With Premier League clubs travelling far and wide to fulfil commercial commitments as well as prepare for the upcoming campaign, the 2023-24 pre-season diary is packed full of fixtures across the globe.
Here, the PA news agency looks at what the top teams will be doing, who they will face and how they will be ramping up to challenge for honours.
ArsenalMikel Arteta’s Gunners will head off to a training camp at adidas headquarters in Nurnberg on July 9 and will face the second-tier side as part of their preparations before travelling to the United States.
The trip includes high-profile friendlies against the MLS All-Stars, managed by Wayne Rooney, in Washington DC, Manchester United in New Jersey and Barcelona in Los Angeles, before they return home to host an Emirates Cup clash with Monaco on August 2 and take on Manchester City in the Community Shield four days later.
ChelseaMauricio Pochettino begins work on July 3 with the squad beginning to trickle back into Cobham from the following day, depending on recent international commitments, before flying out to the United States on July 17 to begin a two-week tour.
The first match comes against Wrexham on July 19 in North Carolina, with further games against Brighton, Newcastle and Fulham also scheduled before the team return home to prepare for their Premier League opener against Liverpool.
LiverpoolHaving missed out on Champions League qualification, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp will be keen to get the ball rolling on a new season.
A training camp in the Black Forest scheduled for mid-July, followed by two friendlies in Germany against Karlsruher and Gruerther Furth before they come up against relegated Leicester and Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich at the Singapore Festival of Football.
Manchester CityThe treble winners will get a chance to parade their three trophies in the Far East as Pep Guardiola gears his players up to defend their crowns.
Yokohama F Marinos and Guardiola’s old club Bayern are the two opponents they will face at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo before taking on Atletico Madrid in Seoul and jetting back in time to face Arsenal at Wembley in the Community Shield on August 6.
Manchester UnitedErik ten Hag’s Red Devils have a packed pre-season schedule as the Dutchman aims to add to the Carabao Cup he delivered in his first year at Old Trafford.
United face old foes Leeds in Oslo before a fixture against Lyon at Murrayfield ahead of the US leg of their tour which pits them against Arsenal, Hollywood-owned Wrexham, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund before a final friendly against Athletic Bilbao in Dublin on their way home.
NewcastleA local clash with neighbouring Gateshead and a trip to Ibrox to face Rangers will open Newcastle’s pre-season.
The Magpies then jet off to the US where, like Chelsea, they will compete in the Summer Series as Eddie Howe’s men come up against Aston Villa in Philadelphia, the Blues in Atlanta and Brighton in New Jersey.
TottenhamNew head coach Ange Postecoglou will return home to Australia as Spurs rack up the air miles on their pre-season tour.
After returning to training, Tottenham will travel to face London rivals West Ham in Perth before facing former boss Jose Mourinho’s Roma in Singapore and rounding off their travels with a clash against Leicester in Thailand on July 23.
Guyana secures 4-1 victory over Barbados in first leg of Concacaf Nations League Play-In Series
Guyana defeated Barbados 4-1 in the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League Play-In series at the Barbados Football Association Technical Centre in Bridgetown, Barbados on Friday
The Concacaf Nations League Play-In consists of a home-and-away direct elimination round. The aggregate score winner in each matchup will advance to the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup Prelims.
Niall Reid-Stephen opened the scoring for Barbados in the 17th minute, his seventh goal of the current campaign, with a left-footed strike from inside the penalty arc.
Omari Glasgow equalized for Guyana nine minutes later with a left-footed strike inside the penalty area.
Then, 14 minutes into Glasgow added a second to his tally in the by pouncing on a deflected ball in the penalty area.
Osaze de Rosario extended the lead in a minute later with a chip over the goalkeeper to capitalize on an error from the defense.
Enoch George scored in the 90'+2 to put a bow on the victory, connecting on a timely pass from Isaiah Jones.
