UNITED IN THE MUD, AGAIN
Arsenal continued their winning streak in America with a 2-1 victory over WE DON’T DO FRIENDLIES FC and it was pretty glorious in a lame-ish kind of way.
Three things I liked:
Gabriel Jesus scored
Nwaneri showed me he might be worth more than 400 minutes
Arsenal players did NOT get injured
Outside that, it’s hard to pull too many insights.
We’re really, really early in preseason. A lot of players looked gassed quite early. There were no real treats we could glean from a tactical perspective because we’re so short when it comes to first-teamers in the squad.
One question was answered by Arteta early with regards to why Timber was playing at right-sided centre back: ‘We’d rather make one change than two’
That doesn’t guarantee that Ben White will be right back come the end of the season, but he’s so good, and about to get paid so damn well that it’d be hard to imagine Timber is going to steal his role in the starting 11.
We haven’t been that great defensively, but again, it's worth noting we don’t have our key centre-backs, keeper, and our left-backs are still regaining fitness.
The final third is going to be interesting because Jesus has lost his starting 11 position, he’s not a Brazil starter, and podcasters like me are questioning if this is his last season at Arsenal. He has to prove himself as an effective 9. All the tactico genius twitterers who said we didn’t need a 9 to score goals are backpedaling… because that is kind of what they’re bought for. Jesus can’t finish, he can’t stay fit, and Kai Havertz looked pretty damn good last season. It’s do or goodbye for the Brazilian… and I might have had a cheeky dab of Hopium, but my word, does he look fit and focused.
Let’s see where it goes - I shan’t be putting money down on him for the AFC golden boot - but I will be rooting for him.
Ethan Nwaneri is another curious piece of the squad puzzle. He’s a baby, but built like the rest of our wingers. He carries himself on the pitch with maturity beyond his year and he showed up with a delicious assist against United. He held the line, found space, and delivered an unmissable chance to Jesus. I went from thinking he’d be lucky to get 400 minutes this season to thinking it’s likely he’s going to be pushing Jude for the Balon d’Or.
Gabriel Martinelli, another Brazilian with a bit of a point to prove, also showed hard for his minutes. I thought he looked fit, confident, and ready to roll into this season and claw back his starting position from Trossard.
The goal he scored was all him. He rinsed a United baby, danced into the box, and let off a surprise shot that Onana couldn’t react to. It was a great goal and we need to see more of that this season. My hope for the player is that he can move from being a head-down merchant and start to find a little bit more time and composure in crucial moments. This is a top talent who had a very average second season after a breakout one. He will get better, he just has to do it fast, so he doesn’t find himself getting Smith Rowe’d.
I don’t want to go too hard at EtH, but I do think it’s tragic they let this mess roll on for another year after dating other managers during the summer. He’s not the right guy, he has squad vibe problems, and he’s not the guy to fix it. Antony is still rubbish, Casemiro is still old and slow, and I don’t think the players United are targeting are moving them forward right now. The squad is still toxic. They haven’t even found a home for Jadon. They dropped £62m on Yoro and he was turned inside out by Jesus and he had to be taken off with an injury after 34 minutes. He looked a long way off being at the standard.
The game went to a practice penalty shootout. The only notable moment was Onana telling Gabriel where to shoot, diving the wrong way, with Big G smashing it exactly where he was told to. Good banter.
Right, that’s me done my darlings. Check out the latest podcast below. x
