Morning folks and welcome to Monday. I had family over and coupled that with a bit of a two-day hangover, so didn’t blog this weekend, but thankfully not a lot really happened in the Arsenal world, as the players headed back to the UK and today they kick off the proper pre season prep ahead of that game in two week’s against United.

It’s funny, you know, because United were such a shambles last season that everyone thinks that the fact we have them up first in two weeks is a good start for us. I can’t quite abide that way of thinking because the one thing you’d say about the start of a new season is that every team starts with a clean slate and confidence / hope. If Man United are going to be that terrible like they were last season (which I am sceptical about if I am honest) then they will at least need half-a-dozen games in which to prove to the footballing world that they are terrible. That means that they will go into the game with us full of confidence, whereas I’d probably prefer to play them after ten games or so.

And so with this in mind, I’ve started to look at how our initial rivals for the opening few week’s of the season are getting on, which is weird in itself if I am honest. I am not putting too much stock (or at least I haven’t so far) in Arsenal’s pre season games, yet I find myself looking at United’s results to see what the signs are pointing us towards? Has AMorim been able to get concentrated time on the training pitch and they look a different outfit? Or are United still showing the same frailties?

I think it’s a bit of both. After they beat Bournemouth 4-1 last Thursday I think I saw Amorim proclaim that it is a ‘different’ United that he saw out there on the pitch. That score line suggested so. They’d already outplayed a West Ham side that was pretty much full strength a few days beforehand 2-1 and my timeline had a few posts yesterday about how they were leading against Everton. I didn’t bother following that game last night but the initial noises from a couple of the accounts I follow suggested to me that they were looking like a very different proposition.

But I had a look at their pre season overall and they’d drawn 0-0 against Leeds first up, they’d beaten a Hong Kong XI with a somewhat unrecognisable side, then last night they ended up drawing against Everton 2-2 in the end. So perhaps their same frailties exist.

In the same vein, however, I can’t proclaim that their pre season means something whilst ours doesn’t. But what I think most of us want to see from the next two matches on home soil against Spanish opposition, is that some of the problems from the Asia tour – kinks, if you will – are being ironed out. I suspect we will look better than that game against The Scum. The pitch will be better and more like a Premier League pitch, the weather will be more akin to what the players will experience when we kick off against United, plus the new players will have bedded in more. Will that include Eze? I am doubtful at this stage. It feels like the interest that is there is predicated on our squad being trimmed somewhat and so I think most of us probably acknowledge that until the dominoes of player exits start to fall, we’re probably not going to see the Palace man in our colours.

I’m kind of ok with that though. I think a lot is being made of our misfunctioning left hand side, but Eze isn’t the solve for that. of his 303 matches he’s played in all competitions so far, according to TransferMarkt he’s only had 33 appearances at left wing. Perhaps Madueke can do that, but he too has only made 12 appearances at left wing in his 217 games in all comps. So that side will continue to remain a mystery I think. But what I did read on social media the other day (apologies but I can’t find who said it now) is that the Martinelli in 2022/23 had some specific conditions that allowed him to flourish:

  • Zinchenko moving in field which occupied opponents and opened up space
  • Gabriel Jesus naturally drifting over to create connections
  • Granit Xhaka operating in a specific way as a left eight which enabled Martinelli to get more space.

If Eze comes in and plays left eight, or if Rice gravitates more to that side this season, coupled with somebody like Gyokeres who has been naturally left-side focused for Sporting, we may yet see a better version of Martinelli that could see him rekindle his old form. Sure, so far this pre season neither he nor Trossard appear to have clicked, but we haven’t really started to put together all of the pieces from our summer business yet. Gyokeres only had around 15 minutes against a low block Tottenham last week, for example. So there’s plenty more to be worked on and plenty more to see in these next two games I think.

I mentioned Man United and their indifferent pre season like ours, but what is interesting is the difference between ours/United’s and Liverpool’s. We’ve gone straight in to playing Premier League teams but Liverpool have taken a different path, playing Preston, then Stoke, then AC Milan on tour followed by Yokohama FM on Wednesday. They have the same opponent as us coming up – Athletic Club Bilbao at home, followed by Palace in Community Shield, so it will be interesting to see how their preparation has gone. The one ‘big’ game – if you can call it that – was against AC Milan in which they did look a little rusty at the back, but again I can hardly say with one hand that it is irrelevant, but then claim some semblance of significance with a rival. But I do think like us, it will be interesting to see how they are shaping up in the next couple of matches.

Right, I’ll leave it there for today. Catch you all tomorrow.