On Saturday we take on Juventus at Emirates Stadium in our final warm-up game ahead of the resumption of the Premier League.
The Italian side head to north London having won all of their past six Serie A matches, and should provide us with the tough test Mikel Arteta will be looking for as we aim to get back up to full sharpness ahead of Boxing Day.
Ahead of the game, here is the lowdown on our opponents:
The history
Founded in 1897, Juve are the most successful side in Italian history, having won 36 league titles and 14 Coppa Italias. The first came in 1905, and they would enjoy a golden period during the 1930s when they won five straight championships and provided the majority of Italy’s triumphant 1934 World Cup-winning team.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Giovanni Trapattoni’s tenure as manager saw Juve claim 13 trophies, including a UEFA Cup, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and a maiden European Cup in 1985, with their second and last success in that competition coming in 1996.
The Calciopoli scandal set the club back during the mid-00s, but they bounced back to win nine-straight league titles between 2011/12 and 2019/20, and re-establish themselves as Italy’s premier club.
The manager
Massimiliano Allegri is in his second spell in charge of Juve, having initially taken over in 2014 and winning five-straight Serie A titles, four Coppa Italias and reaching two Champions League finals.
A journeyman midfielder in his playing days, he featured regularly in Serie A during the 1990s for the likes of Pescara, Cagliari, Perugia and Napoli before moving into management in 2003, working his way up the divisions to lead AC Milan to a league title in 2011 before embarking on his first stint in Turin.
He departed at the end of 2018/19, but returned for the start of last season after two years away from the game, replacing Andrea Pirlo. He ended his first campaign back with a fourth-place finish, while also reaching the final of the Coppa Italia.
The squad
Juventus had 11 representatives at the World Cup, with Leandro Paredes, Angel di Maria and Adrien Rabiot all potentially set to feature in Sunday’s final between Argentina and France.
Meanwhile, Danilo, Bremer and Alex Sandro featured for Brazil, Serbia called up Filip Kostic and Dusan Vlahovic [above], Weston McKinnie saw gametime for the USA, while former Gunner Wojciech Szczesny was part of the Poland squad alongside Arkadiusz Milik.
Skipper Leonardo Bonucci and Federico Chiesa won Euro 2020 with Italy last summer but are likely to miss out through injury, as is Paul Pogba, while Mattia De Sciglio and Manuel Locatelli are regulars for the national side. Young midfielders Fabio Miretti and Nicolo Fagioli also recently won their first Azzurri caps.
The season so far
A difficult start to the campaign saw Allegri’s team only win two of their first seven league games, which saw them languishing in eighth place in October. A disastrous Champions League group stage yielded one victory as Benfica and PSG progressed, meaning Juve dropped into the Europa League where they will face Nantes in the play-off round.
However six successive league wins have seen them edge back into the top four, with the goals of Moise Kean and Fagioli driving them forward recently, although Vlahovic remains top scorer with seven in all competitions, with Milik chipping in with six.
The previous meetings
We have taken on Juventus six times previously in competitive action - including the European Cup Winners' Cup semi-final in the 1979/80 campaign, as well as in the Champions League in 2001/02 and 2005/06.
Read much more about all those encounters
How to watch
Tickets for the game at Emirates Stadium are available on general sale - purchase yours online now.
You can also find out more information, including prices.
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