Arsenal announces 2014 Emirates Cup lineup

Arsenal released the schedule to the 2014 Emirates Cup, which features Portugal's Benfica, Spain's Valencia, and France's AS Monaco, and matches being played on August 2nd and 3rd.  Each team, as usual, will play two of the three tournament participants, with Arsenal facing off versus Benfica and Monaco:

August 2nd: 
Valencia vs. Monaco; 2:00 pm BST (8:00 am EDT)
Arsenal vs. Benfica; 4:20 pm BST (10:20 am EDT)

August 3rd: 
Benfica vs. Valencia; 2:00 pm BST (8:00 am EDT)
Arsenal vs. Monaco; 4:20 pm BST (10:20 am EDT)

The two-day weekend tournament falls three weeks after the World Cup's final match on July 13th, one week after Arsenal play in New York versus MLS' New York Red Bulls, and two weeks prior to the start of the 2014-15 EPL season kickoff.

With the World Cup dominating the summer and current squad members' commitments, I don't expect Arsenal to schedule anything more than what's now been announced.  Last season saw the club travel to Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan on their successful Asian tour, coming back home after that to host the Emirates Cup and playing Napoli and Galatasaray, before flying to Helsinki to play Manchester City a week before the start of this season.

This event, with many of the players coming back from Brazil and getting 3-4 weeks to recuperate and re-energize before the start of the season, looks to be the perfect opportunity for them to get back into the groove of the club season that starts a mere 14 days after the preseason tournament.