Arsenal Pre-Season Preview: Key Debuts and Missing Stars

Mikel Arteta is expected to roll out the first real glimpse of Arsenal’s new season today – and it should come with at least one debut.

Behind closed doors, the Gunners eased past MK Dons on Saturday. That was a tune‑up. Girona is the first public outing of the summer, the first chance for supporters to measure the mood, the sharpness and the shape of a squad still missing some of its biggest names.

A squad in pieces – by design

The calendar has done Arteta no favours. Every Arsenal player who went deep into the World Cup with Spain or England remains on holiday, their return staggered to protect legs that have already given plenty. Martin Odegaard is also yet to report back after carrying Norway to the quarter-finals of the tournament, another key pillar still watching from afar.

At the back, there is a more worrying absence. William Saliba faces an “extended period” out with a back injury, a phrase no manager wants attached to his defensive cornerstone in July. Jurrien Timber, earmarked as another solution in those areas, is also not ready yet as he works his way back from minor groin surgery over the summer.

Arteta, then, has holes to plug and minutes to manage.

Havertz waiting in the wings

One player who looks ready to be thrown straight into the mix is Kai Havertz. The German has been catching up on conditioning work, training individually at Bayer Leverkusen’s facilities last week, and could walk straight into the side against Girona.

He will not be alone in trying to accelerate his pre-season. Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli are due to link up with the group ahead of the game. Their involvement, though, is likely to be carefully rationed after only limited training. Expect cameos, not centre stage.

Ben White sits somewhere in between. The right-back has not played since a knee injury cut short his campaign last season, but he has strung together a couple of weeks of solid training and is closing in on a full return. Girona could bring his first competitive minutes in months, a small but significant step for a player whose reliability has underpinned so much of Arteta’s recent work.

Doors open for the next generation

With senior figures missing and others being eased back, opportunity knocks for the kids.

Max Dowman and Ethan Nwaneri will both be eyeing this fixture as a platform. These are the kinds of games that can shift internal perceptions: one sharp touch, one brave run, one composed pass under pressure, and suddenly a manager starts to picture you not as an academy prospect, but as a genuine option.

Cristhian Mosquera has even more on the line. With Saliba sidelined, Arsenal need someone to step into the void at centre-back, at least in the short term. Mosquera is set for another chance to show he can handle that responsibility, to prove that the gap between youth promise and senior reliability is not as wide as it looks from the stands.

This is pre-season, yes. The result will be forgotten quickly. But the choices Arteta makes today – who starts, who debuts, who he trusts to fill the Saliba-shaped hole – will echo into the months ahead.