Arsenal stuttered to a 1-1 draw with Lens yesterday, in their opening pre-season game of the summer.
The Gunners came into the match missing a number of international stars, who were yet to return to full training, and started the match with a number of squad members, including Mathieu Debuchy, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, who only joined from yesterday’s opponents 12 months ago, and the returning Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The game started brightly, with Alex Iwobi breaking through to put in Chuba Akpom, who failed to finish the opportunity. Things turned however, and much of the first-half was equal until Calum Chambers mistake allowed Zoubir to race into the box, before teeing up Autret to tap-in.
Arsenal made a number of changes for the second-half however, bringing on Theo Walcott, Joel Campbell, Mohamed Elneny, Kieran Gibba and the Ox, and our side grew into the game.
Theo had a goal disallowed, before Serge Gnabry tidily put Oxlade-Chamberlain through, for him to lob the keeper and level proceedings with under 10 minutes of the game remaining.
Arsenal will not have come out of the game happy, but they will be content with the fact that they came through without any injuries, and with the knowledge that they were using a number of squad members, and still have plenty of key players to return before the campaign kicks off.
We will take on MLS All-Stars next Friday in America, against the likes of David Villa, Andrea Pirlo and Didier Drogba, and we will need to improve somewhat to come away with a win, especially given the American division is mid-season, and their players will be very much match-fit.
We will hopefully have a stronger squad to choose from for the upcoming encounter, which can be watched on Sky Sports, although we will still be without some of the players who went deep into Euro 2016.
Will you be tuning in to see our boys in action on Friday? Who will you be hoping to see play?