The Arsenal boys are back in town! COYG

After Arsenal began their pre-season games with a nice gentle opener against the Conference South team Boreham Wood, things are gradually building towards the serious business of our first Premier League game of the season at the Emirates against Crystal Palace on August 16th. And the Gunners will be desperate to avoid a repeat of the damaging defeat against Aston Villa last season.

So it is great to see the pictures on Arsenal.com of the Gunners latest training session, as the first of the Arsenal players who were involved in the World Cup finals in Brazil are back with their club team mates at London Colney.

The Gunners whose national teams did not make it through the group stages are the first to return, which surprisingly included Spain, so our midfield maestro, who spent much of last season on the left of a front three, Santi Cazorla, is back. Not quite so shocking, to England fans anyway, was the fact that the Three Lions flopped again.

It was probably just as well for them and Arsenal, that Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were practically spectators in Brazil, due to their lack of fitness. Not only can they avoid the blame for England’s woeful showing, it should mean that Jack and the Ox are nice and fresh and ready to go.

The pictures also show Mikel Arteta training, which is a relief as the Spaniard was missing from the squad last weekend with an injury. It was clearly a minor one, so our midfield Metronome will hopefully be ready to pass the life out of Tony Pulis’ Palace side in about four weeks’ time.