Colorado Rapids v Arsenal: video of the match and what have we learned

By Tony Attwood

The starting team against Colorado was

Macey

Jenkinson Chambers Medley Thompson

Olayinka Burton Martinelli

John-Jules Saka

Nketiah

Arsenal won 3-0 with the goals coming from Saka, Olayinka and Martinelli – and what has got everyone rather excited was Martinelli and the word “brilliant” for the goal is being used as the hyperbole builds up.

The first goalscorer was Saka on 13 minutes, after Nketiah helped the ball forward, and Olanyinka got the second on 16 minutes.

In the second half we had the expected range of substitutions.  Here’s the list…

Schweitzer on for Bassett, 46 minutes
Donsu on for Mezquida, 46 minutes
Hundley on for Jenkinson, 46 minutes
Mustafi on for Chambers, 46 minutes
Kolasinac on for Thompson, 46 minutes
Willock on for Olayinka, 46 minutes
Abubakar on for Blomberg, 79 minutes
Reaves on for Raben, 79 minutes
Romero on for Sjoberg, 79 minutes
Jome on for Opare, 79 minutes
Ozil on for Martinelli, 79 minutes
Lacazette on for John-Jules, 79 minutes
Aubameyang on for Nketiah, 79 minutes

Not at all sure how much can be read into any of this.   We often see a lot of youngsters tried out, but only a few make it through to the first team.  But as noted before, this is where the Europa League can certainly help, if we have some of the smaller teams to play in the group stages.

Interesting that Chambers and Jenkinson played – this could be because Arsenal are trying to showcase them for possible buyers, or it could be that the manager just wanted a couple of more experienced performers to help stabilise the defence.  It is hard to say – but for the moment both men are still at the club.  However they did not get the gentle introduction of Ozil, Lacazette and Aubameyang for the last 11 minutes.

We shall see in due course.

 

2 Replies to “Colorado Rapids v Arsenal: video of the match and what have we learned”

  1. Yeah was a good outing to get minutes into the legs. Martinelli could and maybe should have had a couple more. He produced a couple of decent crosses too so not to shabby for a debut. Saka was standout performer for me in the evening. It wasn’t a great Colorado rapids team and result is meaningless but it is minutes in legs and experience of first team set up for those lads. Overall great way to start pre season.

  2. OT: Criminal convictions for assault in sport

    LawInSport has an article out, which discusses various circumstances where a player in some game has been convicted of a criminal offence due to some event in a sporting event. Football is mentioned multiple times.

    https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/the-role-and-extent-of-criminal-sanctions-in-sport

    I think there probably were occasions in the Wenger era where a criminal investigation might have been reasonable. But the article does mention that civil actions are a possibility.

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