Manchester United secured a 2-0 victory against Arsenal in the early hours, leaving Bukayo Saka and his teammates disappointed with the loss. Despite this setback, Arsenal remains optimistic for the upcoming season, having made some impressive signings during the summer.
To prepare for the crucial season ahead, Mikel Arteta’s side has scheduled several warm-up matches, one of which was against United. The two clubs clashed in the United States and in a closely contested game, United emerged as the winners.
The Arsenal lineup featured players like Declan Rice and Kai Havertz, but even with their inclusion, United held the upper hand on the field. Although it was just a friendly match, Saka emphasised that the defeat stings, highlighting the team’s competitive spirit and determination to perform well in all encounters, regardless of their nature.
He said to Arsenal Media:
“It’s obviously tough to take, whether it’s a friendly or not against United.
“We’ll learn from it and you can’t really give two goals away like that against a team like this because then it’s really hard to come back. We just need to learn from it. “Physically we want to get to a level that we were at last season and then go to another level and keep increasing that. Tactically we need to integrate everyone.
“We need to understand our game plan and how we play and keep progressing in each game so that when we come to the first game we’re ready.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
We have to start the term very well and perform how we wish to go on, which is a reason Saka has been hurt by the loss.
However, we can get better and we will not judge the team’s preparation with this loss alone.
Ramsale and Malghaes cost us the defeat. Ramsale is fond of usually leaving his goal line due to his over confidence which is not good enough. Thank God this is a friendly match. Both of them would have caused us three solid points had it been a league match. Aron Ramsdale need to be cautioned against future occurrence.
Soggy Rice already demonstrating he was worth every penny
Firstly, why are we playing a rival team during the pre-season games? The point of pre-season is to develop fitness and sharpness not to into war with a rival – stupid..
Secondly, our defenders all the excellent pace and recovery but their poor positioning left them vulnerable.
Once the defence is struggling the midfield struggles which is exactly what we saw – it was Declan Rice’s first start for the club but it didn’t help that Saliba, Gabriel and Timber were out of position.
Lastly it is clear that Eddie is never going to be good enough for a main striker. There are even doubts over Jesus. This is something we need to prioritise perhaps?
Very interesting to note that Saka does say they need to get to the fitness levels of last season, along with knowing the game plan.
Ramsdale still has to learn how to control himself and Viera simply has to bulk up.
With Xhaka gone, I fear we are going to be harassed and bullied all season long. No one in the side commands fear and respect as he did…to the point where they always find a way to get him sent off by being in his face and in his shins all match long. Now we are just a side full or a bunch of Mr. Nice Guys. The spine is gone! Who else possessed a spine similar to Xhaka?? None!
We need Caicedo. The midfield will be exposed if Partey gets injured. Rotate the LCM between Rice and ESR. RCM should be for Odegaard and Trossard. DM for Partey and Caicedo.
To be honest, we shall all know the impact of Granit Xhaka in that team. Granit is a fine player, just a pity that we always sees is mistakes and not is hard work