It’s always a good morning after Arsenal have beaten Manchester United, right?
I’m not going to pretend I watched the game live — sleep is precious with a nine-month old baby in the picture — but I’ve caught up with as much as possible this morning. More than anything, I think pre-season wins do just set a tone, they bring a good mood with them. You can write off the defeats but you can’t ignore the buzz of beating an old rival with some really promising performances.
The United team looked slightly more like a first choice XI to me but both teams were just two, three, maybe four players removed from a side that could realistically start a Premier League game in the near future.
A lot of pre-season over-indexing always goes on, and understandably. We all want to figure out as much as humanly possible about the team and figure out how the new season is going to go ahead of time. The success rate on predictions made off the back of games like these is always going to be highly variable! But that doesn’t mean everything should be ignored either.
I think looking at individuals, you know which ones need a good pre-season. If Martin Odegaard or Bukayo Saka struggle, nobody is going to worry about them. If a young player and a player who seemed to be struggling with fitness or confidence last season shines, then maybe they open a door for themselves.
Enter Ethan Nwaneri and Gabriel Jesus.
The pair combined for our equaliser after Rasmus Hojlund but United a goal up and it seems they were the standout players of the first half, if not the entire night. Emile Smith Rowe’s impending exit could open a door for Nwaneri in midfield and it feels significant that he has lined up through the middle of the pitch so far in the US with Fabio Vieira playing out wide.
Between his physique, application, instincts and obvious technical ability, he does look like a player who belongs in the heart of the action, receiving the ball on the turn, always looking forward.
He made a nice run down the right early on, playing the ball inside and going outside down the right to receive it again (albeit in an offside position) before forcing Andre Onana into a save.
The equaliser for Jesus’ goal showed obviously quality to pick the Brazilian out. Generally, Nwaneri’s touch, his clarity in his decisions, his determination to get on the ball at every opportunity, and overall obvious quality are all really exciting and Mikel Arteta suggested there will continue to be opportunities as long as he is delivering in training:
It’s always in the hands of the players, so show what you can do. Show that ambition, that determination, that quality and things will happen naturally. Tomorrow he’s going to train with us again and if he continues to play like that he’s going to play some minutes on Wednesday for sure.
I don’t know how much we’ll see Nwaneri this season — he is still just 17 and doesn’t turn 18 until March next year — but I do think he’ll have the opportunity to fight for minutes and will be a regular fixture on the bench. This is almost the exact age Cesc Fabregas broke into the Arsenal team and we shouldn’t forget what a spectacular anomaly it is for a player that young to play regular football. Even Saka had to wait another year to have an impact at first team level.
Here is that Gabriel Jesus goal, by the way:
GABRIEL JESUS BRINGS ARSENAL LEVEL AGAINST UNITED pic.twitter.com/Mr7VEuqbzl
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 28, 2024
The Brazilian looked really sharp again and I can’t help but feel, as long as he’s at the club, he could have a huge role to play this season. We obviously haven’t added a forward as things stand and the idea of Jesus fully fit again it’s tempting to get carried away with the idea of Jesus being fully fit again. His first half season at the club, before the 2022 World Cup, were electric. There was flashes of that Jesus last season, mostly in the Champions League, and I’m not quite ready yet to give up on that version of the player being rediscovered.
Fully fit and full of confidence, he’s an incredible player and an incredibly well-rounded forward. The jinking runs were back last night — Lenny Yoro prodded the ball away after one, another turned Harry Maguire inside out and nearly left Leandro Trossard with another — and the goal was more of the type of goal he needs to look for. Jesus missed 16 big chances missed in the Premier League in 2022/23 (the 6th most in the league) but just seven in 2023/24 (31st). Missing big chances means you’re getting big chances and those tables are led by the likes of Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah, Ollie Watkins. And Darwin Nunez. Alexander Isak, Ivan Toney, Nicolas Jackson also pop up on them. And all of the above hit double figures in the campaign(s) where they lead the league on that front. Jesus didn’t even get big chances to miss last season and that’s a much more real concern. Arteta — or whatever his word is worth — sounded encouraged too:
He looks really good, he looks really sharp. He’s changed a lot of things over the summer and he’s come back in top condition again. When you have that baseline, other things can be built but without that foundation we don’t have a player and he needs to be in that condition to get the best out of him. He’s realised that and I’m really happy with what he’s shown today again. You can see by the way he looks, the way he’s moving and you can see in his eyes that there’s a spark there.
Gabriel Martinelli is another player who didn’t quite deliver as much last season as the season before. He came on and looked raring to go, driving fown the left and nearly finding fellow sub Kai Havertz for a header in front of goal. Martinelli’s next chance to get in behind was cut short by the offside flag.
When he did get another opportunity, he delivered the winner. I really love a wide player facing up to their defender, one-on-one, and taking touch after touch after touch in quick succession, just edging the ball forward. The defender is left on the back foot guessing which touch will be the decisive one, the one that flicks the ball either outside or inside and sees the winger burst in the chosen direction. Martinelli went inside and delivered that burst with perfect timing. Then delivered a really smart, deceptive finish into the gap at Onana’s near post.
MARTINELLI GIVES ARSENAL THE LATE LEAD OVER UNITED pic.twitter.com/4LJTTG2XJq
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 28, 2024
Again, here’s Arteta on him:
That’s the mentality of the team and individuals – one training session and he comes in and plays at that level. That means that he’s not coming here to get prepared, he’s come prepared to show where he is and that’s a very different approach and I loved it.
One other interesting soundbite from the manager was his explanation for playing Ben White at right-back and Jurrien Timber at centre-back rather than the other way round, saying it was a matter of “making one change and not two” and not wanting to mess with the “chemistry” on the right-hand side. Now we have more defensive depth, it might be worth remembering this and thinking in partnerships rather than individuals. Overall there’s just more likely to be more rotation than ever going forward but, given White’s relationship down that flank with Odegaard and Saka, right-back might not be Timber’s best bet in his bid for regular football.
For the sake of completion, I’ll share United’s goal as well. Ayden Heaven has made a mark at centre-back this summer, 17 is incredibly young to be playing against Premier League strikers in that position, where a mistake can be costly, but he impressed against Dominic Solanke and simply lost the bigger, faster player in Rasmus Hojlund as the Dane gave United the lead.
RASMUS HOJLUND STRIKES FIRST FOR MAN UNITED pic.twitter.com/p5CaTMqMXr
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 28, 2024
Again, Arteta was glowing in his praise for the defender and his response.
Very impressive. At 17, I don’t know how many players are able to do that on a stage like this. He’s lost a duel against one of the strongest and fastest players in the world, it can happen, but the reaction afterwards, the composure, the quality, the body language that he had were all remarkable. I’m really happy with him.
I’m not sure we’ll see much, if anything, of the defender this season, given the depth at the back now, but I don’t think Arteta’s choice to keep starting a 17-year-old at the back in these games should be overlooked and he is likely being earmarked as a player with the ability to break into the side.
That feels like a topic for another day, possibly a couple of years from now.
That’s me for the day. It’s lovely to wake up to an Arsenal win and I hope that sets the tone for everyone’s Sundays. Andrew A and Tim will be on duty to get you through the next few days and I’m looking forward to reading someone else’s thoughts on these pages again. Until later in the week!
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