Guyana will host Barbados in the second leg on Tuesday at the National Track and Field Centre in Leonora, Guyana.
Donnarumma: France can still hurt Italy without Mbappe
Gianluigi Donnarumma says Kylian Mbappe's absence will not make Italy underestimate France ahead of their top-of-the-table Nations League clash.
Both teams have already qualified for the quarter-finals, but top spot in Group A2 is still up for grabs.
Italy currently sit top of the pile, three points ahead of France, who they beat 3-1 in early September, but a win for Les Bleus could see them drop to second.
However, for the second international break in a row, France are without their captain, Mbappe, with Didier Deschamps insisting he made the decision to leave the Real Madrid forward out of the squad.
France are unbeaten in their last three games without Mbappe, winning two and drawing one, and though they struggled in front of goal against Israel in a 0-0 stalemate last time out, Donnarumma believes they will still pose a threat to the Azzurri.
"Yes, I don't know about the choices that are made in other squads. I don't know what happened, it's [Mbappe] certainly an important absence," Donnarumma told a press conference.
"I know Kylian, he is one of the strongest in the world and if he was here, he could have troubled us a lot, but there will be other players.
"I know all of them well, they have great quality, strong strikers like [Bradley] Barcola, [Randal] Kolo Muani and [Warren] Zaire-Emery, who play with me. Barcola is an incredible talent, so they have very strong substitutes who can bother us."
Italy are unbeaten in the Nations League, only dropping points in a 2-2 draw with Belgium in October after going down to 10 men.
It comes on the back of a disappointing Euro 2024 campaign in which they were knocked out in the round of 16 by Switzerland, winning just one game in their title defence.
However, Donnarumma believes Italy have found their rhythm again and have more in common with the Euro 2020 winning team.
"It's a healthy group, I'm starting to see the spirit of the old European Championship," he added. "They're all young guys who want to show what they can do, who want to wear this jersey.
"The difficult part is to continue these performances. Our goal now is to continue to improve, work and enjoy ourselves and entertain the fans."
Tottenham 0-3 Arsenal: Gunners stay unbeaten under Slegers with derby rout
Arsenal retained their unbeaten record under interim manager Renee Slegers by thrashing North London rivals Tottenham 3-0 in the Women's Super League on Saturday.
Slegers had overseen a return of four wins and one draw from her first five matches in charge of the Gunners following Jonas Eidevall's exit, and her team managed another statement victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
They needed just 63 seconds to open the scoring through Alessia Russo, who fired across goal and in after turning on the left-hand side of the area.
Arsenal continued to dominate and only a fine block from Amanda Nilden denied Katie McCabe from eight yards, but Tottenham's resistance was broken again in the 22nd minute. Frida Maanum exchanged passes with Kim Little before slotting her finish into the bottom-left corner, with a static Spurs defence applying no pressure whatsoever.
Beth England drew a full-stretch save from Daphne van Domselaar as Tottenham briefly improved, but Arsenal killed the contest 66 minutes in, substitute Stina Blackstenius breaking onto Mariona Caldentey's delicate throughball to finish when one-on-one.
The victory takes Arsenal fourth in the table with 15 points, one adrift of Brighton, who continued their impressive start to the campaign with a 3-2 victory over West Ham earlier on Saturday.
Fran Kirby scored an 82nd-minute winner for the Seagulls after West Ham had fought back from 2-0 down to level the contest, having also assisted Rachel McLauchlan's opener. That first goal involvement took Kirby to 100 in the WSL, making her just the fourth player to reach that milestone.
Data Debrief: Fast start key for Arsenal
Tottenham improved in the middle period of the game but a slow start cost them, which will be a particular blow to coach Robert Vilahamn after they conceded within 24 seconds versus Manchester City last time out.
Russo's goal, scored after one minute and three seconds, is the second-fastest in Arsenal's WSL history, after Jordan Nobbs' 28-second strike against Liverpool in October 2014.
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