Arsenal defeated Barcelona 4-3 in a thrilling pre-season friendly at SoFi Stadium. The Gunners were without their headline summer arrival Declan Rice, but Leandro Trossard’s fine second-half brace and a late Fabio Vieira rocket ultimately settled a feisty and chaotic goal-laden affair.
Barcelona took the lead after seven minutes through Robert Lewandowski, but Arsenal were level just six minutes later through Bukayo Saka. The Catalans went ahead again through Raphinha’s free-kick, but Kai Havertz equalized before half-time.
Trossard put Arsenal ahead in the second half, and he doubled his tally with a fine finish. Barcelona hit the woodwork twice, but Vieira sealed the win with a stunning long-range goal.
The game was delayed by 36 minutes due to a technical issue, but it was worth the wait as it turned out to be a thrilling contest.
Enjoy!
Nice work out lads. Saw some strong tackles against us in this match and the previous. MA should begin introducing our main starters after 20mins, which is long enough to determine how aggressive our ‘friendly’ opponents are setting up to play.
We need to avoid major injury disasters that could derail our upcoming season.
Well done boys!
Vieira has a knack for spectacular goals. This one is even better than the one against Brentford!
Better game, not too worried about winning but we actually showed up which was nice. Good for Havertz to get a goal as well.
Ramsdale is a real concern I’m afraid.Great strike by Vieira which should give him confidence but once again Trossard showed what a good finisher he is and must have given Arteta food for thought as a viable option for the central striker position.
Totally agree with you. Trossard and Jesus should start matches and just continue to exchange positions throughout the matches.
That aside, I have nothing against Nketiah and I have always supported him. But isnt it strange that midfielders who are burdened with other jobs on the field, still knows how to find the net more regularly than him whose sole job is to place the ball in the net with consistent regularity??
With all the talent behind him, he should score atleast one goal every match! Doesnt matter if he get subbed on in 80mins or given a start, he should simply find a way. Be our own Ruud Van Nistelroy
“whose sole job is to place the ball in the net with consistent regularity”
That’s the assumption everybody makes, but it’s far from his sole responsibility. A pure goalscorer wouldn’t get into this team – see what happened with aubamayeng. I’d argue the other work our cf does is far more important in this particular side (again see how much worse we were with aubamayeng), and it’s a good thing that the goalscoring “burden” is not placed on one person. In fact, I think the midfielders and wingers are happy to be allowed to get into scoring positions.
I would agree with you if you were to say that our cf should be the best finisher, or at least one of the best finishers, in the side because they are likely to get the most opportunities. I’m not sure if that’s the case tbh.
Let the Nketiah BREATH …..Which of our strikers who has the “sole job to place the ball in the net” has been exactly prolific …even Jesus isn’t and Balogun too won’t …
The way we play ,we always have about 4-5 players who create attacking situations and score goals
That kind of focal striker thing doesn’t work with all the ways we try to play
Never turn your back when you’re in the wall !! Ramsdale not at fault in my mind
What a shot by Vieira. Please have a more productive season
This is the season that I am waiting for Vieira to come along. He has talent but looked so timid and intimidated last season.
I hope he draws inspiration from all his teammates.
I really have high high hope for this lad. But he needs to man up and take his chance..
😊🤞
A big bowl of spinach might help😊
Before Vieira scored I was thinking about the club selling him. It was a beautiful goal but am not sure we should keep him. His defensive contribution is like 10% of Ozil..on a good day.
He is not a starter as he struggles with the physical demands of the premier league but I think he needs to be given sub appearances to use his unquestioned talent against tired defences. It could be a way of building up his confidence.
Trossard is making a brilliant case to make the starting line up for the Charity Shield. Martinelli is superb but may work in our long term interest to give him an extended break and ease him into the season slowly.
The other real point of interest was seeing Timber at left back. Zinchenko will not make the start of the season so that place is up for grabs.
Trossard is a top player – seems to play well in whichever position we put him. I hope we use him more this season
If Vieira wasn’t hand pick by the gaffer he would be history by now, great goal but this isn’t the first time have seen this kind of stuff from the lad.
It was so pleasing to see Smith Rowe with a very assured performance.
Tossard maybe the most intelligent player we have.
Saliba is playing like a world class player, hope there is a one year option on his four year contract.
The gaffer need to find away to stop Havertz going missing, he will win the game for Arsenal if he’s ask to.
What a signing Timber is turning out to be apart from the initial blip, he’s looking like the real deal.
Arsenal need to decide on a penalty taker and stick to it.
You can why the gaffer is obsessed with Raphinha but am not sure he could start over Saka.
Turner need to start a few games to keep Ramsdale honest.
Tierney took to the game like a hungry baby in search of its mother’s breast, this is a player that wants to be at Arsenal.
Ramsdale at fault? It was a deflection for goodness sake.
Trossard looked very good at CF.