Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Havertz, Odegaard, Vieira, Trossard, Jesus
Subs: Ramsdale, Setford, Heaven, Lewis-Skelly, Kiwior, Nichols, Partey, Rice, Nelson, Nwaneri, Saka, Martinelli, Nketiah
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Arsenal’s pre-season preparations continued this evening with impressive 4-1 win over German champions Bayer Leverkusen.
Mikel Arteta’s team selection saw a very familiar looking team, with new signing Riccardo Calafiori absent from the squad as he builds up his pre-season fitness levels, alongside the injured Jurrien Timber and Takehiro Tomiyasu.
There was some summer rust from both sides in the opening stages, but in the 8th minute Arsenal took the lead after a nice move down the left hand side saw Kai Havertz find space. His cut back was dummied by Martin Odegaard, allowing Oleksandr Zinchenko to fire a left-footed shot into the bottom corner. 1-0.
Within a minute the lead was doubled. Leandro Trossard intercepted a pass from the Leverkusen keeper, the ball made its way through Odegaard and Havertz with a clever flick, before the Belgian sent the defender one way with a turn and fired into the net for 2-0.
The Gunners looked lively, the German champions not so much, and Arteta’s side had a lot of joy down our left-hand side with Trossard finding space time and again. The Belgian almost got his second of the game in the 25th minute, firing a shot from distance which the keeper pushed around the post, after which a Zinchenko header caused mild alarm in the opposition box.
There was little threat from Xabi Alonso’s side, and they fell further behind in the 38th minute. Gabriel Jesus picked the ball up around the halfway line, drove down the left before cutting inside and from outside the D he fired in a shot which the keeper probably should have done better with. Nevertheless, the Brazilian has looked very sharp in pre-season so far, and this goal will be a nice confidence boost for him. 3-0.
A couple of blocked shots were all that Leverkusen could muster in the first 45 minutes, with one on target right at the death, but it was a meek effort which didn’t trouble David Raya.
Mikel Arteta made four changes at the break, sending on Bukayo Saka, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Jakub Kiwior and Declan Rice for Zinchenko, Vieira, Jesus, and Saliba. The visitors had the first effort of the first half through former Arsenal Academy player Nathan Tella, but again it caused Raya little danger.
Leverkusen’s best chance of the game came in the 60th minute, again for Tella, but his first time shot fizzed wide. That prompted Alonso into a half dozen changes that we can’t be bothered to be specific about because frankly who cares? At the same time, Jorginho and Martin Odegaard were replaced by Ethan Nwaneri and Thomas Partey.
The 17 year old was immediately impactful, driving forward to play the ball outside to Saka, who then roasted the full-back to drill a ball into the danger zone. A defender got there first but could only direct the ball to Havertz who made no mistake from close range. 4-0.
Rice had a pop from distance but put it wide, before Arteta made more changes with Gabriel, White and Havertz being replaced by Ayden Heaven, Josh Nichols, and Eddie Nketiah.
The crowd entertained themselves with a Mexican wave, and with all the changes things got a little disjointed. Leverkusen got one back in the 75th minute through Adam Hlozek – his dinked finish going beyond Raya after he’d run off the back of Kiwior. 4-1.
Granit Xhaka came off in the 80th minute and had a hug with his former boss, Gabriel Martinelli came on for Trossard, and the more experienced Leverkusen side were probably on top in the final stages – although the Gunners did have half-chances to make something happen.
In the end though, a positive night, and plenty for Mikel Arteta to be pleased about ahead of Sunday’s friendly with Lyon.
Fastest report in the…west?
Thank you!
This is your preseason too, it seems you are already sharp! Way to go, counting the days until the new season. Coyg!
His expected blogs this season will be off the charts!
It’s crazy how fast blogs is.
He always manages to post before the first comment.
haha
I wish I could downvote downvotes..
Hang on though… that might be a double-negative type thingy and send the wrong message entirely.
😅pen slinger!
The good (Blogs), the bad (most of the football media), and the ugly (Sky Sports)
This victory although against one of the best side in Europe does not mean that we can do without a prolific striker. No 30-goal striker and we are one week from the start of the season ffs.
If Arteta believes in Havertz and a fully-fit Jesus, then we have to as well. Martinelli might switch it on this season. Or Edu may have a trick up his sleeve, we still got from sales…
Other hits include :
Arteta doesn’t play the youf
Could Timber be a DM?
Aaron who?!
And who could forget the timeless classic…
We’re paying too much for Declan
And we are still enjoying
“60 million down the drain”. Quite a hit that one.
Last one sung to the tune of Rice Rice Baby
Look at Manchester City with their 30 goal a season striker. Granted, its been great for Haaland with him scoring almost for fun (except against us), but not so good for city, whose goal scoring as a team has actually gone down. 99 PL goals in the season before he arrived, and 91, and 94 since he arrived.
It appears that their prolific striker isn’t adding anything to the team, and instead taking goals that otherwise would be scored by his teammates. Be careful what you wish for.
Some good stuff here. Will need to watch in full but:
– first choice defense rocks
– Havertz + Zinchenko has legs
– Jesus is risen
– Nwaneri is ready
Do you think if Marseille were watching they will offer another ten million for Nketia 😂
I think that is where Eddie is headed. They tried to pivot to Wahi but got the same sort of valuation (> 30 million) so I think they’ll work something out with Arsenal in the mid to upper 20s.
