Arsenal vs Bayer Leverkusen

Emirates Stadium is the venue as Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen go head-to-head in a mouth-watering pre-season friendly.

After two consecutive runner-up finishes, Arsenal will look to make a quantum leap in the Premier League and wrap up their first top-flight title in two decades this term. Back from a topsy-turvy United States tour, where they recorded partial success against domestic rivals Bournemouth, Liverpool, and Manchester United (W1, D1, L1), Mikel Arteta’s men are keen to hit the ground running down the final stretch of their pre-season preparations. Each of Arsenal’s three summer friendlies on US soil saw both teams on the scoresheet, which has been the case in their two previous meetings with Bayer Leverkusen (W1, D1). Connoisseurs of action-packed football can only hope the same trend will continue in North London, where the Gunners have bagged 2+ goals across their last three outings (W3).

On the other hand, Bayer Leverkusen’s off-season campaign was off to a decent start as they squeezed past lower-league Essen 2-1 before sharing the spoils with perennial Ligue 1 overachievers Lens in a goal-glutted 2-2 draw. Fresh off a memorable 2023/24 season, highlighted by the club’s maiden Bundesliga title and a record-breaking 51-game unbeaten run in all competitions, Xabi Alonso’s men have a reputation to maintain. ‘Die Werkself’ nearly won the treble last season, only for Atalanta to crush their dreams with a stunning 3-0 victory in the Europa League final. Leverkusen recovered from that thumping defeat with a nerve-wracking 1-0 win against second-tier Kaiserslautern in the DFB-Pokal final.