Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Partey, Odegaard, Saka, Havertz, Martinelli
Subs: Ramsdale, Setford, Calafiori, Kiwior, Heaven, Nichols, Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Nelson, Nwaneri, Trossard, Jesus, Nketiah
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Arsenal completed their pre-season schedule with a 2-0 win over French side Lyon, retaining the Emirates Cup in the process.
Bukayo Saka had the Gunners first chance of the afternoon, heading a Martinelli cross on target but more or less straight at the keeper, after which we enjoyed a series of corners as the game played out primarily in the opposition half.
And it was from one of those set-pieces that we took a 9th minute lead, William Saliba rising highest to head home from a Declan Rice delivery. 1-0.
Another Rice corner caused problems for Lyon, again Saliba was a menacing presence in the box, before Saka used his head again but saw his effort from a Zinchenko cross drift wide of the far post.
Rice had a pop from distance which was easy for the keeper, and great work from Odegaard saw Martinelli get in behind but the defender got back well to block his cross with Havertz waiting in the middle for a tap-in. From the resulting corner though, the lead was doubled. Again, Rice’s delivery was excellent, and this time it was our other central defender, Gabriel, who arrived to power home a thumping header to make it 2-0.
It should have been 3-0 when a fantastic Havertz pass sent Martinelli in behind, but despite getting ahead of his opponent, the defender did just enough to put him off before he could get a shot away. Havertz then headed over when Martinelli nodded a Saka free kick back across goal, and there was a rare effort from Lyon when Said Benrahma dragged a shot wide of Raya’s near post.
There was more danger a couple of minutes later when a dangerous Ainsley Maitland-Niles cross almost found Georges Mikautadze in the middle, but Raya got a foot on it to snuff out the chance, and Mikel Arteta’s men took the two goal lead into the break.
Surprisingly, there were no changes to the side at half-time. Mikautadze had the first effort of the second period but fired over, before nice work from Martinelli set up Odegaard for a shot from the edge of the box, but the keeper made a fine save to push the ball around the post.
Partey curled a shot wide after a Rice attempt was blocked into his path, Havertz shot wide after great movement from Martinelli, and Saka’s third header of the day – this time from a Zinchenko cross – saw the ball rebound off the bottom of the post.
Saka almost got on the end of an Odegaard pass as the two combined in close quarters in the Lyon box, and in the 63rd minute Arteta made his first changes of the game, first of which was a debut for Riccardo Calafiori as he replaced Zinchenko. The Italian entered the pitch to huge applause from the crowd.
Gabriel Jesus came on for Declan Rice, which saw Havertz move back into midfield, while Lyon made a clutch of substitutions themselves. Saliba came close to getting another when he headed a Saka free kick wide of the post, and with about 15 minutes to go, Arteta introduced Jakub Kiwior, Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Leandro Trossard, and Reiss Nelson for Havertz, Saka, Partey, Saliba, Gabriel, and Martinelli. Eddie Nketiah, linked strongly with a move to Marseille over the weekend, remained on the bench.
Odegaard’s vision set up Nelson for an attempt which the keeper saved at his near post, while at the other end a quick long throw caught Jorginho out but Raya was on hand to deny the Lyon forward as he drove into our box.
A clever run from Jesus and a good Odegaard pass caused more danger but this time the flag went up for offside, Nwaneri showed his talent with an exciting run and turn into the box, and he followed that up with a right footed shot which the keeper saved.
And that, my friends, was that.
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At the end, there was scheduled a penalty shoot-out which had no bearing on the outcome of the game.
We will update on that in due course.
Penalty Shoot-out details to follow …
Update: It turns out there was no penalty shoot-out despite a penalty shoot-out being announced right at the end. What a mysterious way to end pre-season!
Five very difficult early games. Don’t want to be starting slow. Calafiori looks good. Our attack is still a problem, lacks X factor without Saka. No natural goals scorers or transition specialists..
‘Nelli is our one transition specialist. We need a second. Otherwise, we good.
We don’t have a big XG accumulator, an X-facotr inevitability. Martinelli can run for the ball but on the ball in transition, his decision making and execution has a way to go yet. He’s also a bit one dimensional in his one-to-ones, struggles to cut in effectively, needs a proper overlapper. His strength is finishing, but he’s not a natural like Auba, relies things around him to function properly. He’s a weapon but in right conditions, if we don’t get a functioning left side, Martinelli will struggle again.
