Well lovely Arsenal people, it’s another Community shield win for the Gunners and look, it’s a friendly game, but you see the reactions on Peps and Artetas faces and you realize how there’s a little more on the game, psychologically more than anything else.
I think the first 20 minutes were all City, but we started growing into the game and I think we were mostly the better team. We allowed them a few times to break us way too easily on the counter, and unfortunately Palmer scored a screamer from a string of sloppy plays on our end.
What I enjoyed though is that we didn’t give up. We kept our composure and kept pushing and managed to put the heat on City. In the end we deserved our equalizer, even though there was a stroke of luck to it.
I think there were a few good performances, but also some sloppiness. For example I enjoyed parts of Havertzs play, but one of the chances he missed was criminal. I like Timber on the ball, but defensively we were beaten on the wings a few times a little too easily. Partey had a few great transitions on the ball and a few sloppy possession losses.
Martinelli was lively, but for me Trossard was a game changer. He had some excellent touches on the touch line, before getting a little bit of fortune to beat the City goalkeeper. It was also nice to score the penalties.
I think the starting 11 was very indicative of what’s to come in the season. We played all 3 new signings. I expect a very similar line up to go against Forest, with Trossard being the one player who really knocks on the door.
Overall, I still think City are favorites for the title, and they won’t lose much sleep over this game, but Pep definitely doesn’t like losing. Also we were on like a 9 game losing streak against them, so it’s nice to know we can get a result against them and the players also eluded to that in their interviews.
All and all it’s a nice day, that should set a positive mood, now it’s time to see what we’ll do in the league.
Konstantin
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