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09th Jul 2013

Thomas Cook What’s on Abroad: The Emirates Cup

Every year Arsenal invite some of the best teams in Europe and further afield to their doorstep to contest a friendly tournament that guarantees good football

JOE

Every year Arsenal invite some of the best teams in Europe and further afield to their doorstep to contest a friendly tournament that guarantees good football

If you fancy heading along this year, you can catch Arsenal, (of course), Napoli, Porto and Galatsaray in action, and given that it’s pre-season we might see some dodgy goalkeeping but plenty of goals.

Dider Drogba and Wesley Sneijder have been lighting up the Turkish Super Lig with some great performances, and notably almost put Real Madrid to the sword in last season’s Champions League. Drogba always enjoys a trip back to London too, and we’re sure that he’ll be happy to knick a few goals at the Emirates stadium.

Porto have a great team still, despite Monaco tapping up half of their squad and actually signing the other half during the summer transfer window. Unfortunately they’ll be without James Rodriguez who completed his move to France early on in the summer, a hugely exciting talent who will move beyond Ligue 1 in short order we presume.

However, they will still (we hope!) have the Colombian Jackson Martinez, who loves to score the odd cracking goal, like this one against Sporting Lisbon, and he was in great form domestically this season, explaining how he’s ended up on Tottenham’s radar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spfiKPwiMFA

Napoli will almost certainly lose Edinson Cavani at some stage before the end of the summer, but the young Lorenzo Insigne is a great talent and one to watch. The Belgian Dries Mertens is a very nippy player, Juan Zuniga is an accomplished defender, and the Swiss duo of Gokhan Inler and Valon Behrami will also be on show we hope, meaning that there are plenty of really exciting players to keep an eye on across all the visiting teams

If you’re an Arsenal fan, then you won’t need much convincing to head over to this event, where hopefully you can see a strikeforce that contains Higuain (maybe even Luis Suarez if you’re being very optimistic) and the young Yaya Sanogo. Maybe Gareth Barry might even be there, who knows how lucky you’ll get.

If you fancy catching all the footballing action after a long break away from the game during the summer months, then our mates at Thomas Cook can sort you out flights and accommodation over in the big, bright city of London, so head on over to their website to check out their deals.

Packages and prices for the Emirates cup are to be confirmed, but you can contact Thomas Cook to find out the story, just send them an e-mail at [email protected] or give them a call on (01) 514 0406.

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