This is not how The Emirates Cup is supposed to go down…
Arsenal ramped up their pre-season preparations earlier today with the (often) annual Emirates Cup game being played out against Borussia Dortmund, which ultimately ended in Arsenal losing the match 3-2 and seeing another team lift what is essentially our trophy at The Emirates.
Not great, but there was genuinely some reasons to be positive after the game, especially in comparison to the absolutely slog that was the Real Betis game a few days earlier.
How the game played out
As with the Real Betis game, we started reasonably well and nearly went ahead early on, only for the keeper to make an instinctive save from a scrambled corner. Unfortunately, just like against Betis, we quickly found ourselves 2-0 behind, with Dortmund going ahead through a simple slipped pass into our right channel, before curling a lovely finish into the top corner from the left hand side, following a counter attack after Riccardo Calafiori had been caught in possession.
I don’t think the scoreline was particularly reflective of what I’d seen in the first half an hour, as we had threatened on a few occasions, particularly from set pieces and had Dortmund camped in their own half for large periods however, that’s football sometimes and that’s how the game stayed until the break.
In the second half, we again enjoyed large spells of possession, but this time we appeared a bit more threatening and this improvement soon bore fruit as Ethan Nwaneri swept home our first goal of the game to halve the deficit from just outside the 6 yard box, from a lovely cut back from Christos Tzolis. The fact that our goal came from a combination between Tzolis and Nwaneri was no coincidence, as the two of them were easily our best players out there, especially after Martin Odegaard’s departure, so it was nice to see them both get a moment that their endeavours had deserved.
The goal lifted The Emirates faithful and you felt that at this point Arsenal would go on to win the game, or at least get the next goal, but for the second pre-season game in a row, we conceded a 3rd goal and we soon back to where we had started. This goal came from a corner and was entirely preventable, even though it was a bit fortunate for the German side, the way the ball fell so invitingly for Gadou to stab home.
Arsenal did get another goal back from the penalty spot, with Viktor Gyokeres sliding home our second following a foul on Christos Tzlos, making it two goal involvements (sort of) for the Greek on his Emirates debut.
Despite scoring what appeared to be a completely legitimate goal in stoppage time through Gabriel Martinelli that was inexplicably called offside, that was as good as it got for us and we had to sit back and watch Borussia Dortmund pick up The Emirates Cup.
There was a meaningless penalty shoot out at the end of the match, in which Arsenal converted all 5 penalties and Illan Meslier proving to be the hero of the piece with a fine save from Dortmund’s fourth attempt, so that at least gave us a tiny bit of satisfaction at the end. However, at the end of the day, this was a second defeat in a week for Mikel Arteta’s men and there was more than a few matters of concern on show throughout proceedings. Mikel has got some work to do…
There was positives though!
There really were some positive signs though. The performance itself, wasn’t terrible. It was really just a bit lax at times, especially defensively, where there really are some concerns. We dominated the ball well for large parts, kept Dortmund pinned in and were pretty much punished with every attack that they had, which you can say is bad luck, but the goals really were quite soft, so I’m not sure if I’m buying that.
Tzolis arrives…
In terms of players, I was really impressed with Christos Tzolis, our new left winger. After the Real Betis game I was a bit concerned. The two things that I worry about Tzolis is that he’s just lacking that half a yard of pace that will allow him to get away from his full back and that he needs too much to get a shot off, as he is used to a bit more time in the Belgian League. Against Betis, I saw instances of both of these things however, I probably should caveat that he was up against one of the fastest players ever to play for Arsenal in Hector Bellerin, so maybe I was being a bit harsh!
Against Dortmund though, he looked really sharp. His work rate is absolutely phenomenal and his set piece delivery (and overall crossing to be fair) is also very, very good. It’s not hard to see why Mikel Arteta likes him so much! He was also very good in tight spaces and put in a lovely cutback for Ethan Nwaneri to sweep home. It sounds harsh, but it was a relatively simple pass, but one that I just can’t imagine Martinelli getting right. Tzolis got his head up nice and early, gave himself half a yard of space and just picked out Nwaneri like it was nothing and got us back into the game. Our new Greek forward then went on to win the penalty for our second goal, so in terms of effecting the game, I don’t think you could ask for much more.
Nwaneri makes a statement
I also thought Ethan Nwaneri was really good as well. Looked ten times the player that we saw against Real Betis. Tackled back smartly a few times, to stop dangerous Dortmund attacks, which I’m not used to seeing from him and was in the right place at the right time to score our first goal and even went close to adding a second from distance. I think the setup of the midfield in these pre-season games so far has been disjointed to say the least, largely due to the players we’ve been missing, and I think both Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly have suffered as a result. It was therefore nice to see Nwaneri really shine and to maybe give Mikel Arteta some food to thought with regards to keeping him around after 1st September.
The rest…
Other bright spots include Martin Odegaard looking like the one that played during the World Cup during his 30 minutes on the pitch – very encouraging! Marli Salmon also looked very good, especially during his duels with the physical imposing Serhou Guirassy and the academy players once again looked very assured during their brief cameos, which is always nice to see. Oh, quick note on Max Dowman, was largely quiet for me, but he did have one run where he laid on a really presentable chance for Viktor Gyokeres that oozed quality – still needs to learn to stay on his feet though! Maybe Max and Viktor can take a yoga class together, to try and improve their balance!!
Games coming thick and fast now
Up next for Arsenal is another home game, this time against Como, which should be another interesting test. Bruno Guimaraes should hopefully get at least the ’30 minute first game back’ run out that most players have enjoyed, so I’m expecting a massive improvement to the balance of that midfield and hopefully a win!
I had it in my head that the Arsenal players who were at the World Cup until the final weekend would be back on 17th August, but apparently they are all back today, which I’m absolutely ecstatic about! Hopefully some of them can play a small part against Como and then even more against Manchester City in the Community Shield at the weekend. It’s all hotting up nicely now!!
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