Arsenal’s first team returned to full training on Tuesday in preparation for the season ahead, starting with a Community Shield encounter with Chelsea early next month.

The traditional curtain raiser to the new Premier League season follows the Gunners’ Barclays Asia Cup campaign. The North London outfit face a Singapore Select XI on July 15 and will be hoping to advance to the final alongside either Stoke City or Everton.

Arsene Wenger’s men will subsequently return to the country to participate in the annual Emirates Cup tournament, hosted at the club’s Emirates Stadium. Arsenal will play both Lyon and Wolfsburg across one weekend, with Villereal being the other European heavyweight invited.

New signing Petr Cech did not make an appearance at the London Colney training ground, neither did Alexis Sanchez or David Ospina following their Copa America heroics this summer. The former will return to training next week following his transfer from Chelsea, while Sanchez and Ospina have been given an extended break due to their commitments in South America.

Wellington Silva, Wilshere and Debuchy all trained

This gave youth prospects Daniel Crowley, Chuba Akpom and Yaya Sanogo the opportunity to train with the first team, the trio all expected to feature in pre-season. Another to train with the FA Cup holders was Brazilian forward, Wellington Silva following his acceptance of a work permit.

The 22-year-old officially joined Arsenal in 2010 but, like Ryo Miyaichi and Joel Campbell, was unable to attain a work permit and was subsequently loaned out to five Spanish clubs in order to be granted a Spanish passport. This will be his first season in England and will be hoping to avoid the failures of his two, aforementioned compatriots.

Hector Bellerin (left) and Wellington Silva (right).
Hector Bellerin (left) and Wellington Silva (right).

Right-back Mathieu Debuchy trained alongside the squad after making a full recovery from a shoulder injury sustained in January, despite making an appearance at Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final against Reading. Team-mate Jack Wilshere also trained, the 23-year-old missed a large portion of the season for Arsenal but has looked impressive for both his club and country since his return.

Olivier Giroud told Arsenal’s official website that he is itching to jet off to Singapore following the summer break. The Frenchman has been involved in the club’s two previous trips to Asia but missed the opportunity to play in America due to his involvement in the 2014 World Cup. Relishing to play in front of more overseas fans, he stated that “it is always a pleasure and a really good experience because you can see the fans are crazy all over the world.”

The striker went onto say that he remembers “when [Arsenal] landed in Vietnam very early in the morning but there were 2,000 people who were waiting and cheering the team on.” He proclaimed that “it was a great feeling and it makes you want to produce even better performances when you get onto the pitch.”

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Conor de Smith
Trying to make it in journalism. Contributing to VAVEL since July 2013.