So you’re saying we need an unstoppable transitional threat. Yes! I completely agree! Huge need. Hence the Sesko, Williams, Sane, Neto links. I don’t see a universe where that need goes unaddressed.
I like the point you make about LHS dynamics. I think the Calafiori and Merino signings are a direct answer. The point I haven’t seen made about Martinelli is that he was playing in front of a rotating cast of non-overlapping fullbacks as well as non-creative LCM options like Havertz and Rice. It will make a BIG difference if he is getting link play from Calafiori and Merino and overlaps/underlaps from LHS specialists. It was rather Frankensteined together last season.
This team is great defensively, but makes very hard work of scoring from open play.
We will go backwards this season if we don’t sign a forward, mark my words.
Fine, I’ll mark your words then. So what happens with you if by some chance we don’t go backwards, if somehow Martinelli and Odegaard score as much as they did two seasons ago instead of last season, and Saka scores a couple more as he’s more than capable of, and Jesus stays fit and scores a couple more too, and Havertz continues his good form for a full season? Actually let’s say only three of those five players perform better in front of goal than they did last season, we’d still end up with about 10-12 goals more than last… Read more »
Lots of ifs there buddy. By all means mark my words. Put your house on Jesus and Havertz to stay fit and overperform xg for the first time in their careers. And if you think no backup for Saka and no competition for Martinelli is a good thing, be my guest. I for one don’t expect 6 goals in 10 games from Trossard to save our asses at the business end of next season again. So it will have to be luck I guess, pure hope that the players stay fit and magically improve in-front of goal with more games… Read more »
Players improving usually isn’t magic, it tends to happen because they practice hard on their skills, learn from smart coaches to understand the game better, and gain valuable experience on the pitch. Often it also happens simply because they stay fit for a while when they didn’t manage to previously. And no I don’t think no competition for Saka is a good thing (Martinelli is competing with Trossard already) nor would I be annoyed at all if we actually do manage to buy a striker or a forward who can play on the right. Do you think the team isn’t… Read more »
Trossard will only get better as he becomes more and more a part of this team. And he will score more goals this season, than last… those words you can mark!
Marky marked!
I wouldn’t complain about a top class forward signing, but our attack is pretty awesome anyway. I still think a top class midfielder (i.e., Merino or Ruiz) is the priority.
I said end of last season we needed a left back, a left 8 and a striker to beat city this year. 1 out of 3 so far…
Scored 4, 2, and 1 goal, all from open play, against leverkusen, united and Liverpool respectively but just because we could not do that in our last match our attackers are bad all of a sudden. Thank God you are not the manager..
Am concerned about Marti. Just flatters to deceive with poor choices in n e at oppo box. Can see being upgraded next summer if he fails to contribute with more goals and assists.
Cali looked class
Heaven knows where Ode gets his energy. Played nearly all pre season. Needs to stay free of injury as we don’t have an alternative
Martinelli’s aight. Most threatening player in R/W today. Goals will come.
https://x.com/scottjwillis/status/1822650438900216115
Agree, not impressed. His final ball is extremely poor. Hope he improves.
Pre-season!! Chill!
It was the same story last season if you watched the games.
Surprised so many people have thumbed you down, I think it’s pretty unequivocal that Martinelli’s form has been poor for the best part of a year.
I love him but reckon you’re right- Arteta’s willingness to play Trossard instead suggests to me that Gabi had this year to stake his claim or he’s getting Ramsdale-d.
What is fairly unequivocal is that he was the same player last season he’s always been but didn’t get the rub of the green in front of goal. An inverse Foden if you will. Goals are a result of statistical variance. What is stable and measurable as a marker of performance is your ability to generate shots. Martinelli is one of the best at generating lots of shots. The best teams recruit players who consistently generate lots of shooting opportunities because they understand this.
Here he is compared to Nico Williams in 23/24. Not too bad eh?
https://twitter.com/scottjwillis/status/1808874839933079968
“Goals are a result of statistical variance”? You can’t have typed that with a straight face, surely? Will there be a more demonstrably incorrect statement on Arseblog this season? Seems unlikely.
