Arsenal will reunite with Granit Xhaka and two more former Gunners in two pre-season friendlies at the Emirates Stadium in August
On Sunday, August 11, Arsenal will play Lyon in this year’s Emirates Cup. A few days earlier, on Wednesday, August 7, Arsenal will take on Bayer Leverkusen in a different friendly match.
It is a yearly tradition for the Emirates Stadium to host a friendly, and this year it is back for just one day. Due to the proximity to the start of the season, Arsenal decided to play a second friendly a few days before the Emirates Cup, which is not officially a part of the competition. This allows for extra recuperation time in between games. Arsenal has faced two teams in a single weekend in the past.
Their connections to the Gunners make both opponents’ choices intriguing. Granit Xhaka, a former Arsenal midfielder, helped Leverkusen become the new Bundesliga champions and Invincibles. Granit Xhaka will make his first appearance in north London since leaving the club in the summer of 2023.
After it was confirmed that Leverkusen and Arsenal would face off in the Champions League the following season, Xhaka stated, “To be honest, I don’t want to play against them.”
“Everyone is aware of the wonderful seven years I spent there. But I’ll make sure to enjoy it if that does end up happening.
Even while it won’t be in a competitive sense just yet, it appears that the Swiss international will play against his former team sooner than he had anticipated. Moreover, he won’t be by himself.
Naturally, Lyon has several former Gunners on their roster, including Alexandre Lacazette, who is making his first appearance back at the Emirates in a playing capacity. Both players left the team after their contracts expired—Lacazazette in 2022 and Maitland-Niles the following year—and signed free agents to play for the team that would place sixth in Ligue 1 the previous season.
Back in France, Lacazette has experienced a bit of a career comeback. In 74 outings with OL, he has scored an incredible 53 goals in all competitions.
These kinds of stats were what drew Arsenal and Arsene Wenger to recruit Lacazette in 2017, but regrettably, he was never able to duplicate that success, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s arrival would exacerbate that problem.
But there’s a risk Lacazette won’t make it to the Emirates Cup match. It is possible that Lacazette will not be back with his club team by now because Thierry Henry chose him for France’s Olympic team for the competition that takes place in Paris from July 24 to August 10.
Considering the demand for tickets to competitive games, these games offer supporters an excellent opportunity to attend their first game. Both the August 7 and August 11 games will have match coverage available for anyone who cannot attend football. London.