The Dubai Super Cup may not be the piece of silverware that Arsenal fans are craving this season, but keeping the momentum going before resuming a Premier League title charge is just what Mikel Arteta desired during a worthwhile period of mid-season friendlies.
After recording victories over Lyon in normal time and the penalty shootout, Arsenal put Italian champions Milan to the sword thanks to goals from Martin Odegaard and Reiss Nelson before Fikayo Tomori pulled one back, and the Gunners also ran out 4-3 winners from the spot for the additional point.
Picking up where they left off in the middle of November, Arsenal have one final chance to strut their stuff in exhibition matches before West Ham United visit the Emirates for a Boxing Day London derby in the Premier League, as Arteta’s side prepare to enjoy Christmas at the top of the table.
With a host of World Cup representatives also coming back to training in dribs and drabs over the past week, Arteta will relish the chance to give more of his first-choice players some friendly minutes as Arsenal aim to record a fourth successive win in competitive and non-competitive matches.
The Premier League leaders have also found the back of the net in each of their last seven fixtures in all tournaments and are facing a Juventus side who are in turmoil off the field, although their on-field exploits have shown steady signs of progress.q
The soap opera that is Juventus Football Club began another shocking chapter last month, as chairman Andrea Agnelli, vice chairman Pavel Nedved and the entire club’s board resigned amid an investigation into alleged financial wrongdoings.
False accounting and Financial Fair Play breaches are supposedly being looked at by prosecutors at a time where Juventus were starting to look like their old selves again on the field, but such a dramatic scandal now threatens to derail their recent progress.
Since suffering a disheartening Champions League group-stage exit, Massimiliano Allegri’s players have responded in ideal fashion with successive Serie A wins over Inter Milan, Hellas Verona and Lazio, scoring six goals and keeping three clean sheets in the process.
Moise Kean (2) and Arkadiusz Milikwere on target in a 3-0 win against Lazio to help the Bianconeri surge to third in the Serie A table, but they remain in the shadow of runaway leaders Napoli, who sit 10 points clear of Allegri’s side in first place.
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Not since the 2005-06 Champions League campaign have Arsenal and Juventus faced off in competitive action, with the Gunners winning 2-0 over two legs to advance to the semi-finals, and the Bianconeri were ironically implicated in the Italian football scandal just a couple of months later amid their current predicament.
France’s William Saliba is the only Arsenal man left standing at the World Cup as he prepares for Sunday’s mouthwatering final with Argentina, and the English duo of Bukayo Saka and Aaron Ramsdale are both due to return to training this week alongside Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Martinelli.
The quartet may only be considered for minutes off the bench this weekend, but Oleksandr Zinchenko, Matt Turner and Granit Xhaka have had ample time with their teammates and could now come in for starting roles in a more familiar Arsenal XI.
