🕟 Kick Off: 14:00 BST

📍 Location: Emirates Stadium, Islington, London

📺 UK Broadcaster: Arsenal.com

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: N/A

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• Tierney and Tomiyasu remain absent from training with injury.
• Calafiori has been reported to be feeling ‘general tiredness’ following his transfer, but is not physically injured.
• Timber reportedly has a load bearing injury and may miss the match.

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟩🟥🟩🟧🟩

🦁 Lyon Team News:

• Lyon have a fully fit team injury wise.
• Lacazette, Lepenant, and Cherki are with the French Olympic Football Team so will miss the match.

⚽ Lyon Form: 🟩🟧🟥🟩🟩

📖 Match Facts:

• Lacazette will play today (9th August) with the French Olympic Football Team under Head Coach Thierry Henry for a gold medal, good luck to our ex-Gunners!
• The last three times these teams faced eachother were all friendly matches, resulting in two wins for Arsenal and one for Lyon.
• Arsenal beat Lyon 6-0 in the Emirates Cup in 2015, which was the first game I ever saw at the Emirates!
• Both Leverkusen and Lyon have a Lion as their official club mascot.

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

Home stretch now as we find our way into the final friendly before we get underway for the 24/25 Premier League campaign, and we face Lyon – a French sleeping giant who finished 6th in Ligue 1 last season. Lyon are similar to Arsenal of late in that they haven’t seen the success in which they had once become accustomed to, partly down to the rise of an Oil club in their national league. Sound familiar?

It’s a real shame that Lacazette won’t be making his return to the Emirates, although it is fantastic for him to be playing in the gold medal match in his home Olympic games. Lacazette had his ups and downs and certainly had his shortcomings as a player for Arsenal, but I’m sure most Gooners would hold a lot of goodwill toward him and would have enjoyed seeing him back in N5.

Gooners will be hoping to finally get a glimpse of the new boy Riccardo Calafiori, who has yet to make his debut since signing for the Gunners. A report in the week claimed that he had been suffered from ‘General tiredness’, an incredibly relatable condition that I find myself suffering from on a near daily basis. This will be his last chance to feature in a non-consequential game for his new club before the season starts, so one would hope he gets a least a run around his new home.

Another interesting thing to watch will be whether or not Eddie Nketiah will feature in what would most likely be his final appearance for the Arsenal. His mooted move to Marseille seems to be regaining some steam as of the last few hours, so it wouldn’t at all be surprising if we have already seen the last of him. If he does go, I wish him well. Similar to Lacazette, he has certainly had his shortcomings in his ability as a striker, but he has provided some nice moments including a home hat-trick last season which I was lucky enough to see in person.