Or not! If we don’t sell Eddie I won’t be upset. He was a useful squad member last season and will be again this if he doesn’t move.
I will be, both for us and for him. Love the lad and appreciate his service for us but time for both sides to move on.
I agree, I just don’t think we need to push him out the door for below market value either. I don’t think he’s any worse than the other strikers flying around the market in his price range and his value will be the same or higher next summer.
Agree with the first and second parts, but not the last. If he stays he’s likely to play even less this season given how little Arteta seemed to want to play him at the end of last season. He’s at the age where he needs to play much more than he would with us to develop further, and if he doesn’t his value will start to sink, like timber without Viagra if you will.
Life moves pretty fast.
If you don’t stop and take a look once in a while, you could sell half the squad before the season starts.
Lovely finish by Zinchenko, it really feels like he’s been working and improving on that front. If only he improved as much in his reliability as a defender… still, if he’s our 2nd or 3rd option at LB that’s quite a luxury to have.
Cautiously optimistic about Jesus, call me Mr. Rose Tinted Glasses but I’ve always believed if for once he can stay healthy for a full season he could get in the range of 18-20 goals, 10 assists and another 4-5 penalties drawn.
On a second view, Gabriel Jesus’ goal was decent enough (the first time, I thought it was entirely the keeper’s fault). I thought all 11 Arsenal starters looked pretty good. I tried to pay special attention to Vieira (more involved, but I still wouldn’t him starting in place of an injured Saka for four or five weeks) and to Zinchenko, who looked very good, including defending the high balls that sometimes leave him stranded. I was pretty impressed by how ready the team looked.
Arsenal were so mouthwatering that all the subs had bibs on.
Kiwior was so poor for Leverkusen s goal.. what’s he even good at? He should be sold… Reinvest in a striker or saka replacement
I’m worried about Timber
Viagra?
Borrow my missus?
Team player!
Don’t like the stripe on our shorts and the trim of red on the back of the jersies. Makes them look like they’re playing in diapers while the projects incompleteness.
We kind of look deceptively clumsy in that home jersey and whoever came up with the pattern must dislike arsenal much.
Deceptive or not, that was a great game especially the first half.
Not a fan of the new kits. Come on Adid3, these are not the fogging estandards!
Too much white, looks like an Ajax kit.
It’s one of the shittest kits we’ve had (puma years excluded)
Also, shittest is definitely a word.
Given shit can be used as an adjective and has one syllable, the natural comparative would therefore be “shitter” and the superlative “shittest”.
Doubling the “t” is essential here.
We also have the option of “shitty”, “shittier” and “shittiest”.
All are in the Collins dictionary, so you’re correct. It’s definitely a word.
It can also be a noun, verb or adjective… the veritable Swiss army knife of swearwords.
I like the shirt and nothing else. The Christmas kit is awful IMO. Your mileage may differ.
But nothing will ever approach the ManU green of last year…oh my
awful kits… would look half decent if socks were white.
never been a fan of red socks at home, can just about tolerate them away…
hopefully it grows on me like that radioactive tiger kit did last season.
They always look better when you win wearing them
That Havertz signing has been a shocker mind !!! Wtf was Arteta thinking ?
The petty Arsenal obsessive I am, I basically created a ‘what is Arteta thinking?!’ playlist for myself featuring videos of all the usual media twats slagging off the move at the time of his signing; just so that I could watch them all back at the end of last season. Was a Saturday morning well spent.
I noted that Lewis-Skelly has been used at inverted left back in pre-season (having previously read that Arteta is viewing him in that role.)
For a team that apparently has left back issues we now have 7 left back options
I don’t count Timber anymore, I think he will be used on the right hand side as originally intended when we signed him as cover for either one of Saliba or White. Kiwior is very much a CB and was only used there as an emergency option, plus I think he will move on this summer. Tierney is of course on the move as well. Tomiyasu is a swiss army knife defender, not a specialist LB. MLS is great but needs time to develop, won’t get meaningful minutes this season, certainly not as part of the back line. So in… Read more »
Fair do’s on the discounting of options front! Either way we are certainly awash with full back options… That said – 12 months on and I’m still trying to ascertain quite how TP5 started last season at right back 😂
I think it was MA’s way of putting some ball progression into midfield next to Rice and Havertz. There were all kinds of balance issues with that team though. Growing pains of fitting in two major new pieces.
For someone who doesn’t count Timber as an option you certainly ended up counting Timber as a very capable option 😜
Yes, he’s an option; didn’t mean to say he wasn’t! I just don’t count him as an LB, that’s all.
Xhaka is such a gunner. Assisting a goal to help build up Havertz’s confidence ahead of the new season. Love to see it!
Didnt have a link, but from the US tour I say, Ethan can play so play him…he looks a lot stronger than Viera for example…
interesting video quality…I liked it, but Saka’s palms looked orange…maybe a Ben White influence?
I wasn’t able to watch it, but I assume we shouldn’t get too excited. We’re just a bit ahead in pre-season than them?
We’re actually winning the league
second. Bournemouth are top.
Small edit: Trossard provided the dummy for the first goal, not Odegaard. Love the blog and the quick report! COYG!!