Arsenal’s preseason preparations took a setback last night as the Gunners were beaten 2-0 by possible title rivals Man United in America in front of a packed 82,000 crowd. It seemed obvious that Arteta’s team was not as fully prepared as our opponents, but the boss is trying to integrate new players and new tactics ahead of the crucial season ahead.
At least his starters nearly all played a full hour before Arteta made a pile of changes, whereas Man United started the seccond half with a completely new team except for the goalkeeper, so it really was a game of two halves!
The game also showed that Erik Ten Hag is expecting his team to be very agressive, and they were a little too physical at times for a friendly game, and it was certainly a strenuous workout.
Of course Arteta was not a happy man, and he said after the game: “Having a tough match of this level in this context gives you a lot of information, and that’s always very positive. That information is obviously there are a lot of things we have to improve. How important the boxes are, that errors are part of football, you have to overcome them as well. And how painful it is to lose a game.
“Physically it’s been super, super demanding. Some players we want to expose a little bit more than they have done, because the way we want to build them, their physical state. Overall they had their moments when they were so efficient. We had ours, when we had more dominance and we certainly tried again in the second half, but the chances we had, we didn’t convert them, and they won the game.”
When asked what he learnt from the game, he replied: “That I hate to lose and we all hate to lose. That is the biggest lesson, that I don’t like losing and I don’t like the feeling that I have right now. So the boys have to train right now, in that space thinking how we are going to be better to win the next match.”
I am sure they will improve, but right now I’m feeling a little let down to be honest….
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