3 Arsenal players to watch in pre-season

As pre-season looms, there are several Arsenal stars to keep an eye out for, with the weeks ahead more important for some than others.

Arsenal returned to pre-season training on Monday 15 July, with their first game set to be played in less than two weeks, as the team ramp up their preparations ahead of the 2024/25 season.

Some players have already begun training at a small camp in Marbella, with Mikel Arteta, while others will soon join them back in England before the Gunners head across the Atlantic for their pre-season tour of the United States of America - before returning for two final games at the Emirates, before their Premier League opener against Wolverhampton Wanderers next month.

The busy schedule will see the Gunners face Bournemouth, Manchester United, Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen and Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) across a 17-day period - which should provide players with ample opportunity to impress ahead of the new season.

While, for some, the coming weeks will simply be about building fitness and learning new tactics - others have a point to prove if they want to be part of Arteta's plans in the upcoming campaign.

With that being said, here are three players to look out for as Arsenal begin their 2024 pre-season preparations.

1. Jurrien Timber

Jurrien Timber will, for all intents and purposes, feel like a new signing for Arsenal this season, having played a combined total of just 71 minutes of football for the first team since his arrival last summer.

The Dutch defender arrived in north London last summer, following a £38m transfer from Ajax - but disaster struck when he suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in his first competitive game, which saw him sidelined until late in the season.

His only other senior appearance came as a substitute in Arsenal's final game of the season when he impressed after coming on as a late substitute against Everton. This was especially disappointing given how exciting he had looked in pre-season.

In last summer's pre-season, Timber looked like a transformative addition to the starting line-up, which made his season-long absence all the more heartbreaking, and detrimental to the team.

Now, he has a chance to remind fans exactly why he was signed and build up fitness after such a long time away from playing as he looks for a strong start to the new season.

He has the ability to be a real difference-maker in the upcoming campaign, and having a good pre-season will prove pivotal to his chances of starting from the off.

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