As you know, the players are in Austria at the moment preparing for the new season. Tonight is the first game of that tour against Hungarian side Szombathelyi. It kicks off at 5.30pm English time, not 6.30 as it says on the right hand side there. It’s live on Arsenal TV so tune in if you can.

I’m not expecting a full team though. These pictures show the team in training but I’m not expecting the likes of van Persie and Nasri (who are pictured in that link) to start tonight. This match is being viewed as a warm up to the games ahead; however there might be some cameos from some more well known players.

[Edit: I've got Arsenal TV on in the background and it's quite a strong squad that has gone to Austria so it could be a decent team. Doesn't look like we've taken too many reserves, Coquelin, Wilshere, Barazite, Nordtveit, Lansbury, Mannone and Randall all went but apart from them it's all first team squad players. Saying that, those names above will be looking to push into the first team squad for the 08/09 season.]

We could see Ramsey tested again though. He’s looking to impress this summer and got off to a good start at Barnet. The manager has warned him that there’ll be tough competition for a place in the team but does say that the 17-year-old is part of his plans. So Aaron will be looking to impress Wenger again tonight if he gets a game.

If you’ve ever wondered why we go to Austria every year then Pat Rice has got the answers:

“What happens is whenever we get there, we have a block of about nine days. Obviously that is interspersed with a few games but this is when we can get some good, hard pre-season training into the players which will help them and make sure they are in good shape for all of the season. Not just the start of the season but the whole campaign.

Some managers think there is no problem with that [long-distance summer tours] but we are not one of the clubs who go down that route. Our Austria training camp has proved very successful for us for the coming seasons because we have always been in the top four and we think the preparations we get there is good for our young players.”

I used to think we just went there because it was easy for Bergkamp to drive there. But that does go to say how long we’ve been going to Austria for. Don’t try to fix what aint broke, that’s what Pat Rice is trying to say. It works for us, so fair enough.

Some teams might be travelling to America and Asia on big publicity stunts but we stay closer to home and work hard in a quiet and relaxing environment. I think today was the first day of actual training and tonight some players will get a chance to play in a game.

Samir Nasri has joined up with the squad for the first time on this trip. He explains here why he chose to join Arsenal in the first place. He says that stability and Arsenal Wenger are the two main reasons he came; he says there won’t be any sudden changes at Arsenal like you might get at Real Madrid or something.

Manuel Almunia talks about how he can be a good example to the youngsters at Arsenal.

Paris St. Germain have admitted they’d love to sign William Gallas. I ‘m not sure Wenger would let him go unless we have a replacement signing we can make. Wouldn’t surprise me though if Gallas left.

Right I’m off to watch tonight’s game. I’ll try do a match report tomorrow but I don’t know if I’ll have time, I’ll try. Thanks for reading.