That’s better!

After two sketchy performances against Betis and Dortmund the Premier League Champions peeped over the parapet and into No Man’s Land before going over the top and putting on a much improved defensive performance yesterday, something we all really needed to see to settle the nerves.

The midfield was decent without rocking our world although we know it’ll improve, but the attack, oh dear some of the finishing left a lot to be desired but hopefully we’ll see some sharpness return as the month wears on towards the transfer deadline of Sept 1st.

Did Marli Salmon do enough to convince Arteta to maybe hold off on signing another defender? He has suddenly grown both physically and mentally and the fact that Mikel gave him the most minutes of any player shows that maybe the manager is reassessing his options. If only Timber was fit then the need to acquire another expensive short-term option à la defence, might not be considered after all.

Kepa again started the game with Theo Julienne at right-back alongside Marli who partnered Big Gabby with Hincapie at left-back. In midfield Myles was excellent playing the 6 and holding in front of Marli and Gab. Eze made his first appearance in pre-season alongside Ethan and did some good stuff but up front Jesus looked a tad pedestrian with Martinelli and Dowman giving him support.

After some very early sparring Eze took and fired a free-kick narrowly over the bar, our direct free kicks are a bit of an embarrassment at times, a stark comparison to our corners which in this match showed some of their traditional threat. Work really needs to be done on our free kicks with maybe some new faces taking them.

After a couple of interesting corners, a defensive muddle by Como saw Eze one-on-one with the goalkeeper, Eze was maybe too close to his opponent and simply slipped a neat pass out to Jesus who wastefully fired wide, almost as if his mind was elsewhere. Arsenal probably should have been 2-0 up after only 8 minutes but things weren’t clicking up front. Nwaneri was doing some good work showing that maybe the Marseilles experience had done him some good.

With 20 minutes gone Como were showing that they were quite a capable team who on the break were quite dangerous, as we would later discover. Despite some promising opportunities the Como goalkeeper was relatively untroubled but there was definitely an improvement in the Gunners fitness. Kepa made a fine low save prior to the hydration break and on 33 Arteta took off Jesus and Eze for Gyokeres and Vieira. Julienne and Salmon had done really well prior to the drinks break but loose control was letting us down in the attacking third.

Almost immediately after drinks Myles Lewis Skelly fired Arsenal ahead after taking advantage of a blunder by the Como goalkeeper. The entire stadium rose to our Hale Ender as Myles celebrated by holding up his hands in a heart sign to all sides of the ground. I will be seriously disappointed if the club do sell Myles, to me there is no benefit and it could do serious damage to the relationship with the fans, so think on Arsenal..!

Around 42 minutes Martinelli and Dowman did some great approach work to set up Myles whose drive flew narrowly over the bar. A minute later Como broke and their attacker swerved in between Dowman and Julienne before burying his shot past the static Kepa who in general leaves me without any confidence in him as a goalkeeper. To me Meslier is already better and I hope that Arteta isn’t going to drop a few negative results before he sees what is staring him in the face…

1-1 at half-time and four substitutions, Raya thankfully replaced Kepa, Mosquera for Gabriel, Odegaard for Nwaneri and Bruno for Dowman were the other changes. On 53 Odegaard and Hincapie set up Fabio Vieira but he failed to finish and from the resulting corner Mosquera got in a good header but it was saved. It was an interesting encounter but by now it had become a fitness exercise whilst avoiding injuries. On the hour Arteta made some more changes, White for Julienne, Calafiori for Hincapie, Merino for Myles, Havertz for Vieira, Madueke for Gyokeres and Tzolis for Martinelli.

On 70 Madueke took one of his trademark in-swinging corners which was cleared up into the air and after some head tennis the ball ran to Noni who fired in a rasping shot which was saved. Tzolis took an in swinger from the other side and the goalkeeper almost fumbled it into the net, a very odd piece of goalkeeping. That was pretty much that, Ogunnaike replaced the impressive Salmon on 87 minutes and we were into another penalty shoot-out.

Two excellent Raya saves and Madueke hitting the post saw the Gunners home 4-3, Bruno and Tzolis took very impressive penalties.

And so it’s off to the Millennium Stadium next, or whatever they call it in Cardiff, I’ve got some fond memories of Cardiff but I won’t be slapping it up the M4 this year.

My focus is still on the other Sky Blues, Coventry City…

By Kev.