Arsenal News Gooner News

Confirmed Arsenal team for first pre-season match of 2021-22 with a number of first-team regulars in action

The Arsenal team is out for today’s friendly match with Hibernian up in Scotland, with a number of regular faces in action.

One notable absentee from today’s line-up is summer signing Nuno Tavares, who doesn’t even make the bench, but a number of first-team stars will be back in action today.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will lead the line as captain, with the team appearing to be set out in the usual 4-2-3-1 formation.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles looks to have been given his preferred midfield role alongside Mo Elneny, while many will be keen to see Reiss Nelson return to the team between the likes of PEA and Willian on the wings, with Eddie Nketiah getting the nod at centre-forward ahead of both Folarin Balogun and Alexandre Lacazette.

The two youngsters who we will be closely observing are Arthur Okonkwo, who recently signed a new deal as well as being promoted to the first-team squad permanently, and central defender Harry Clarke, who enjoyed a first-team role on loan with Oldham last term.

Sead Kolasinac, Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares also begin today’s action with what has to be considered an extremely strong line-up for our first pre-season clash, and I can’t help but expect us to win this convincingly.

Will this team have way too much fire-power for Hibernian?

Patrick

Posted by

Tags Hibernian pre-season

66 Comments

  2. And the point of selecting Kolasinac AMN Nketiah Willian, I hope, is to just put them in the shop window. GET RID!
    Ballogun in, Arteta out

  3. What has author okonkwo ever done to start ahead of runnarson&why is kolasinac still playing for Arsenal???

    1. Hahahaha, and the drama begins. Mate we need to sell players so they need game time to showcase them to the world.

      1. not sure if preseason friendlies have ever been the deciding factor in a club purchasing a first team player before honestly… I can only see the lineup benefitting the sale of Nelson perhaps. Everyone else is way too established for these matches to matter.

      2. Gogo that’s rubbish mate. Main goal is to test combinations, formations and build fitness while introducing new players to the team/style.

        1. I agree but this is just a friendly of 2 halves. All the players can be changed so please chill.

        1. Started off all right, I thought. Not a great deal happened after the howler. Changes please!

  6. That was underwhelming. Anyone think any players came out looking good in first half? Willian as keen to run as ever!

  7. Didn’t take long to remind us of the pain watching arsenal could bring… misplaced passes, boring slow football, unnecessary errors….

    Can’t believe we are making Hibernian look like man city… fingers crossed

    Let’s see how Second half goes

  11. Looks exactly like last season. Miss a sitter then a total goalkeeper screw up goal. Same football…nothing has changed….yet. Groundhog Day.

  15. I don’t care if it’s pre-season, it’s the same for both team so cant use that as an excuse! If we can’t even have a mildly fast build up vs this opposition we are in for trouble this season.

  16. 2-0 hahah. I know its just a friendly but this is embarrassing!

    And to remind everyone: new season starts in 30 days, and we havent signed anyone !

  20. There won’t be an empty stadium to protect arteta and kronke this season. Imagine the atmosphere inside the emirates when 60k fans are forced to watch this $hit live.

    1. 👍 It’s a real worry.
      Next game is Glasgow Rangers, naturally as Scottish Champions an upgrade on Hibernian.

  21. I don’t want to hear that it’s just a friendly.Arteta has to come out openly&tell us what his plans for Arsenal is or just humbly admit that the job is beyond his capability.

  25. First friendly pre season game means nothing (cant believe somebody saying sack Arteta for this result!) but still a depressing watch. my MOTM Laca was head and shoulders our best player.

    1. I agree
      I also didn’t pay attention to the fact that the SPL starts 2 weeks before the Prem so that must make a difference in terms of fitness etc. As long losing isn’t habit forming

  26. So what was learned?

    Possibly another Hale End graduate to save our season?

    We are well and truly ducked… but the positive is is when we have a poor pre-season we have a good season. So maybe a flutter on the treble this year🥴🥴

  28. We’re back!!! My darling Arsenal is back!!
    Same Old Arsenal…..

    This season’ Pain and heartbreak is loading fast!
    I won’t be surprised if we don’t make TOP 6 again despite not playing in Europe

  29. So there it goes….a loss

    Well for me, few positives
    1. ESR must start all season no matter what
    2. Lacazette is integral to any positive style of play from arteta
    3. Balogun is a better option than nketiah, the lad is more dynamic.
    4. Hutchison, Henry-francis, rekik,clark look like real talents ready to step up..
    5. I feel we should stick to the kids for now, they seem to play better especially the talents amongst them….

