Mikel Arteta made two changes from the team that started against Betis for the Emirates Cup starting line-up against BVB, bringing Gabriel in for Hincapié and Ødegaard for Nwaneri. New signing Guimarães neither made the team nor the bench but did take the field wearing a home shirt to wave to the crowd from whom he received an enthusiastic welcome while Christos Tzolis made his Emirates debut. Encouragingly, given Kepa’s recent difficulties, David Raya was involved in the warm-up though not part of the match-day squad.
Dortmund kicked off in blistering sunshine before the rendition of ‘North London Forever’ was completed and Arsenal responded briskly with swift interplay. Gyökeres won an early corner and the keeper had to tip a deflection over the bar. In return, a raking BVB cross from the right was returned from the far side but was turned behind by a backtracking Tzolis – not his final piece of fine defending. That proved a warning because after only 6 minutes, a lovely through ball by Nmecha from the edge of our box was turned into the net by Inacio who had run off Mosquera, into the 6-yard box, far too easily. [0-1] Thereafter, BVB did look by far the sharper team and for ten minutes our good early start seemed a distant dream. Then a neat piece of interplay between Havertz and Tzolis set Ødegaard free running directly towards goal but he was tripped on the edge of the box. Gyökeres hammered the free kick high, wide and ugly.
Gyökeres was busily bustling around the Dortmund centre backs and running onto forward balls. A square pass to him from Havertz, darting behind the defence onto a lovely through ball from Ødegaard, was cut out by the BVB keeper. Havertz then ran onto a lofted ball down the left from Ødegaard and crossed, but Gyökeres’ header flew wide. As we entered the second quarter, [:0)] Dowman darted into the box past a defender and cut the ball back for Gyökeres who turned and shot but hit the bar. Arsenal had fought back into control of the game when, somewhat against the run of play, they fell further behind. Karetsas was allowed to run from his own half and hit an unsaveable left foot shot past Kepa into the far top corner. [0-2] Gabriel was slow to close down the Greek but this was perhaps also evidence that MLS as a single pivot doesn’t cover the width of the field quite as effectively as Rice does. Nwaneri replaced Ødegaard after 30 minutes, who had been looking lively on the ball and had been pulling most of the offensive strings, but the youngster found it hard to get involved in the remainder of the first half.
On 37 minutes, Dowman appeared to be tripped at the edge of the box near the bye line, but Gabriel’s powerful header from Tzolis’ excellent free kick flew over when he really should have hit the target. Tzolis then cut out a threatening ball at the edge of our box and broke forward, the ball ultimately reaching Gyökeres in the BVB box. The Swede fell after a buffeting from a big defender but was not rewarded with a penalty. However, he did get a free kick on the right flank a few minutes later from which Tzolis hit a beautiful cross, met by Havertz but the German’s header went straight to the keeper. Before half time, Gabriel was rather harshly booked for a foul after a heavy touch.
Half Time: Arsenal 0 – 2 BVB
Another disappointing half-time scoreline but, given that game-time is currently more important than the result, it was slightly assuaged by good performances from Tzolis, Ødegaard, Dowman, Gyökeres, Havertz and MLS. We definitely looked undercooked for a spell after the first goal but we looked to be recovering our creative edge when we conceded the second goal.
Meslier replaced Kepa at half-time. We started the second half with more energy and worked harder off the ball – did Mikel have a half-time word?.A lovely early move saw a sweet reverse pass from Dowman to White but his shot was deflected into the side netting. Some lovely work by Tzolis in our own half ended with him juggling the ball in the BVB area before cutting it back to Nwaneri on the penalty spot who fired it into the net on 53 minutes. [1-2] Finally, chants of “Arsenal, Arsenal” rang out from the previously somnolent crowd.
However only 3 minutes later, failure to clear a corner resulted in a stramash (props to Arthur Montford) in front of Meslier’s goal and a close range shot from Gadou landed in the net. [1-3]
On the hour, Salmon and Hincapié replaced Gabriel and Calafiori.
Dowman released Havertz in the box but his shot was blocked for a corner then Nwaneri’s fine shot from 18 yards forced the keeper into a good diving save low to his right. A Dowman shot from a similar range then gave the keeper another, somewhat easier, save. Gyökeres was then released by a nicely threaded pass by Dowman, but the Swede’s lack of pace allowed the BVB defence to recover and force him away from goal. At the three-quarter mark [:0)], Tzolis was tripped as he traversed the box and Gyökeres cooly stroked the ball low into the right corner of the goal from the spot. [2-3]
Salmon made crucial sliding challenges to prevent two BVB breakaways before the second hydration break on 75 minutes after which we had seven substitutions:
Martinelli for Tzolis, Jesùs for Gyökeres, Vieira for Dowman, Ibrahim for MLS, O’Neill for Havertz, Julienne for White and Ogunnaike for Mosquera with Hincapié moving to left centre-back.
This opportunity for youngsters and fringe players to make a case for more game-time was pretty much spurned. Vieira made a good pass into the box which Jesùs badly mis-controlled and then the Portuguese player had a mazy dribble towards the box but finished with a poor final pass. Arsenal’s youngsters did have territorial dominance and BVB didn’t threaten our goal while O’Neill stood out for his work rate but the game wound down uneventfully until the last minute of added time. Martinelli ran along the byeline after a neat pass by Jesùs. His shot was deflected into the goal by the Dortmund keeper, sadly only for the lineswoman to flag for offside. It looked a very borderline call from the far side of the pitch but there was no VAR to fall back on. And that was it.
Full Time: Arsenal 2 – 3 BVB
Strangely, even though Dortmund had won the game, a penalty shoot out was provided to end the entertainment. Meslier saved one of the five penalties he faced. Jesùs, Vieira, Hincapié, Martinelli and Nwaneri all scored their penalties to win the shoot-out 5-4.
That was clearly not the result we wanted, but the Arsenal played better than they had done in Dublin and several key players provided strong performances before they were subbed. Tzolis gave an excellent performance on his Emirates debut, Dowman showed touches of genius and both Gyökeres and Ødegaard look ready for action. In addition to those who had shone in the first half, Nwaneri was more involved in the second half and he took his goal well while Salmon again looked very composed at centre back.
At the end of the day, this match was primarily about getting minutes into legs and developing match sharpness. It’s an ugly trophy anyway! We shall seek silverware elsewhere this season.
At the mention of Arthur Montford’s name my mind immediately recalls “Up go the Heads” which is a difficult phrase to work into a match report. Full marks for “Stramash”, not a word I meet often in my morning Corn Flakes and one I haven’t heard since Arthur hung up his mic.
Your speedy report is very much on the money regarding events, consequences and outcomes. Calafiori will have to raise his game to start ahead of either Hincapie or Gabriel on the left side of our defence I’d say. But these are early days and time in legs, and this time around without injury, is all that really matters.
I thought Nwaneri looked bright. I hope he isn’t sold.
A fine report, Bath, to match the quality of your preview. We saw the same game. I would, though, add Nwaneri’s name to those to be mentioned in dispatches. I thought this was his best game of the preseason by far.
We are not used any more to seeing us conceding goals in matches in the number that we have this preseason. As I mentioned in the previous drinks, given our conversion rate is not the highest, we depend on defensive solidity to keep the game at 0-0 until we eventually do put a chance away and go ahead. Work to be done on that front.
Stramash is a world favoured by that lawyer in Texas who doubles as a satirical football commentator.
Incidentally, apparently that was Sian Massey-Ellis’s last game as a match official (she is taking up a job at the FA). There is some inevitable PGMOL karma to the fact that her final action was to deny Arsenal a goal.
Excellent detail Bath on a game that was a workout and which they approached with a team much closer to full strength than we did
I only watched the last quarter . I am driven mad watching on You Tube by the stream of idiots commenting as the game progresses .
My observations even given how little I saw was that Tzolis is very useful and when the youngsters came on I like the look of Ibrahim and O’Neill . They are worth a loan this season with a view to putting them into the squad on their return
As for Sian Massey I saw her first game . She ruled out a Fulham equaliser at Craven Cottage so I can forgive her for today’s decision.
According to the text drivel on You Tube Arteta has to go . Can you believe anyone is stupid enough to text that ?
Thanks Bath, a good and rapid report. I enjoyed Tzolis and thought he was excellent. Amy Lawrence is calling him the Greek Brian Marwood. I’ve also seen him compared to Anders Limpar and Tommy Rosicky. I agree on Nwaneri and thought the Captain looked sharp.
I was intensely irritated when the Dortmund guy picked the ball up ten yards into his own half and ran fully forty yards unchallenged to the edge of our area, picked his spot and scored. They can pack that in quick smart. Havertz in midfield does not work.
Still, on we go. The YouTube coverage was good and will be repeated on Wednesday for the friendly against Cesc’s Como. Everybody is back and training tomorrow according to Arteta except Saliba who is still in total rest mode.
TTG you know you don’t have to have the text commentary on You Tube don’t you? You can just watch the match in full screen. I thought Adrian Clarke’s co commentary was rather good.
TTG@3: You can close the comments window with a click.
C100@5: Agree on Adrian Clarke’s commentary.
Just noticed that in my @4 Anders Limpar has morphed into Anderson. Damn you auto correct! Sorry Super Swede!
C100 @7, sorted.
Thanks for the tip chaps. I shall certainly not keep the comments open again . Ye Gods the morons that pop up during the game
Thanks Bath, comprehensive run through and a pre-season game that
I actually watched bits of thanks to C100’s very helpful heads-up on the You
Tube coverage.
Agree with your report though I’d share the blame around fairly liberally
for the second goal. Fair play to the lad who knocked it home well but
wtf gents?
Cala played like a man who’d enjoyed a long summer holiday.
I liked Ethan’s performance too and Tzolis.
No idea if he will make it at The Arsenal level but I like Salmon as a player a lot, very calm but will get in there and fight if need be.
Not sure if we’ve posted this link here before? But anyway it
was nice to see Bertie Mee again at the beginning
And Dennis Hill-Wood about 25 minutes in…..
And at 38minutes we get robbed by a dodgy
goal away at Newcastle, no change there then
Harsh words were said in the tunnel
OM@12: Thanks for the link. A step back into a different time, and not just because of the pitches. Hill-Wood said he was getting 200-300 letters a week from disgruntled Gooners when the team was doing badly. How would he have coped with social media?
Attention Predictathon players!
The first drop, as the young people say, for the 2026-27 Predictathon will be appearing in your mailboxes over the next 24 hours or so.
Time to dust down your prognostication hats.
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moooooooooooooooo
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Just a wee memorial moo to you.Thought it would give you a smile,it certainly does us.
It certainly did, Ciarán. Thanks for the memory. Sláinte!
This piece by Lewis Ambrose is an excellent analysis of Gabriel Martinelli’s recent output and the reasons for last season’s poor goal scoring in the PL. Please don’t sell him for someone no better!
https://likeanewsletter.substack.com/p/gabriel-martinelli-arsenal-and-the
OM@12
Just had a chance to watch the video. Loved it- pure nostalgia and even loved the dodgy subtitles. Birdie Me indeed. And could they do it on a cold night in Bradford?
Talking of nostalgia, what happened to a Saturday 3.00pm kick off?
Jumpers for goalposts?
Thanks for posting.
UTA.
Ciarán @18: A glass raised in memory of the much-missed cba.
bath@20: Thanks for that link. The analysis makes some interesting points. My main takeaway is that Martinelli thrives in games where he has the space to get in behind opposition defences and is played into those spaces. Those would be European games and those against the top PL sides who don’t feel the need to drop into a low block, especially at home. That seems to be how Arteta used him last season. He was a horse for a course. No argument from me that he shouldn’t be sold unless we get a better and more versatile replacement. He may not be happy with a limited role, but that is a horse of a different colour (I’ll get my coat…)
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