Arsenal's 2024-25 Pre-Season: The Data

A breakdown of how things went and some bigger picture thoughts on the preparations for the upcoming season

Arsenal wrapped their pre-season lifting the Emirates Cup Sunday. Overall the pre-season seems to have been a success, Arsenal faced 4 high-level teams (and Manchester United) over three cities and a month. The last two tune-up games at home also hinted that the team looks primed for the season starting this weekend.

The results of the matches are beside the point but they did go 3-1-1 over the tour, scoring 10 and allowing 4.

The early matches looked a lot like training exercises and a way to get minutes into legs and used to speed of the game.

None of these performances on the USA portion of the tour were particularly great and they did not show the surprising magic of the 22/23 tour where Arsenal showed something on the way to a hot start that would help them win the title.

I am not worried about that tho. I have a good feeling for what this team is and the US tour featured a lot of players not in the team and/or just returning from their breaks.

The London-based matches however…

These looked a lot more like the Arsenal that we have come to know and expect. Arsenal’s pressing was showing signs of being suffocating again, the defense was robust and didn’t give either team much of a look at goal. The attack showed signs of life and a much-improved shot volume from the early matches. Set Piece FC looks like it never went away.

Things look on track and Arsenal will be ready to take on their tough start to the season.

Let’s take a look at the spread of the minutes played.

I don’t think there are too many massive conclusions to draw from this. There was a good amount of youth in the early matches, but most dropped away as the senior players returned to the squad.

The most noticeable exceptions are Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly who featured in all 5 matches this pre-season. Both of these players impressed with their performances and it looks like they will continue with the first team as the season kicks off.

The last and biggest thing that I would take away from this is that it does look like Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka will have a very good chance of featuring as starters on Saturday after getting two matches played and a start-to-end pre-season.

Some high-level thoughts after Pre-Season

• Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly look like they belong in the first team. I am not ready to go overboard with them but they both look like they will be knocking on the door of the actual first team sooner than later. Nwaneri looks the more special of the two right now and the one I think might be given actual Premier League minutes (it helps to not be a defender/defensive midfield on this front) and looked like he could seriously be supplanting Fabio Vieira if he doesn’t raise his game. I want to see these players in the cup games without excuses if they are not there.

• The demise of Oleksandr Zinchenko looks to have been overblown. Zinchenko played in all 5 matches and started the last 4, he looks to be set up to start against Wolves as well. I think many had hoped that they would be seeing the back of him but given the injuries and that new signing Riccardo Calafiori only got a sub appearance in the last match, he will have a role to play, at least early this season. The positive is that I think he looked good this season, he still has his known flaws defending but the passing looked sharp and he could make an impact to this team and perhaps with the ability to be a player where he is matched to the opponent maybe it will be better overall for him.

• Gabriel Jesus looks to be closer to the player we saw at the start of 22/23 than the one that we saw last year. I don’t know if he will have the same crazy impact that he did as he helped propel the team to a flying start but he looks to have come back in good shape and with a knee that isn’t bothering him. A healthy Jesus is a very good player and that will be a big boost to Arsenal.

• Thomas Partey has been a mixed bag but will probably start the season as a player we heavily depend upon. Partey still has the passing and close control/receiving on half-turn stuff that can be special but it is mixed with a noticeable drop in athletic ability. I think Arsenal can carry that given that they have so much defensive talent but he will need to adjust a bit more to not always seem to be too far forward or too far back.

That’s enough on the pre-season, I am excited for the regular season to return and the games to mean something again.