Morning all.
The final pre-season fixture takes place today at 12.30 UK time. The only way to view Arsenal v Sevilla is on Arsenal.com or the official app, priced at just £5.99. Just £5.99 say Arsenal but whatever happened to the Emirates Cup being televised?
Some good news as Fabio Vieira, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Emile Smith-Rowe and Kieran Tierney were all training yesterday. Lucas Torreira was out there too, as were Hector Bellerin, Pablo Mari, Reiss Nelson and Ainsley Maitland-Niles but I didn’t spot Bernd Leno in the photos.
When you think about Sevilla, do you think of Jose Antonio Reyes? It’s hard to believe that’s it’s been three years since his fatal traffic accident. I just wish he could have loved England as much as Arsenal fans loved him. Such a talented young footballer. Today is all about him. Nice.
Reyes is not the only footballer to have played for both Arsenal and Sevilla as Julio Baptista, Samir Nasri, Sebastien Squillaci have too. Two disasters and one who upped and left when the riches of Man City were on offer. Still, at least Arsenal saved money by not having to buy extra large shorts after he left. 😆
I’m not sure what to expect from Mikel Arteta today because on one hand, it must be tempting to play a starting eleven close to the one which might face Crystal Palace on Friday but on the other hand, the thought of anyone picking up an injury is scary. Especially if that player happened to be Thomas Partey. But, a manager cannot think like that I guess otherwise there would no pre-season and I can’t see either team going into challenges at full throttle.
Sevilla – Not since the 1945/46 season have they won a La Liga title but they’ve been hugely successful in cup competitions, winning five Copa del Reys, a Spanish Super Cup and a record six Europa League titles, all coming between 2006 and 2020. (Three EL Cups under Unai Emery)
Arsenal – The club have announced that Martin Odegaard has been named our new men’s first-team captain. No great surprise really as he’s already captain of his country and one of very few options. Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey might have been in with a chance but considering both are yet to get through a full season without injury, I guess there would be little point in appointing in either.
Enjoy the game today if you’re going and if not, it’s either pay £5.99 or miss it…
See you in the comments.
Up till now Jesus has scored 2 and Saka scored 2 to make it 4-0 up.
Just half an hour gone.
Saka scored first with a penalty in which he was fouled.
Then Jesus at the double with two in just a couple of minutes
Saka made it 4-0 intercepting a Bono pass.
At this rate we will murder them…..I hope we ease up and score a hatful against Palace.
Good Afternoon Rico and all. Nice post but if we win on Friday I can assure you that Saturday’s post will be awesome.
Afternoon Devil. Just seen we’re 4 up. Not watching though.
Saliba looks very composed in today’s game. When Zinchenko goes up on the flank we switch to three at the back since White stays back and does not venture much forward giving the defence a more stable look. Sevilla cannot cope with Arsenal’s energy.
We have been missing such an attitude a lot in the past few years….more like the last decade.
Indeed, 4 goals in 9 minutes.
Martinelli’s cross was a beauty to assist Jesus’ second coming, and so was Odegaards pass to Saka before he was fouled in the box.
Pretty enjoyable game, but the intensity have been dropped a little in the last 10 minutes.
We win 6-0 with Jesus hattrick, Saka 2 and Nketiah 2. Martinelli got 2 assists.
It is Arsenal 6 – Sevilla 0 at full time.
Jesus scored his hattrick in the 77th minute, and Eddie made it 6 coming from the bench finishing a swift counterattack. Xhaka nutmegged his opponent before finding Martinelli – who was poaching the halfway line alone – but instead of finishing it with 1 ot 1 with the goalkeeper he selflessly assisted Nketiah for a simple tap-in to the open net.
Really nice game with convincing displays. The only criticism – if I were to find a single aspect – that the substitutions could have gone a bit sooner (Lokonga and Nelson receiving 1 minute each, while Soares, Elneny, Pepe and Nketiah got 11).
Let’s pick up the quality from here on Friday.
The substitutions were all late on top of that with 4-0 in addition to a friendly game. The last two players have not been on the field for 1 minute. There were more substitutions that could have been made, including the goalkeeper. The overall image was very positive.
Excellent win and some lovely play.
Great result. A bit more confidence ahead of the Palace game.
Oops…. meant to write Nketiah 1
Afternoon Rico and all
nice win to finish the practice matches off,
However bit surprised that Arteta took the chance on Jesus considering the season is less than a week away.
while it Sounds like Saliba had a good match which is good for him.
Hi Geoff, need them to work together. I thought it’d be either all second string or our strongest. I guess we got the latter.
Looking forward to Friday now.
Tavares has joined Marseille on a season long loan.
Six goals, a clean sheet and another trophy. Just another day at the office. 😉
New post up now