes against Como on Wednesday, Bruno Guimaeres may be in line to start alongside Lewis-Skelly in the Community Shield, play at least 45 minutes and then be ready for the Premier League opener. I am looking forward to seeing Myles, Bruno, Rice and Zubimendi compete for minutes, with one or two of them coming off the bench every game to elevate us, it will make difference to not have to run Rice and Zubimendi into the ground this season.

Arsenal have not looked good defensively in pre-season (particularly from set pieces) and unlike in midfield and attack, there aren’t players still to come back into the mix. Raya returning will help, but with William Saliba out for an unknown period and Jurrien Timber continuing to struggle to come back - there is rightfully some concern here Arsenal need to address in the market.

Ben White, to me, does not look at the physical level required for Arsenal anymore. But the club would be silly to sell him this summer now.

Marli Salmon looks really promising, the 16-year-old may have seen this opening come just a bit too early - as although he turns 17 at the end of the month, surely that is still too early for a centre-half to be starting games in the Premier League.

My personal view is that Arsenal should be looking to add an overlapping attacking right back and an experienced right centre back this month. This may feel like a luxury, but given the club now won’t be signing Vinicius Junior, there will be funds that can be allocated elsewhere.

Adding both positions in this window would cover for the Saliba and Timber injuries and bridge to Salmon who could properly enter the first team next season. Then, if all are back and the area looks crowded come January, Arsenal could part with White.

It’s slightly understandable that Arsenal may not have been in a rush to depart with Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira and Reiss Nelson to date, given the lack of senior players available to supplement the pre-season group. But Arteta said that all players would be returning to training from today and so suddenly the group will be bloated and there’s no need for that trio - they won’t make matchday squads.

Albeit unlikely, they had a chance to re-enter the managers mind with top performances over pre-season but none of them took that opportunity.

Between them they earn around £400,000 per-week in wages, so shifting them, even for minimal fees, will be valuable. Fabio Vieira wants to return to Hamburg, Arsenal may have to accept a fee closer to £10million + bonuses to push the move along. Reiss Nelson has some interest from West Ham, now in the Championship, Reiss would need to compromise on his wage demands.

There’s a lot of smoke around Jesus going to Italy and he hired a new agent to help him find a move this summer - fingers crossed that one gets done soon.

Christos Tzolis has been one of the brighter sparks in pre-season, but Arsenal still look to be lacking top end talent in attack. Vinicius Jr would have been perfect, but that opportunity is gone. The club will be pushing hard for Julian Alvarez, given Arteta and Berta’s admiration of the player - but that deal seems difficult.

The simplistic thing to say is Arsenal would really benefit from upgrading on Gabriel Martinelli at left-wing and Viktor Gyokeres at striker. Both are good players, but there’s a feeling that for a club chasing the biggest trophies, Arsenal would be much better positioned with better options there. The issue for Arsenal is who, clearly, provides an upgrade on them?

The players that are clearly better are not available and then there’s a group of players who might be better, but would cost huge amounts of money. Morgan Rogers, for example, was viewed as a left-wing option before the summer; he’s moved for £117million, Bradley Barcola looks set to join Liverpool for even more than that.

Could Arsenal take a punt on long-term Arteta target Nico Williams? His form has been questionable though, as has his injured record, and he’d still cost his £80million release clause and command a significant wage. In the last issue I explored what we could potentially pivot to in the wake of the Vinicius move, but no option is simple.

This last point is the least important, but an interesting outcome from pre-season is how much Kepa has struggled. When Arsenal signed Islan Meslier on a free, many were worried this meant Kepa was leaving (£5million release clause) and that Meslier would become the backup. After what we’ve seen in these few games, fans are starting to suggest they are more comfortable with Meslier as a number two than they are Kepa.

Whether either is good enough is probably another question; if someone triggers Kepa’s release clause, I don’t think many would be disappointed, as it would allow Arsenal to replace him with probably someone more competent. Either way, Raya coming back and staying fit for the bulk of games this season is pivotal.