The first of Arsenal’s pre-season tour of the USA was played at 2 am this morning (UK time) and it was a a simple promotional game against another one of Stan Kroenke’s franchises, the Colorado Rapids.
Kroenke put out a very young team, with the only senior players on show being Carl Jenkinson and Calum Chambers, although there were many pleased to see Saka, Nketiah and Medley looking to impress the boss ahead of the new season. And of course it was also a perfect chance for us all to see our exciting new signing Gabrial Martinelli.
Here Was our Starting XI:
Macey, Jenkinson, Chambers, Medley, Thompson, Olayinka, Burton, Martinelli, John-Jules, Saka, Nketiah.
It was a stroll for our young team and Saka put us ahead after just 13 minutes and James Olayinka doubled our leader just 15 minutes later to put us in a very comfortable position at half-time. The highlight of the second half was seeing our debutant Martinelli make it three on the hour mark.
Obviously we will see more of our regular senior players when we face Bayern Munich in just two days time, but we did see cameos from Lacazette, Ozil and Aubameyang in the last 15 minutes last night.
Watch all the action below to give you a taster for an interesting week ahead of us….
Enjoy!
Great to see our Nigerian youngsters Olayinka and Saka stepping up and scoring expecially Saka. He is a player I rate very highly and can’t wait to see more first team football of him.
@Kev
How true are the rumors of the €45m bid for Gremio winger Everton Soares? Looks like another media bs.
Saka is an English of Nigerian descent
He looked lively on the left side and I’m looking forward to his actions in the Bayern match
If he can utilize his weaker right foot to shoot more often, perhaps we don’t need another LW to push Iwobi and Martinelli
Looking forward to the Bayern game (no more 5-1’s ??) bet Gnabry would love to score against us!!
Sue, that is our lucky number. You should print it on your new arsenal Jersey
?
Even if Saka progresses to the level of Messi in the next 6 months, he’ll never play England. Demeaning the Nigerian national team with your rating isn’t going to get under anybody’s skin. With all the defensive midfielders England paraded this last season, who has a better outing and stats than Ndidi Wilfred? The team is passing through a rough transition stage, so bleeps are allowed to a larger extent. Auba is playing for Gabon, Nabil Keita plays for E.guinea, Mane plays for Senegal and so many good ballers from African teams. You write as if any player from your so called 3rd rate team is of no good. Racism has eaten deep into your cells, irredeemable.
OT: Marc Overmad wanys Ozil and replaced with Ziyech.
Eat that.
Or you know better than Marc? You know nothing about football, better you switch to swimming
He said he advised Arsenal to buy Ziyech and that it would be better for Arsenal to sell Ozil, not to Ajax off course, for many reasons.
But this is what is in his and ajax best interest. I think Ziyech will bottle it at Arsenal and Overmars just wants to cash in..
@ jo Gunz, he’s too dimwitted to understand that, just leave him to his folly…
A lot of fans who just can’t handle some home truths ,
The constant crying on here when Iwobi is bashed is laughable ,he’s sh1t get over it ,yes Nigeria have a few good young players but Iwobi is and will never be one of them .
This is JUSTARSENAL not justnigeria ….
I think Nigerians, and others, actually ‘react to comments that are so obviously INCORRECT’. Your disrespect for anyone who disagrees with your own views is pathetic but hey, bring it on. At least (for me anyway) you have great entertainment value.
Naaa…he is basically saying that most of the “3rd rate” countries have lots of players who are better than those in your so called “1st class” England national team.
Imo, England will struggle to make it to the semifinals of AFCON
What they may not be able to handle Dan kit, are just YOUR so-called home truths. YOUR truths are miles away from any sort of reality or logical reasoning and completely lack proof of any kind so some of us find them laughable.
In fact all you ever have, along with your fellow narc Phil, is just your OWN VIEW about something (in this case Iwobi) which you, and your fellow narc, believe is absolute gospel and written in stone.
Just because YOU believe in your spurious arguments doesn’t mean others do – and of course they are just as entitled to THEIR OWN VIEWS, much as you dislike it.
Exactly Phil, Saka would choose Nigeria because he’s Nigerian. His name is Bukayo Saka and not Phil Walker or some other Englishman names.
You’re hurt because Iwobi chose to represent his true country Nigeria instead of some make belief one.
I’m happy these new generation of Nigerian talents at Arsenal are blooding well with Iwobi. The likes of Saka and Amaechi has identified with their heritage and hopefully will represent the nation where they come from. I also hope Husdson Odoi returns to Ghana as well.
The era of the English and French fa poaching young African talents are coming to an end. FIFA should abolish this act.
Th14, the links to Everton Soares are very strong.
Kolasinac can’t even play a decent ball against an average American team, and yet some believe we don’t need a new Lb.That boy Saka is a real talent.
