When is Arsenal’s next game? Pre-season fixtures & 2023/24 start dates
Arsenal’s most successful season in two decades – in terms of Premier League points at least – is tinged with regret.
After leading the league for an unrivalled 248 days, Arsenal finished the final Sunday sat in second. Mikel Arteta urged his runners-up to „go again with more determination and hunger in our tummies“. While the wording didn’t make for an entirely thunderous rallying cry – and Arteta was lacking his usual bag of props – it was the right sentiment.
Here’s what Arteta is gearing Arsenal up for over the coming weeks and months.
As was the case ahead of the 2022/23 campaign, Arsenal will travel to the US to tune up for the coming season. The first stop of the Gunners‘ tour is a meeting with the MLS All-Stars on Wednesday 19 July.
Wayne Rooney – who famously scored his first Premier League goal against Arsenal as a 16-year-old for Everton in 2002 – will helm the assortment of stars that line up against the Gunners at the Audi Field in Washington DC.
Three days later Arsenal make the 230-mile trip to New Jersey in order to face Premier League rivals Manchester United.
Mikel Arteta represented Barcelona at youth level but never made a senior competitive appearance for the Blaugrana. However, he did come on as a substitute for Louis van Gaal’s first team in a friendly (replacing none other than Pep Guardiola) and will be up against his old side on Wednesday 26 July.
Arsenal have been picked to play the first match of the Premier League season in each of the last three campaigns. If the Gunners get the nod for a fourth campaign on the spin, they will kick off on Saturday 12 August, the opening day of the 2023/24 iteration.
Brentford infamously mauled Arsenal in their inaugural Premier League match two years ago but Arteta led his side to a commanding 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace in the summer of 2022, setting the tone for a season that promised so much.
Guardiola has always been keen to stress that his friendship with Arteta has remained intact despite going head-to-head for the 2023 Premier League title. However, the Catalan launched a subtle swipe Arsenal’s way in May when he described Champions League qualification as „the most important title of the season“ for the Gunners.
It may have stung at the time – Arsenal’s title aspirations weren’t entirely dead in the water – but reaching Europe’s premier competition for the first time since 2017 represents a significant achievement.
The Gunners will play their first Champions League match in almost six years across the midweek of 19-20 September.
Arsenal’s last outing in the competition was a 5-1 mauling at home to Bayern Munich, sealing a humiliating 2-10 aggregate defeat. Given the club’s struggles in the Europa League this season, Arsenal may enter the Champions League group stage with justified reticence.
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With the Premier League quickly chiseled out as Arsenal’s chief priority, the Gunners recorded a 100% losing record in England’s cup competitions during the 2022/23 campaign.
Southampton advanced further than Arsenal in both tournaments during a season in which they were the only side to get relegated from the Premier League before the final day of the campaign.
Third-round draws against two members of the division’s top six – Brighton in the Carabao Cup and City in the FA’s iteration – didn’t make for an easy run. However, Arsenal will enter both competitions at the same stage next season.
Unhelpfully, neither the Football League nor the Football Association have released the exact dates for that advanced stage of either cup competition.
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