Arsenal vs. Borussia Dortmund - prediction, team news, lineups

Arsenal tin triumph a trophy earlier the 2026-27 play has adjacent kicked disconnected - albeit a friendly, inconsequential trophy - arsenic the Gunners big Borussia Dortmund successful the Emirates Cup connected Sunday afternoon.

Mikel Arteta's men person triumphed successful each of the past 4 iterations of the competition, portion BVB could go conscionable the 2nd Bundesliga squad to instrumentality location the honour, aft Hamburger SV successful 2008.

Match preview

Formerly Arsenal's astir notable portion of silverware during the 'banter years' of 2007, 2009 and 2010, the Emirates Cup volition beryllium staged for the 15th clip this weekend, erstwhile the Gunners could scope treble figures successful presumption of tourney triumphs.

Mikel Arteta's men strode to a 3-0 occurrence implicit Athletic Bilbao successful the 2025 variation for the club's ninth Emirates Cup victory, anterior to which they eased past Lyon 2-0 successful 2024, edged retired Monaco connected penalties successful 2023, and deed Sevilla for six without reply successful 2022.

Arteta's 100% grounds successful Emirates Cup matches is simply a stark opposition to his predecessor Unai Emery - whose archetypal and lone contention lucifer ended successful decision to Lyon successful 2019 - but the Spaniard and his squad person immoderate errors to rectify this weekend.

Individual mistakes proved fatal successful Arsenal's astonishment 3-1 nonaccomplishment to Real Betis successful Wednesday's friendly, ending their 100% summertime grounds pursuing convincing three-goal victories implicit MK Dons - down closed doors - and Girona.

Sunday's showdown represents the Gunners' penultimate accidental to regain immoderate much-needed momentum, arsenic aft Como's sojourn to the Emirates Stadium adjacent week, Manchester City await successful the Community Shield connected August 16.

Also gearing up for their ain changeable astatine summertime silverware - preparing to conflict Bayern Munich successful the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup aboriginal this period - Borussia Dortmund's affable play has been the dictionary explanation of a mixed bag.

Four matches person brought 2 wins and 2 losses for Niko Kovac's men, who kicked disconnected their 2026-27 preparations with a 3-1 come-from-behind triumph over Rot-Weiss Oberhausen, earlier going down 2-1 to Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Dortmund past embarked connected a little sojourn of Japan and ended up connected some ends of 1-0 scorelines, firstly being condemned to a 1-0 decision to Cerezo Osaka and rapidly atoning with an identical occurrence implicit FC Tokyo, acknowledgment to a victor from one-time Wolverhampton Wanderers antheral Fabio Silva.

Like their hosts, BVB are besides successful accumulation enactment for the penultimate clip this weekend; Kovac's men - who coiled up successful an all-too acquainted 2nd spot successful the 2025-26 Bundesliga table - circular disconnected their prep against Roma connected August 15.

Frequent foes successful the Champions League during the aboriginal 2010s, Arsenal and Dortmund person met 8 times competitively down the years, and it was the Gunners who came up trumps successful the astir caller battle; Yaya Sanogo and Alexis Sanchez netted successful a 2-0 triumph successful precocious 2014.

Arsenal affable form:

Borussia Dortmund affable form:

Team News

Arsenal's reverse to Real Betis saw the returns of Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Magalhaes pursuing Brazil's World Cup run, but the duo volition not beryllium joined astatine the Emirates by Vinicius Junior, who has snubbed involvement from the Gunners to pen a new Real Madrid contract.

The 2 Gabriels were brought connected past brought disconnected successful the 2nd half, but their withdrawals were pre-planned, dissimilar young midfielder Louie Copley who is present feared to beryllium facing a spell retired with a superior wounded sustained successful midweek.

It whitethorn beryllium a lawsuit of 1 in, 1 retired successful the Arsenal motor room, arsenic skipper Martin Odegaard has returned to grooming pursuing his vacation and is successful enactment to marque his archetypal quality of pre-season, albeit arsenic a substitute.

Arteta and Kovac tin empathise with 1 different implicit pre-season midfield injuries, arsenic Dortmund mislaid Carney Chukwuemeka wrong conscionable 23 minutes against FC Tokyo owed to a flare-up of a genu issue.

Kovac provided a reassuring update astatine afloat time, but Chukwuemeka's presumption for the play remains uncertain, portion semipermanent genu absentees Emre Can and Nico Schlotterbeck are some missing.

Should Chukwuemeka beryllium rendered unavailable, the doorway volition plaything unfastened for 18-year-old Greek wonderkid Konstantinos Karetsas - formerly linked with Arsenal and signed from Genk earlier this week - to marque his debut.

Arsenal imaginable starting lineup:

Meslier; White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Hincapie; Vieira, Lewis-Skelly, Havertz; Dowman, Gyokeres, Martinelli

Borussia Dortmund imaginable starting lineup:

Drewes; Reggiani, Anton, Ritter; Svensson, Bellingham, Nmecha, Beier; Silva, Karetsas; Guirassy

We say: Arsenal 2-1 Borussia Dortmund

Arsenal thin to crook up the vigor erstwhile the Emirates Cup is astatine stake, and nary concerns should beryllium lingering from Betis, wherever the Gunners' decision was astir solely down to idiosyncratic mistakes.

Cut retired those errors astatine source, and the Premier League champions should support a steadfast clasp connected their location honour.