Gunners Put On The Spot By Atleti
Jul 27th, 2018 by 'holic
It wasn’t the worst way to spend a Thursday lunchtime, sitting under the shade of an umbrella in a beer garden watching the new look Arsenal taking on Atletico Madrid.
I missed the opening phases of play which the commentator was enthusing over as I fired up the channel. The Gunners were looking good with Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson, Alexandre Lacazette, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to the fore.
With better finishing we might have found a way past the excellent Oblak but it wasn’t to be and we paid the penalty when allowing Correa to make inroads into the left side of our defence. His cross was emphatically finished by Vietto. No blame could be attached to Bernd Leno, in between the posts for the Gunners in the first-half.
That will sound like a familiar tale from years past. Dominating the opening half an hour but falling to a sucker punch. We needed a response to lift the spirits again and it arrived just two minutes into the second-half. The lively Smith Rowe picked up the ball from Aubameyang in the inside left channel, weaved his way inside and unleashed a superb strike that never looked like missing the target.
He is just 17, so caution is urged when talking about his performance. He has real ability, for sure, but on the day that Jeff Reine-Adelaide departed for Angers let’s remember that raw talent in itself is no guarantee of future progress. However, he consistently produced the goods for The Arsenal and England youth teams last season and showed no lack of confidence or application yesterday.
Just the goalkeepers had been substituted at half-time but a raft of changes followed just after the hour mark threatening to disrupt a contest we were now very much dominating again. Smith Rowe, Aubameyang, and Lacazette made way for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Lucas Perez, and Eddie Nketiah.
The match limped to a conclusion and an honourable draw, but the International Champions Cup, whatever that is, demands a result and a penalty shoot-out ensued.
We were beaten as only Ainsley Maitland-Niles could convert from twelve yards with a Panenka. Disappointing in the moment while it was there were many positives to draw from the day.
As an attacking force we were bristling for most of the first hour. In midfield Matteo Guendouzi, despite being caught in possession a couple of times, performed with a degree of confidence and did not look out of place.
All in all this was a good first serious test for a team that needs to hit the ground running a fortnight on Sunday. Things ramp up a notch on Saturday when we face PSG. Another match to savour.
21 Responses to “Gunners Put On The Spot By Atleti”
Thanks Guvnor.
I’d be happy enough to see even one of Smith Rowe,
Osei-Tutu, Willock, AMN, Iwobi or Nketiah become a
regular in the next 2 seasons. Getting young players
through has become ridiculously difficult.
Reine-Adelaide is off to Angers as another who hasn’t
worked out but I wondered if we’d put in a buy-back
clause just in case – then I heard buy back clauses are
not legal in France.Does anyone know if that’s right?
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A nice pre-season limbering up exercise for the squad (and the Guvna) to shed a few summer cobwebs and loosen up the joints. Some of those young players look excellent prospects but as the Guvna observes, the trajectories of some of their predecessors (cf Jeff, JET and LJW) are cautionary tales for both those individuals and the hopes of fans.
Does anyone know whether the PremiumSport TV channel carrying any more of our pre-season games? Their moronic commentator and co-commentator (such slime balls) make me want to cancel the subscription I took out to watch yesterday’s game as soon as possible.
Premier Sport are doing all of the games we’re playing in this “competition”, if that’s who you mean
Sad to report I’m sure I saw somewhere that they have all of our pre-season games, sir. Maybe it was just Singapore, but that means you need to keep them for tomorrow at very least.
Edit. Cynic knows! PSG tomorrow and Chelsea on Wednesday night. Don’t bin them yet.
Thanks for the feedback.
The subscription I paid yesterday is supposed to give me one month viewing (not sure whether that is from the date of subscription (presumably) or calendar month (=piracy)) and is automatically renewed unless I cancel online 2 weeks before its expiry so I guess I am covered for those games.
However if it’s the same comedy duo commentating who make the Winters look like Einstein I’ll watch those games on mute.
Third kit unveiled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvUmb98EZps
SSY. Thanks for that home video. 😉
Does the kit need ironing?
No
but poor Jack will.
Andre Schurrle joins Fulham on loan from Dortmund. Schurrle is doing a curious kind of shuttle between west London and west Germany, but at 27 years old he could be an excellent signing for the Cottagers.
Schurrle doesn’t seem to have fulfilled the promise of his early career and seems to have a record of falling out of favour with managers in his second season at his clubs. But he brings some true attacking quality to Fulham.
Don’t call me Shirley…
Seems the club got caught by a Chinese sponsorship scam:
https://www.weekinchina.com/2018/07/the-great-soccer-scam/
Mesut captain against PSG
Scores the opening goal.
We’ve missed a hatful of chances in the first half.
Guendouzi having an excellent game.
Entertaining game. Some very good stuff. Only a friendly but 5-1 against PSG is in the “could be worse” category.
Good run out. Some slick passing movements with nice one touch play. We dealt with the deep press very well. Both Guendouzi and ESR built on Thursday’s performances. The squad also seems to be, if appearances are not deceptive, a happy and cohesive group.
Onward.
Didn’t see the match but am delighted to read the positive reports, especially Re Guendouzi and ESR. Didn’t appreciate Tuchel’s troll about us being a Europa League side. Better to reply with dignity when you’ve been stuffed and 5-1 is a stuffing. Interesting how many people in the media are suggesting we lost to Atletico. We drew 1-1 and those left on at the end took a few penalties
Interesting choice of Ozil as captain . Meanwhile Guendouzi might be pressing for one of the midfield places in the starting XI. Torreira starts training next week. Emery has started well.
I think the most we can tell from that game is that our kids are better than their kids. And that we can still create a hatful of chances and still be only 1-0 up at halftime.
ESR seems to have that great player’s instinct for moving to where he needs to be for the pass after next to find him in space. And he looks composed when he does have the ball. Hard to believe he only turned 18 today.
Bath is right that the team looks happy and cohesive. But we have fans to sort that…
I had few expectations of Guendouzi, TTG, and really saw him as a prospect for the future. I was very pleasantly surprised by the the range of his play today. He won the ball well, distributed the ball well and, throughout, looked supremely confident on the ball. It was only a friendly and PSG fielded their second eleven but, based upon today, Guendouzi looks like a better acquisition than I’d thought. I hope we’ll see him start ahead of Xhaka occasionally.
No names, no pack drill, but the laddie who plays left back in Monreal’s absence can’t defend for toffee.
Woohoo! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>