Arsenal and Chelsea to meet in Florida friendly

Premier League rivals Arsenal and Chelsea will meet in a pre-season friendly in Orlando, Florida, the two clubs have announced.

A stateside London derby, set for Camping World Stadium in downtown Orlando on July 23, will mark the culmination of the week-long ‘FC Series’, an expansion of the Florida Cup featuring clubs from across the globe.

The Gunners have announced they will travel to Major League Soccer outfit Orlando City on July 20 before meeting the Blues, while Chelsea are to play two as-yet unknown opponents on July 16 and July 20.

The announcement came ahead of the two sides’ Premier League meeting on Wednesday night, with Thomas Tuchel’s men looking to complete a first league double over the Gunners since 2015-16, having won 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium earlier this season.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told the club’s official website he was pleased to see the team’s pre-season plans taking shape, as he eyes their first top-four Premier League finish since 2016.

“We’re very pleased to see our pre-season plans taking shape with the announcement of our trip to the United States to take part in the FC Series,” he said. 

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen our fans in the US, and we’re looking forward to playing in front of them.”

Chelsea’s technical and performance advisor Petr Cech, meanwhile, said the reigning European champions were looking forward to performing in front of their large American fanbase.

“We’ve always had a lot of success on our US tours, taking so many fans to the stadiums and giving them the opportunity to see Chelsea FC play live,” he said. 

“We have a huge fan base in the US that we’ve proudly built, and we’ve seen that fanbase getting bigger and bigger every year. We are delighted to go and play in the FC Series and the Florida Cup.”

Chelsea and Arsenal also met in a pre-season friendly before the start of the current campaign, Kai Havertz and since-departed striker Tammy Abraham scoring in the Blues’ 2-1 success at the Emirates.

The Blues will be making a return to the United States this summer as part of the @FC_series !

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) April 19, 2022