are looking to give new opportunities to some of their young players with nine stepping up to train with the first team in ahead of 2022/23.
The Gunners, who missed out on the after failing to secure a top-four Premier League finish last term and did not win any trophies, have been making moves in the summer transfer window as the new campaign approaches.
However, they are also looking to revitialise their squad through the club’s prestigious youth academy after success with players such as Bukayo Saka and , who impressed as Arsenal finished fifth last season.
One player stepping up is someone Gunners fans will already be familiar with, Charlie Patino, who has been dubbed ‘the best player who has ever walked through the doors at Hale End’ by Sean O’Connor, Arsenal’s head of scouting.
The 18-year-old ball-playing midfielder, born in Watford, is considered to be one of the best emerging talents in English football with a style of play similar to Arsenal legends Santi Cazorla and Cesc Fabregas.
He made his first-team debut in the Carabao Cup last season, coming off the bench and scoring in a 5-1 win over Sunderland, and secured his first start during the FA Cup defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Patino was playing for Arsenal U18s when he was just 14-years-old and has represented the Three Lions at U19 level, with his Premier League debut surely not far away.
Joining Patino are fellow midfielders Miguel Azeez and Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand, with the former spending time on loan at Portsmouth in League One last season.
Azeez played 10 times for Pompey and has represented Arsenal once before, playing the last seven minutes of a Europa League clash against Dundalk in 2020. The 19-year-old has three caps for England U20s.
Salah-Eddine, meanwhile, did not technically come through Arsenal’s academy but arrived at the Emirates in 2020 after being released by Dutch side Feyenoord.
The box-to-box teenage midfielder struggled with injury when he first joined but has since gone on to impress in the club’s U23 side.
Omari Hutchinson, a full Jamaica international aged 18, is also training with the first team after being named as an unused substitute for the FA Cup clash with Nottingham Forest last season.
Hutchinson is joined by fellow winger Marcelo Flores, another 18-year-old full international waiting to make his first first-team appearance for Arsenal.
Flores, born in Canada, has three caps for Mexico and joined Arsenal’s academy from Ipswich Town. He was an unused substitute for the Gunners’ Premier League clash with Crystal Palace in April.
The defenders stepping up include right-back Zak Swanson – who spent time on loan with Dutch side MVV Maastricht last season – as well as Zach Awe.
England youth international Awe, a ball-playing centre-back, was an unused substitute for Arsenal’s game with Wolves in February.
The other two include Republic of Ireland youth international Mazeed Ogungbo, who can operate at left-back and centre-back, and Lino Da Cruz Sousa.
Left-back Sousa joined Arsenal in January from West Brom and has been described as ‘athletic’ and a player who ‘reads the game well’ by the Baggies’ U18 boss Peter Gilbert.
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