I trust you’re familiar with expected goals and how they’re calculated. That is their premise. It tells you that a great shot that didn’t result in a goal was still a great shot because most of the time, it would be a goal. Or vice versa. It’s a better way of analyzing the game than based on the actual outcome of those shots, even though the actual outcome is what determines the result of individual games, because, again, xG accumulation is predictable and tracks season to season whereas actual goal production falls prey to variance because goals a relatively rare… Read more »
Trossard is, for me at least, a better option closer to the centre – where his complete two-footedness can be better exploited. Defenders never know whether he will shift it left or right and his power with so little back-lift makes him doubly lethal, in those situations.
The match report here seems like Martinelli was lively and involved in about everything. Its still preseason. Everyone writing him off already seems like needless, anxiety-induced pear clutching to me.
Was Viera involved at all?
Apparently he picked up a slight knock and wasn’t involved today.
Injured
Fruits de mer
He started what the way he played all last season. Lively but no end product.
A pear-necklace… now there’s a thing!
You’d need a very strong neck though…
We won the pens 4-0. Goals from Jensen, Linnighan, Schwartz and McGoldrick.
And all Kim Kallstrom.
Good prep for upcoming season in both of our home friendlies, whether we sign the likely Merino we still need a forward to replace Eddie, I have no idea who that maybe as our supposed targets look to be secured or bought by other clubs, not a striker but thought Neto would be a good addition as we’ve been linked to him for quite a while but somehow chelsea nabbed him, all gone quiet on Issak aswell
They may well end up snatching Toney for a bargain 35 mil. Probably a good deal at that price, but not much more.
It was damn hot today
Surely you could afford a personal AC unit my Lord?
I rely on my fans
Some of the passes and crosses Zinchenko made today! Can easily see why Odegaard referred to him as Messi. His technical level is ridiculous, to say the least.
Such a shame his defensive shortcomings will always work against him.
And yet Arteta continues to judge the fish by its ability to climb a tree..
If I’m interpreting this comment correctly and you’re essentially saying Zinchenko shouldn’t be asked to play in defense but maybe in midfield instead based on his strengths and weaknesses, then I agree and feel it might have been misinterpreted and judged too harshly by others.
If however you’re simply calling Zinchenko a useless fish then we have a problem.
Yep – let’s just hope he’s worked on his defensive positioning, his tracking back and his one-on-one tackling… basically everything, then!
I wonder how would Messi fare as a left back..
I love the ways we press our opposition making it hard for them to play.. If we keep doing that and perfect it better our opponents will make a lot of turnovers and will lead to more goals for us.. Get it up but let’s get a proper forward
And with that, we’ve won as many trophies as Tottenham have won since 2009, their audi cup triumph being their sole win in that period.
Does Arteta really intend to use Lewis-Skelly as an option during the season? His and Nwaneri’s constant inclusions look serious now, not just giving them a “pathway”. And if for the latter we kind if expexted that, the persistence with MLS is pleasantly surprising.
I think this is in part because he’s really good but also in part because the club have realized they have a problem retaining their youth players in the wake of ACD, Chido and OH.
Suspect they’ve also realised just how much money they’re leaving on the table with City and Chelsea getting serious money for guys who’ve barely played for them.
I get the clamour for a new striker but, like Lewis Ambrose was saying the other day, there’s not really anyone I would prefer to Gabriel Jesus there. Having a multitude of players who can score 8-10 goals plus a season can be better than over relying on someone who scores 30. When I think about the finishing being below XG thiugh, the first thing that comes to my mind is coaching. I recall the season Aaron Ramsey put on his shooting boots, he attributed it to practicing with Lukas Podolski. Podolski never scored an astronomical amount of goals in… Read more »
I agree with your point entirely, but would also add that the ‘must sign a striker’ brigade aren’t taking into consideration that, if we did sign and play a ‘world-class striker’ we would also have to drop one of the forwards that led us to our highest ever EPL goals total!
I would actually like us to sign a striker – particularly if, as expected, Eddie leaves. I would prefer, though, a ‘plan B’ striker – just in case ‘plan A’ isn’t working. However, getting one of the required quality that is happy to play ‘second fiddle’ may be tricky.
And Pod had a left foot that could blast a hole through a concrete mixer (when full!).,