Arsenal’s pre-season tour of the United States is officially underway after completing their first training session at the George Mason University in Washington D.C. on Sunday.
In the 30 degree heat, Mikel Arteta did not hold his players back as they were put through their paces in preparation for the game on Thursday. Arsenal will take on the MLS All-Stars in their first pre-season of the USA tour. The game will kick-off at 1:30 GMT time and is being played at the Audi Field Stadium.
We look at which players are available and who could be missing for the game in a few days time and who better to start with than new club record-signing, Declan Rice.
The 24-year-old was officially announced as an Arsenal player on Saturday afternoon after months of speculation and only a couple days later he found himself on the other side of the world with his new teammates. It’s been a quick turnaround for the man Mikel Arteta described as the lighthouse and it appears Declan Rice is certainly enjoying himself so far.
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Declan Rice said he’s ready to go in his first interview as an Arsenal player, however it’s going to be a couple more days until he’s involved in full first-team training yet. The England international joined the team for their pre-session stretches, but while the rest of the Arsenal first team were on the pitch doing warm up drills, Rice had to make do with the pitchside warm up bikes, as per Football London.
Alex Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Mohamed Elneny, William Saliba, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah were also not involved in full first-team training yet as they all recover from their respected injuries. The game against MLS All-Stars is expected to come too soon for both Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko, however all the others could be involved.
However there is some good news with Marquinhos, Rob Holding Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard all in full first-team training after missing the game against FC Nurnberg in Germany last season.
All players just mentioned were involved in the 11-a-side game at the end of training which would suggest they’ll all be available for Mikel Arteta to choose from for the upcoming game.
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