In our history, we've travelled to all four corners of the globe, meeting our loyal supporters everywhere we went.

With our match against Real Betis in Dublin seeing us return to Ireland for the first time in pre-season since 2018, we've taken a look back at some of our most memorable travels across the planet.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

We've travelled to more than 50 nations in our history to play pre-season matches, but our first on foreign soil was way back on May 5, 1907 - a 2-1 win over Racing Club of Brussels in Belgium. Billy Garbutt and Peter Kyle scored the goals for Phil Kelso's team.

In fact, we were unbeaten in all eight tour games that year, travelling to The Hague, Prague, Berlin Vienna and lastly, Budapest, where we defeated Magyar TKK to conclude the two-week trip. A trip that certainly left a mark on SK Slavia, who returned the favour by playing against us in London in 1908

We returned to Budapest and Vienna in 1912, to play local sides, as well as playing  Tottenham Hotspur in Vienna in May 1912, running our 4-0 winners.

Overall, Arsenal played 38 overseas friendlies before first tasting defeat. That came in May 1926, a 1-0 reverse against a Rapid Vienna All-stars team.

The next defeat abroad for Arsenal was more than 10 years later, another 1-0 loss, this time against Feyenoord in Rotterdam in May 1938. Defeats were incredibly rare for us on our travels in those early years - the pre-war record for overseas matches was P75 W63 D10 L2.

GOING GLOBAL

We began to travel further afield than Europe after the war. At the end of the 1948/49 season, the Gunners set off for a seven-game tour of Brazil. 

Recording two wins from those seven matches against Brazilian club sides - including Fluminense, Palmeiras and Corinthians - we returned to Brazil in 1951 for six more games, recording one victory.

In October 1954, we made history by becoming the first English Football League side ever to play a fixture in Russia. A mid-season game, the fixture was sandwiched between two weekend Division One matches. Dynamo Moscow won 5-0 in front of a crowd of 90,000.

In 1964, we travelled once again to the southern hemisphere for a three-week trip to South Africa.

We recorded big wins in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth before returning home with a perfect record. We would return almost three decades later.

Two years after South Africa and it was time to visit the Caribbean. Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Curacao and Aruba were on the agenda, winning five of our six match, only being held by the Aruba national team to a 2-2 draw in Oranjestad.

At the end of the 1967/68 season, Bertie Mee's Gunners jetted off for three games in Japan - each against an All Japan XI - between May 23 and 29. We won all three matches, culminating in a 4-0 victory in Tokyo, in front of 70,000 spectators. At the time, that was record attendance for football in the country.

NEW ADVENTURES AND TRADITIONS

Although we travelled the globe in a fairly varied manner ever since those early foreign trips in 1907, one friendly fixture remained a constant between 1930 and 1962.

We took on Racing Club de Paris on an annual basis from 1930 onwards, to help raise money for the veterans of the First World War. In fact, for much of the 1930s, this was the only overseas game the team played each year.

The fixture - initiated by Herbert Chapman and his counterpart at Racing (one of France's oldest and most prestigious clubs) Jean Bernard-Levy - was originally played on or near to Armistice Day (November 11). With the exception of 1932 and 1953, when the French side travelled to Highbury as part of a doubleheader, all the games were played in Paris.

The teams met 27 times, with the Gunners claiming 19 victories. The only interruptions in the sequence were between 1939 and 1945 due to the Second World War, and 1961/62 when there was no fixture.

In the 1970s, we ventured over to the USA for the first time, facing Miami Gatos. In 1977, we made it to Australia for the very first time.

As part of the tour, we took on the Australian national team, losing 3-1, as well as taking on Celtic, Red Star Belgrade, Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers in an action-packed few weeks.

The 1980s saw us continue to venture far and wide, with games against the national teams of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Trinidad once again and Bermuda. There as also a first trip to Indonesia in 1983 for three matches.

'WORLD CHAMPIONS' AND MANDELA

Following on from our dramatic league title victory at Anfield in 1989, we headed stateside once more, to take on Independiente in what was being dubbed an unofficial world title match.

The trophy was in fact the Zenith Data Systems Challenge Trophy, and George Graham’s side triumphed 2-1, thanks to a David Rocastle double in the searing Florida heat.

The 1990s kicked off with a trip to Singapore to face a South Korean national XI. As well as making forays to China, Thailand and Malaysia for the first time, it was our trip to South Africa that stood out in the decade.

In July 1993, with South Africa preparing to mark the end of the 48-year apartheid era, Manchester United and we were both invited to Johannesburg to participate in the United Bank International Soccer Festival. We would complete the competition with a 100% record, defeating United, Orlando Pirates, and the Kaiser Chiefs.

MODERN ERA

The arrival of Arsene Wenger as our manager saw us take a more European approach to our pre-season tours in the 2000s. 

For the first decade of the new millennium, we didn't leave Europe once, with trips to Scotland, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and Poland, which featured a remarkable 6-5 win over Legia Warsaw.

That all changed in 2011, as Wenger took his side east for a visit to Malaysia and China in 2011, Hong Kong in 2012 and Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam in 2013 to make a run of three straight years in the far east.

Our trip to Japan in 2013, allowed us to go up against Arsene's former employers, Nagoya Grampus Eight, who we defeated 3-1 in Tokyo.

In the past decade, our trip to the USA have become more frequent. We returned across the pond in 2016, with matches against MLS All-Stars and Mexican outfit Chivas de Guadalajara.

Since the arrival of Mikel Arteta, we have visited America on three separate occasions, in 2022, 2023 and 2024, beating the likes of Manchester United, Barcelona and Chelsea in that time.

We ventured back to the Far East in 2025, where we played matches in Hong Kong and Singapore, and had the chance to show off some new signings!

Viktor Gyokeres was introduced to the crowd in Singapore as we took on Newcastle United.