Arsenal's latest pre-season fixture may have provided a major clue with regards to Mikel Arteta's plans for the start of the new Premier League campaign.
Preparations for the 2022/23 season have gone smoothly for the Gunners with wins over Ipswich Town, Everton, Orlando City and Chelsea, but their 100% winning record in pre-season came to an end on Wednesday afternoon when they were beaten 2-1 by Brentford in a behind-closed-doors friendly at London Colney.
In the grand scheme of things, the result will not matter too much - if it does at all - and perhaps the biggest takeaway from the game was the Arsenal players not involved as the likes of Hector Bellerin, Benjamin White and Oleksandr Zinchenko were all spotted watching on from the sidelines.
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With the Gunners back in action on Saturday against Sevilla as the Emirates Cup returns for the first time since the 2019 edition of the tournament, a possible explanation for William Saliba, Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka's absences vs Brentford is that they were simply being rested.
Meanwhile, a potential reason for Bernd Leno, Lucas Torreira and Pablo Mari not taking part in the friendly is that they could be closing in on moves away with the former said to be on the verge of completing an £8m transfer to Premier League new-boys Fulham.
Four other first-team players not involved against Brentford were Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Emile Smith Rowe and summer signing Fabio Vieira. Now, this could be significant with one more pre-season friendly pencilled in before Arsenal's Premier League campaign gets underway against Crystal Palace.
Neither of the quartet played a single minute of the USA tour, although Arteta did deliver an update on Tomiyasu as well as Vieira after the 4-0 win over Chelsea and there was a huge boost in training at the beginning of the week with Tierney and Smith Rowe taking part in the session.
"Yeah, Tomi is really close to start doing some training sessions," Arteta said. "Hopefully, next week and Fabio probably a little bit longer. I think he needs another week or so before he starts with the team, but he's been working hard, and he's been really unlucky to start his Arsenal career in this way, but again he's fitting in well."
Given the form of Gabriel Martinelli in pre-season and Arteta effectively settling on his first-choice midfield trio, it would have been a surprise if Smith Rowe and Vieira were in contention to start against Crystal Palace. With that said, their lack of game time all but confirms they will be on the bench at the very least.
And the same may apply to Tierney and Tomiyasu. Between the pair, they have featured for a grand total of 30 minutes in pre-season so far and this is on the back of long-term injuries during the final months of last season. Of course, both could get at least 45 minutes under their belts this weekend to build up their fitness.
However, it's unlikely they will be fully fit to be in contention to start against Palace and given their injury records it would appear that Arteta is taking the smart route by easing the pair back into action. A decision helped with the signing of Zinchenko and White's versatility.
A concept that would have been unfathomable last season as Tomiyasu and Tierney were regarded as 'undroppable' when fit. But given how pre-season has gone the pair are set for new roles - at least at the beginning of the new campaign - as squad players rather than automatic starters as they won't be rushed back.
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