Arsenal's 2022/23 Premier League season begins next month with a London derby against Crystal Palace, and in the meantime, preparations are firmly underway ahead of the trip to Selhurst Park.
Mikel Arteta welcomed back some members of his first-team squad on Monday as those who were involved on international duty, such as William Saliba, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe, and Granit Xhaka, have been given extra time off and are expected to report for training from next week.
With that said, there has still been a strong Arsenal contingent at London Colney with the likes of Thomas Partey, Rob Holding, Cedric Soares, Charlie Patino, Miguel Azeez, Nicolas Pepe and recalled loanees Hector Bellerin, Pablo Mari and Ainsley Maitland-Niles all present.
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After a few days of training, things were kicked up a notch on Saturday afternoon as an Arsenal XI were in action at the training ground facing off against League One side Ipswich Town.
The north London outfit since revealed details of the friendly match and the star of the show was Eddie Nketiah. The striker helped himself to a hat-trick in his first outing since signing a new contract and taking on the number 14 shirt and also claimed an assist.
In addition, Albert Sambi Lokona and Folarin Balogun - the back after loan spell with Middlesbrough during the second half of last season - got on the scoresheet on what turned out to be a comfortable outing for the Gunners.
Bernd Leno, Pepe, Partey, Reiss Nelson, Bellerin and Benjamin White featured in a strong first-half line-up at Colney which is somewhat of a surprise as it was expected that an U23s team would be on show with the potential that one or two more senior players would feature.
But it would appear that Arteta went a little bit stronger than planned and will now turn his attention to stepping up his side's pre-season plans next week. The first pre-season friendly for the Arsenal senior side is against FC Nurnberg on July 8 at the Max-Morlock Stadion. They then return to London before flying to America for their second international tour of pre-season on July 13, where they will face Everton and Chelsea.
Currently, the Emirates Cup clash against La Liga outfit Sevilla on July 30 is the final warm-up game pencilled in before the Premier League opener against Crystal Palace, but football.london understands the club are hoping to arrange a behind-closed-doors friendly in between those matches.
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