    As for bellerin, captain auba, willian, nketiah,kolasinac , need some time warming our bench..

    We all praise guardiola for his successes but one thing I observe about him is the willingness to discard old players irrespective of their achievements or input into the team… Almighty Deco,ronaldinho,Yaya you’re recently aguero comes to mind…

    Arteta could learn one or two from that

  31. Has anyone else notice that Hector is looking like a younger Dan Trejo?

    I’m gonna rock one of those baskets on the top lip, also maybe fringe.👍

  32. At least we’re showing some consistency under Arteta, give the man some credit.

    Play dogshit in PL, and dogshit in friendly.

    At least Arteta understands Arsenal DNA; quick buildup, quick passing, and attacking philosophy.

  33. This was not a strong line up……..Don’t fret……Arteta clearly checking out certain players who didn’t preform too well last season…amongst other reasons…next game will be different……..!

    1. Pepe
      Partey
      Auba
      Laca
      ESR
      Bellerin

      Those are first team PL players ,against let’s be honest a Sunday league team

  34. One good outcome is ESR….he is class. Lacazette we should keep. Partey looks strong. Elneny, AMN, Bellerin, Kolasinac and others, during the first half are clearly not good enough.

    1. Agree Sean – I dread to think what will happen if we dont have Laca to come on and show some fight. Did you see the look Willian gave when someone sent a through ball that required him to RUN. He didn’t – just gave them a “how dare you” look. The more things change, the more they stay the same…

    2. El neny was okay, the guy put in the work just doesn’t have that extra to make him world class…

      Cedric and mari too were giving their all, but the rest were plain useless

  35. So glad Kroenke’s put a pricetag to stream the game. Cause I just didn’t bother after I saw that.

  36. Same old,same old,same old!!
    Aarrhh.
    I need this unlearned manager to get outta my club,so what then should I do to achieve this fit🤔😉
    Maybe I should use a Nigerian voo-doo,with some matchet to flog him outta arsenal and never to return.
    Dude is fast ruining everything for us in this club.
    God!! Why can’t you just come to our rescue,ahh,so tired of all this sh*t from my own beloved club,but I never did nothing wrong supporting this one’s great club yeah? Maybe it’s an offence being a fan of this club, SPIRITUALLY.
    AHHH who knows🤔🤔🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴
    Wish I can have a pill to stop loving and supporting this club,any one got any pill??
    Would gladly buy one with my last currency,the head break is just becoming too damn painful and then unbearable.
    (please,no body should blab about this being a preseason friendly,cos imma eat you raw)
    LORD HELP US ALL.🙏🙏🙏

  37. I didn’t see the game, but after England’s loss, I was rather hoping for some good news from Edinburgh.

    No such Luck!

    Maybe we will have a better luck against the Scottish champions at the weekend.

  40. Waited until the morning after to comment.

    Last night after the game, I was very torn between 1) “it’s the first pre-season game” (against all instincts as I want to win EVERY game we partake in) and 2) that was poor (particularly first half where the team out there was undoubtedly weaker – the keeper suffered from nerves something chronic).

    I’m not going to go through player performances, because another issue really bothers me.

    I am very worried about our STYLE of play.

    The positions who are on the ball the most when in possession remain our centre backs – then out to full backs !!

    Another season of into midfield, nothing on so play back and start again at crabs pace will kill me !!

    We simply do not get in behind teams quickly enough being too predictable and ponderous, playing too much of our football IN FRONT of the opposition at too slower pace.

    However, the introduction of Lacca & Pepe did lift this a little.

    It’s the “patience ” word again.

    Last season, I chose to believe M A was cutting his cloth accordingly and playing with what he had.

    I had to hope things would change, given the window we are now in.

    However I remain concerned.

    Still it was only the first run out, and that is fact.

    However, Gerrard WILL want to beat us on Saturday.

    A stronger team will be out there, and we need to up our game – so called friendly or not !

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors