{"id":14144,"date":"2026-08-13T09:22:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14144"},"modified":"2026-08-15T09:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T08:39:29","slug":"much-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14144","title":{"rendered":"Much Better"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"1g-cyKsJRSRedWcU19LikA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2290199023\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'1g-cyKsJRSRedWcU19LikA',sig:'SSXzq3qmSgCBH-Ex9LXEQpqjkmhtKaoGkPzggqoWFB8=',w:'594px',h:'424px',items:'2290199023',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, to the last of the pre-season friendlies. The Arsenal team contained a few surprises, and a few still, thankfully, missing, e.g. Zubimendi, Rice and Saka. The starting team was:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Kepa<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Julienne    Gabriel    Salmon    Hincapie<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Nwaneri    MLS    Eze<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Dowman    Jesus    Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We had our first sight of goal in only the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> minute, with Eze hitting a free kick from the left-hand side of the box 25 yards out a couple of feet over the bar.&nbsp; Lots of power, just needed a bit more direction. The pattern of sustained pressure and high press from Arsenal continued and in the 6<sup>th<\/sup> minute we ought to have had a goal, when a well delivered Eze corner from the left-hand side found Gabriel unmarked in the box. Unfortunately his header struck the unfortunate Julienne on the line and went over.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the resulting goal kick we really ought to have opened the scoring. A poor short pass from the goalkeeper into a Como player was excellently intercepted on the stretch by Nwaneri. The resulting loose ball went directly forward to Eze who was still in an offside position. That said, Eze\u2019s touch was poor and resulted in his needing to pass the ball outside him to Jesus who managed to hit the post rather than score.&nbsp; Offside was called, which looked correct, but perhaps a sign of understandable pre-season rust. The press-trap was excellent, that being said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We kept up the pressure with Julienne providing some excellent cover and attacking support down the right.&nbsp; Nwaneri continued to do some nice things in the box and managed to force a corner on 12 with a clever backheel after holding possession well led to a blocked shot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pressure was kept on. However Como had the next chance on 21 when Kepa was forced to make a save low towards the left-hand post in front of the North Bank. It was a smart save, but one he ought to make.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The breakthrough came on 33 when another good piece of pressing, this time from Martinelli, resulted in the Como keeper once again attempting to play out from the back unconvincingly, knocking the ball straight out to Lewis-Skelly, whose knock forward resulted in a one-two with Martinelli. This left MLS with the simple task of sidefooting into the bottom right of the goal in front of the Clock End.&nbsp; MLS displayed his pleasure to the whole ground.&nbsp; I do hope there is nothing behind the rumours being put about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The goal was the cue for the first round of subs, with Eze and Jesus making way for Vieira and Gyokeres.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dowman and MLS were pretty much in charge of the game at this point and anther smart piece of play saw MLS freed up for a shot from 25 yards, this time way over.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just on half time, Como equalised when a good piece of skill in the right-hand side of the box saw Dowman and Julienne made to look foolish, with the Como winger Baturina nipping between the two and hammering home at Kepa\u2019s near post.&nbsp; He made and took it very well, but 1-1 at half time did not reflect the run of play. The reaction from the Arsenal defenders, Gabriel and Salmon particularly, was most pleasing to see. They were not impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Half-time saw more subs with Kepa, Gabriel, Nwaneri and Dowman replaced by Raya (Alleluia), Mosquera, Odegaard and new boy, and former boo-boy, Guimaraes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pattern resumed, with Arsenal on top, dominating with their press and finding it fairly easy to break through an attempted counter-press from Como. Gyokeres held up the ball impressively on a number of occasions. Odegaard buzzed around the pitch as he did before his injury a couple of years ago and was generally a pleasure to behold.&nbsp; On 53, the aforementioned Odegaard worked his magic on the right-hand side of the box before putting Vieira in with a cute pass inside the full back.&nbsp; Vieira, who yet again was about as convincing as an argument that the sun orbits the earth, limply padded his shot straight at the keeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More subs, with the impressive Julienne, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly, Martinelli, Gyokeres and the invisible man Vieira replaced by Ben White, Calafiori, Merino, Tzolis, Havertz and Madueke respectively on 62.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On 70 a bobbling ball in the Como box fell for Madueke on the edge and his hammered shot was well saved by the Como keeper. The resulting corner from Madueke was dealt with unconvincingly by Como and another corner resulted, this time from the opposite side. Tzolis took it and floated it in excellently, almost resulting in a goal direct. The keeper made a curious flap and kept it out. It appears that we have another couple of decent corner takers in addition to Rice and Saka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal were very much on top, and chaos continued to reign in the Como defence from corners. That said, the replacement Como winger gave Ben White a few hairy moments and required a decent save from Raya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All in all, a better turn out than the last couple of friendlies, with some genuine progress in terms of style of play. Highlights for me were Julienne, Salmon and MLS, who all looked very comfortable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One final point. This is just pre-season and therefore quite possibly out of any meaningful context, but I\u2019m not quite sure what all the fuss is about regarding Fabregas as a manager.&nbsp; They were a shambles at the back.&nbsp; My impression was that he must employ an excellent PR team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images And so, to the last of the pre-season friendlies. The Arsenal team contained a few surprises, and a few still, thankfully, missing, e.g. Zubimendi, Rice and Saka. The starting team was: Kepa Julienne Gabriel Salmon Hincapie Nwaneri MLS Eze Dowman Jesus Martinelli We had our first sight of goal in only [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14144"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14162,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14144\/revisions\/14162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}