Arsenal’s Tour Of The U.S. Comes To An End

Arsenal have spent the last two weeks touring the United Srates and it’s hard to view the tour as anything other than a success as the they return home to play the Emirates Cup this weekend. They played four games against teams of different qualities and ended up with three wins and a draw although they did technically lose that game in a penalty shootout. We also got to see a good sprinkling of the younger players we have at the club and a few of those players have been added to the first team squad this season.

First up there was a fairly comfortable 3-0 win against Colorado Rapids as we put Stan Kroenke’s American team to the sword. Unai Emery went with a fairly young team and they didn’t let him down with Bukayo Saka and new boy Gabriel Martinelli among the goals. The games were coming thick and fast and it was only two days later when our opponents went up a lot in class.

The manager played a stronger team against Bayern Munich and they managed to squeeze out a narrow 2-1 victory. The goals came from an own goal and a late winner from another youngster as Eddie Nketiah got his name on the scoreboard. He’s one of the young players who has been added to the first team squad, but there’s still a possibility he could go out on loan. If he does I think it has to be a loan where we can recall him at any time in case either Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Alexandre Lacazette were to get injured.

We followed the win against Bayern with another relatively comfortable 3-0 win against Fiorentina and that man Nketiah bagged a brace with yet another youngster who has been added to the first team squad scoring too as Joe Willock grabbed himself a goal. Of all the youngsters added to the squad he might just be the one to have the biggest impact this season. 

Our last game came against Real Madrid and even though we drew 2-2 they won on penalties for whatever that’s worth. Lacazette and Aubameyang were the scorers, but we gave up a 2-0 lead as both teams ended the game with 10 men. In the grand scheme of things the results don’t matter too much, but it’s always nice to get a few wins under your belt.

So it’s back to home turf on Sunday afternoon as we take on Lyon in the Emirates Cup before heading off to play Angers and Barcelona in the final two warm up games ahead of the new season. There’s still plenty of work to be done in the transfer market before the window closes ahead of our first game away to Newcastle. In true Arsenal fashion we still haven’t signed anyone of real note even if there are high hopes for Martinelli, but he must surely be followed by others.

We do seem set to capture William Saliba from St. Etienne, but he will also be loaned back to them for this season too. Dani Ceballos also looks to be on his way to us on loan from Real Madrid for the season, but there is no real update on our other supposed targets. Our chances of signing Kieran Tierney and Wilfried Zaha seem to be fading while we might be in the market for Everton Soares if the Zaha deal fails to materialise.

As it stands our squad is wafer thin with genuinely experienced players and some of those young players added to the first team squad might get some very good chances to prove their worth this season. I do think we will add to the squad though and the sooner we do it the better.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.