5 things we learnt from Arsenal's pre-season tour

#3 Arsenal need more depth in their squad

Do Arsenal really have the strength in numbers to compete with the best of the best?

Arsene Wenger opted to start Mohamed Elneny in the heart of a 3-man defence against Sevilla. The Egyptian did well for himself, given it was the first time in his Arsenal career that he had been used in this position.

Wenger was quick to deny in the post-match press conference that Elneny will be seen in defence during the season but it raises a few red flags nonetheless.

Do Arsenal really have the strength in numbers to compete with the best of the best?

A quick look at the squad will show that the Gunners have quite a few players on their pay roll but a whole bunch of these are expected to leave in the ongoing transfer window.

In defence alone, Wenger has Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Shokdran Mustrafi, Gabriel, Callum Chambers and Rob Holding to choose from. Out of the six and Nacho Monreal, who will be vying for the three spots in defence, only 3 or at best 4 are of the required quality to start in a big game.

Mertesacker had a legendary FA Cup final against Chelsea but despite that, there was a good reason that despite being fit, he didn’t make it to the starting lineup for a good few months before it.

Callum Chambers was on loan at Middlesbrough, and although he had a decent season, there is nothing much to write home about and it is looking increasingly certain that he will be allowed to go out on loan to further develop his game.

Mustafi, Koscielny and Monreal are the three you can really count on, while Holding hasn’t done much wrong to be ignored either. One out of these 4 is a full-back and it won’t be long when his positional awareness – or the lack thereof - will be exposed by a world class attack.