Overview
Arsenal defeated Athletic Bilbao 3-0 in the 2025 tournament, thereby achieving their ninth victory at the Emirates Cup. Previously, they successively defeated Lyon 2-0 in 2024, defeated Monaco in a penalty shootout in 2023 and won Sevilla 6-0 in 2022.
Arteta's winning streak at the Emirates Cup is completely opposite to his predecessor Unai Emery. This coach has only led Arsenal once in the tournament, and that was also his debut match in 2019, when the team suffered a defeat against Lyon. However, Arteta and his students will have to quickly overcome the remaining problems before this weekend's confrontation.
Personal mistakes caused Arsenal to unexpectedly lose 1-3 to Real Betis in the most recent friendly match, thereby ending their winning streak in the summer. Previously, the "Gunners" successively defeated MK Dons 3-0 in an away match and Girona with the same score.
The upcoming match will be Arsenal's penultimate friendly match before the new season. After hosting Como at Emirates, Arteta's team will face Manchester City in the English Super Cup match on August 16.
Meanwhile, Borussia Dortmund is also aiming for a title when preparing to face Bayern Munich in the German Super Cup match at the end of this month. However, their pre-season preparation process is quite erratic.
After 4 matches, Niko Kovac's team has two wins and two defeats. Dortmund started with a 3-1 comeback victory over Rot-Weiss Oberhausen, before losing to Fortuna Dusseldorf 1-2.
The German team then had a short tour in Japan. They suffered a 0-1 defeat to Cerezo Osaka, before quickly regaining victory with a similar result against FC Tokyo. Fabio Silva, former Wolves player, scored the decisive goal for Dortmund.
Kovac's team will close the preparation process with a confrontation with Roma on August 15.
Arsenal and Dortmund have faced each other many times in the Champions League in the early 2010s. The two teams have met eight times in official matches, while Arsenal won in the most recent encounter. Yaya Sanogo and Alexis Sanchez were the scorers who helped the "Gunners" win 2-0 at the end of 2014.
Personnel situation
Arsenal's midfield is likely to have an adjustment. Captain Martin Odegaard has returned to training after the holiday and may make his first appearance in the pre-season period, although it is highly likely that he will only start the match on the bench.
On the other side, Dortmund lost Carney Chukwuemeka after only 23 minutes in the match against FC Tokyo due to a recurrence of a knee injury.
Kovac provided quite positive information about Chukwuemeka's condition after the match, but the possibility of his appearance this weekend is still uncertain. Meanwhile, two players who are on long-term leave due to knee injuries, Emre Can and Nico Schlotterbeck, are definitely unable to play.
Expected lineup:
Meslier, White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Hincapie, Vieira, Lewis-Skelly, Havertz, Dowman, Gyokeres, Martinelli.
Drewes, Reggiani, Anton, Ritter, Svensson, Bellingham, Nmecha, Beier, Silva, Karetsas, Guirassy.
The match between Arsenal and Dortmund takes place at 8:00 PM on August 9th (Vietnam time).