Are you all still surprised by Saka? The boy is a gem, and I expect him to get a few chances this season, except Emery wants to be an ársehole. It has already been confirmed that even inside the club Saka is the one considered the brightest among the upcoming youths even though he’s the youngest.
???
Hiya!! Sue baby, how far have you gone with your crushing in Zaha? Since the smoke is dead now? you were thinking of having Zaha and Kolasinac on the pitch to crush on?. Heartbroken, don’t worry, we are used to being mediocre so I think we’ll do the same things we do every season
Hi there, Eddie! How are you doing? Good, I hope!!
I’m gutted – that looks dead in the water ? they got my bloody hopes up again – just to dash them!!
One thing I noticed was.. Kolasinac was wearing long sleeves last night (in that heat!!) no triceps on display ☹
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another edition of PervWatch with your resident host:
Sueeeeeeeeeee!
(studio audience clap wildly on cue)
(Sue reads from autocue)
Thank you guys, we have a jam packed show for you tonight, we’ll be taking a closer look at the heavenly physiques of Kolasinac, Zaha and all the other fit footballers in the league hahaha….
Sue I’ve been great, thanks!! how about you? hope you’re doing well?
I saw Pat on here the other day, but haven’t anymore.
She’s a strong woman.
Haha! I really don’t know what you see I’m Kolasinac, Giroud was more handsome and sexy
I’m good thanks, Eddie.. yes I’ve only seen Pat on here a couple of times, bless her… I hope she’s alright.. yes she is very strong, Eddie ?
Ha, I’m saying nothing ?
Welbeck… PervWatch ??
(you forgot Aguero!) ?
Oops, maybe an apology is due – I do get a little carried away at times!
Top notch comment, though Welbeck, that really did make me laugh ??
Saka is a special talent. Grounded too
Eddie, on what basis do you denigrate Emery over Saka? Emery has given him a number of opportunities in his first season at the Club.
Does anyone expect these youngsters to be given 1st team time in the PL this season?
I hope they do but I have serious doubts this manager will give them a chance.
I hope so too Sip but as I have serious doubts about Emery in general I won’t hold my breath. I also thought that part of his pre-signing agreement was to bring in more youngsters – so that’s another fine idea gone down the pan.
Incidentally when we needed a right back last season Emery kept choosing Lichtsteiner, Jenkins or AMN over Jordi Osei-Tutu, a natural right back who was doing well for the academy at the time (now on loan in Germany). That decision di not go down too well with our Academy players, with one of them remarking that Emery’s decision “didn’t make sense to any of us”. Do you think they’d prefer Freddie? Me too!
Don’t worry Sip and GunnerJack, Emery only has this season to see out his contract and you will get your wish.
The revolving door of managers will then begin. For Kroenke and the Board it costs less to change managers, than to address the real problems of squad quality and depth at Arsenal.
OzzieG – Actually I’m not calling for UE’s head at the moment but I would like to see far better management from him in the upcoming season. He’s only had one season so I hope Freddie can chime in with some pertinent bits of wisdom now he’ll be alongside him on the bench and so can help guide him, and Arsenal, to better things.
Marteneli scored with his shoulder
Don’t get too excited
We can’t get into the top 4 with inexperienced youngsters
This is a summer friendly
They should get the opportunity to fight for a place and if they succeed then great but we need to sign better quality and experienced players if we want to finish top 4
If you Don’t care about top 4 or trophies then yes start the youngsters as well
I was more interested in Martinelli to be honest.
Now I am interested to see how Reiss Nelson and Smith Rowe perform with the senior players
Innit – If we can’t replace our ‘senior players’ with better ones then I like your idea of not worrying too much about a top 4 position this upcoming season and instead just blood the youngsters and let’s see what happens.
My reasoning is that they cannot possibly do any worse than such as Mustafi, Kolasinac, Elneny, Zhaka and Mikhi so why not? Further to the youngsters, I’m not over keen on Sokratis either so really hope that Holding, Chambers and Mavropanos can also step up to the plate.
Why can’t we get into the top 4 with youngsters?
We were a single point behind the spuds at end of last season…. If any of these youngsters actually manage to be an improvement on the senior players we used last season then I don’t see any reason why we can’t hit top 4.
If a few of the transfers we are apparently working on go through (KT, Soares, Ceballos) then I actually think we stand a good chance of it personally
Would be great if it happens MadH! Just don’t want to have too high an expectation for them at this stage and I certainly won’t be on their backs if they try things which don’t quite come off – it’s good practice and I think their skills WILL come off in the future.
You mean last season we finished 5th with youngsters and now we need older players to finish top 4??
Good bro see the youngsters on show, streamed the game live 4am east Africa time.hope I won’t wake up early on the bayern game