Morning all.
A quick Sunday round-up for you, starting with Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Girona last night. It was interesting to see some big names start, particularly Kai Havertz, Piero Hincapie and Viktor Gyokeres, all of whom had been on World Cup duty this summer. Their tournaments ended earlier than others, and their games ended earlier than others too as they played just half an hour before being replaced. Clearly they are easing these guys back into action.
At that point we were 2-0 up. Havertz opened the scoring with a nice finish after excellent midfield play from Max Dowman, whose through ball for the German was absolutely perfect. New signing Christos Tzolis doubled the lead with a slightly deflected effort, but the Greek international had done well to step inside and make space for the shot from the edge of the box. It’s obviously way too early to judge, but he looked lively and I’m interested to see more of him as pre-season progresses.
Girona scored from a second half corner to make it 2-1, but Dowman extended the lead with a cracking shot from just outside the box. I think we all know there’s a real talent there, and with the likes of Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke set to return much later than everyone else, the 16 year old is likely to be involved heavily in our start to the season. Performances like last night’s will be very useful in that sense. Gabriel Jesus scored for 4-1, and probably should have had another but dragged a shot wide after clever play in the box from Louie Copley.
The game finished with a host of Academy players on the pitch, Illan Meslier in goal and the new arrival actually had to make a couple of decent saves, but all in all a decent work out and we won a massive trophy. I mean literally, that thing is huge.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta spoke about Dowman, saying:
That’s what we want when you play for Arsenal. Expectations should be high and should be expecting really good things. We know what he’s capable of doing. We want to be more consistent in terms of performance and the actions that he can deliver. I think today he had a really good game.
And Tzolis:
I’m very pleased with him. First of all, the way he has adapted to the club, to the team. The connection he’s already generated with the boys. I think you’re going to love the player. He’s a very direct player. He’s got the ball between the eyes. I think really good at linking up. He has a lot of similarities with Leo in a lot of the things that he can do and the spaces he can occupy. And then the work ethic that he has. He’s a boy that comes with so much hunger as well and wants to prove it. It’s a dream for him and we are here to help him.
And was pressed on transfer news, saying:
We are really active trying to improve and evolve the team; that’s clear. We expect to have movements in the next few weeks, obviously. We want to get better like anybody else, and you just can see the transfer market and our opponents, what we are doing. We won’t sit still and we are very ambitious with what we are doing.
Obviously he didn’t go into any kind of specifics, but we can see there’s one particularly ambitious deal in the pipeline, and whether that comes to fruition or not, it’s good to see Arsenal at the table in that sense. You often hear people complain we don’t act like a big club, or big enough, and this is a way to change that perception. The Bruno Guimaraes thing looks like it’s more or less done, with reports of a medical to take place next week, but a deal unlikely to be completed in time for the trip to Dublin. If there’s more to come, and I think we have designs on a defender, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, there’s a potential outgoing with Christian Norgaard set for a move to Everton. It’s one that makes sense for all parties, I think. The Danish international barely played in the Premier League last season, and with a midfield roster that will now include the aforementioned Brazil international, his chances of playing next season were slim. Everton seems a good fit, we get a few quid in, and Norgaard leaves a popular man with a Premier League winners medal. All good.
A final point for today, like many of you, I paid for the PPV pass for the pre-season games, and faced a significant issue on the Arsenal website, in that it wasn’t working:
I was not alone in that regard, based on replies to my social media post and emails I’ve been receiving, and it’s a bad look when you charge people for pre-season friendlies and then don’t deliver the most basic coverage. This is 2026, not 2006, streaming technology is hardly in its infancy. I think it’s tied into some ongoing issues with the Arsenal website, which was ‘updated’ this summer but has been a disaster to use since. Sometimes stuff works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes URLs resolve, sometimes they don’t. And don’t get me started on the new app.
This is the front page as of 8.25am on Sunday morning.
To be fair, they did put the second half on YouTube, but lots of people paid for a service they didn’t get, and the club need to put that right.
Ok, have a great Sunday folks. Back here tomorrow with more and an Arsecast Extra.
