With two week’s to go until the season kicks off properly, it feels like the countdown to the season opener against Wolves is officially ‘on now’. Not just because of the short amount of time left in pre season, but because we’ve also been treated to pictures of Saka, Saliba, Ramsdale and Rice all returning back to London Colney to begin their preparations for the new season. It is a welcome sight; the pre season friendlies have been good to see the players slowly get their pace and fitness back up, but it has felt like we missed a few very key players and it feels like Saliba, Rice and Saka being back means the squad feels more whole again.

They are in a race against time to be fit enough and have shaken off the rust and fatigue of a long season, the Euro’s and then some holiday, but these days these footballers probably never really take a proper break from keeping their fitness maintained. There were times maybe 30 years ago when footballers would spend their summer doing whatever they wanted on holiday – pies, booze, laying around on a beach – but the levels needed to be an elite footballer are such that the demands needed during the ‘rest’ period probably still means that they have to spend every day in the gym when their on holiday anyway. Gabriel Jesus has had a bit of an extended holiday period by not going to Copa America, but we all saw that he got himself going with his personal trainer pretty early on in the summer and I suspect there are many more players who have been doing just that in the Arsenal squad.

Arteta won’t have long before he gets a decent look at his fully available squad either, because on Wednesday we have Leverkusen at home and the return of a certain Granit Xhaka. I saw some quotes from him talking about how Arsenal to Leverkusen wasn’t a step back, it was two steps forward, which a few fellow Arsenal fans have taken Umbridge with. Not me though; he joined a team who then went an entire season unbeaten and he won the league, why on earth would he say that he took a backwards step in leaving The Arsenal? I don’t think he meant it in any way to be derogatory to the club and I think he’ll get a fine reception on Wednesday night when he returns. He got his redemption arc in his last season against us and he joined a team who performed fabulously and who at the moment have kept the bulk of that winning team together this summer. They will be a force to be reckoned with in Germany and Europe next summer so it’ll be interesting to see how we line up on Wednesday night. Our last pre season game ended in defeat to Liverpool and there were bits about the performance I don’t think Arteta was 100% happy with, but all-in-all he didn’t seem overly fussed from the interviews I watched. What will be interesting is if he starts to get more animated from now and in the game against Lyon on Saturday, which will be our final match before that Wolves game the weekend after next. I suspect he will because he knows that it’s time to put ‘game faces on’ from now; we can ill-afford not to be ready to go given that we have such a tough start, as I’ve already talked about in recent weeks.

There’s not really a lot else going on. The Mikel Merino stuff keeps rumbling along and as the noises become more consistent, I’ve started to watch a few more compilation videos of a player who looks tidy on the ball and who occupies a zone of the pitch I think Arteta will be interested in exploring. Apparently he too is due to be back in training with Sociedad and I suspect that will be the case regardless of what is happening with any potential transfer. Much like we saw Smith Rowe on tour in the US, then even named on the bench in the games but not playing, Merino will probably have the same situation because Arsenal could ultimately decide against him and then he has to get his head back in to the place where he’s a Sociedad player for the season. These guys are professionals know and they know the game and how its played; you have to just forget about potential moves until they’re basically but done, because anything could make it fall through.

So until it becomes a ‘thing’, it isn’t a ‘thing’ – simple as that.

The final thing I wanted to speak on today relates to a comment I saw on Twitter from somebody I quite like to read their opinion on, which was about a comment made by Rohan Jivan on Thomas Partey:

This is find interesting, because at the end of last season there’s no doubt it seemed he had a physicality on him that was missing. He just didn’t seem like the Thomas Partey of old. There have been a few who have been quick to say he’s washed, but I haven’t wanted to jump on that bandwagon just yet. Yes, he wasn’t great towards the end of last season and yes, he seemed to be off the pace. But he’d spent so long out injured and then had a set back just as he was coming back to fitness, that I am still not 100% ready to declare his Arsenal career completely buried yet. He could be a valuable rotation option and although we know he’s not going to give us 38 games next season, if he can play a decent part in some games and maybe be rotated in and out of the team, I’d still fancy that he can be a valuable player for us.

Quite how that lines up in our midfield, I don’t know, because as Rohan mentioned when I asked him, he said his timing in the tackle and interception was off and he struggled to keep pace in games. Whether that’s just a pre season fitness thing remains to be seen. I hope it is because if we’re not cashing in on him this summer, we need to be ready and willing to use him this season.

Right, Going to call it a day now. Off for some work.

You guys have yourselves some good times.

Laters people.