Arsenal returned to the Estadio Montilivi on Saturday evening to open their preseason slate against Girona, a match that also brought Ethan Nwaneri back to the scene of one of his sharpest moments in an Arsenal shirt. The Gunners are using the trip to Catalonia as the first check on a summer built around their 2025–26 campaign.
That is why the fixture is drawing attention now. Arsenal entered the summer as Premier League champions, and only Manchester City have managed to retain that title since 2009, which gives every preseason outing a little more weight than usual. For supporters searching for Arsenal vs Girona, the key detail is simple: Arsenal.com is streaming all of the club's preseason matches, while DAZN is carrying Saturday's friendly in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
The pricing is set out clearly. Fans can buy an individual match pass for £6.99, or about $9.42, while an early bird preseason pass covering all four matches costs £9.99, or about $13.47. That offer rises to £14.99, or about $20.21, after 9 a.m. BST on August 1. In other words, the club has put the full slate behind a paywall, but not a single viewing route that forces supporters into only one option.
There is also a familiar memory attached to this trip. Two seasons ago, Arsenal last travelled to this part of Catalonia at the end of Girona's debut Champions League campaign, and Nwaneri scored a stunner to help Mikel Arteta's side to victory. Girona failed to make it into the knockout rounds that season, yet the club's next chapter was less straightforward: last season brought relegation and the departure of Michel, with Quique Álvarez promoted from the reserves to take over. That is the odd shape of the tie now — a newly relegated side that had already been through a Champions League campaign, and an Arsenal team arriving as champions rather than tourists.
What happens next is more concrete. The friendly is the opening game of Arsenal's preseason slate, and the four-match preseason pass means this is only the first broadcast decision supporters will have to make. Whether Arteta uses the night to lean on familiar names or to test fresh options is still the part left unsaid, but the road from Montilivi now leads straight into the rest of the summer schedule.
