By Tony Attwood
A two match pre-season is something one can easily miss, but that’s what we have been offered, so that’s what we have to take.
Concerning last season’s “pre-season opener” everyone seemed surprised to find that Mohamed Elneny can and does play well – which is what we were saying before he went on loan. But then we’ve always rated Rob Holding, so best to put in the normal bits and pieces about not being able to read too much into a pre-season game.
4-1 it was, Arsenal scored all five, and if this had been an England match the medics would have said that Rob had suffered double vision.
Anyway if you missed it all here it is – including a scintillating four and a half minutes of watching the grass be watered at the start. Kick off is on 10 minutes in the video below.
Spoiler alert (ho ho): The other goals came to Nketiah, Mark McGuinness and Reiss Nelson (penalty).
Here is the team
Leno, Tierney, Saliba, Saka, Aubameyang, Maitland-Niles, Holding Soares, Elneny, Nketiah, Xhama
So that was the little warm up, and good of Arsenal to think of putting the whole match up, recognising that people may have made other arrangements for the evening. Part two is against Liverpool.
Elsewhere in the news the downfall of Messi seems to be running at an extraordinary pace – allegedly he is demanding a free transfer in return for all he has done for the club. Oh yes, and he did so by sending in a fax to the club.
Still it does mean for us that the media have less time for making up stories about Arsenal. Sadly that won’t last but we can enjoy it while it does.
The Standard has come out with this prediction for the first choice line up for the coming season…
Leno;
Bellerin, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney;
Ceballos, Xhaka;
Pepe, Willian, Aubameyang;
Lacazette.
which most certainly looks strong and a very attack minded biased. Interesting also that most of those players have been tipped in the last couple of months to be leaving.
Mind you the media is also full of stories about Arsenal being ready to buy half a dozen other players, and indeed this transfer window will run on and on and on…
Elsewhere Manchester United have a Harry Maguire problem and Tottenham have released a video of last season called “All or Nothing.” Unfortunately the editing seems to have been a bit rushed and they didn’t find time to cover their League Cup run, which you might remember was rather good fun.
And maybe the world of football reporting is changing a little. The Daily Mail is running the headline
“Gareth Southgate is left looking foolish after taking a silly risk in picking Harry Maguire for his England squad BEFORE his court case… but when will his players ever learn?”
Blimey – the Mail criticising the England team! Whatever next?
More anon… meanwhile enjoy the game (above).
- What marks out a winning season? Revealing football’s complexity.
- Infantino is one step closer to the edge of the cliff, but UK media is still silent
- Gabriel dos Santos Magalhães makes it 5 Brazilians at Arsenal … but not yet
