Arsenal 6-0 Sevilla
As home debuts go, this was quite a statement from an underrated Brazilian.
Yes, it cannot be denied that Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko were deemed expendable by champions Manchester City, but Arsenal spending around £75 million on a pair of proven winners who are entering their peak years looks good value in the current market.
And if this club friendly encounter against the Spaniards of Sevilla is anything to go by, the optimism of Gunners fans ahead of the new campaign could be justified.
These club friendly 2022 highlights were delivered swiftly and emphatically to render the contest over inside 20 minutes.
Jesus and Zinchenko were both making their home debuts in the Emirates Cup clash as manager Mikel Arteta named the same starting XI that enjoyed a morale-boosting victory over Chelsea in Orlando last weekend.
William Saliba was also given the opportunity to play in front of a packed out Emirates Stadium, while Martin Odegaard led his side out for the first time since being announced as captain earlier in the day.
Sevilla, meanwhile, named a host of former Premier League players with Jesus Navas captaining a side which included Fernando, Erik Lamela and Karim Rekik, while Croatian man Ivan Rakitic was handed a start in midfield.
Arsenal announced Ødegaard as new captain shortly before kick-off – the 23-year-old has made a quietly effective impact since arriving from Real Madrid in January 2021, initially on loan.
He made his mark pretty much straight away too, releasing Bukayo Saka who was bundled over inside the box and then dusted himself up to stroke in a 10th-minute penalty.
Then Jesus took centre stage with two goals in three minutes before Saka added his second of the afternoon with just 19 minutes on the clock.
Jesus’ second was expertly guided into the net after a superb ball from young Gabriel Martinelli, while Saka’s brace was completed as he capitalised on an error by goalkeeper Yassine Bono.
Amidst the goals there had been a minute’s applause for José Antonio Reyes, a player fondly remembered by both clubs and a real talent who tragically lost his life in a car accident in June 2019.
As a footnote, if you never saw Reyes play, you missed a treat – someone who served both clubs with distinction and was a member of Arsenal’s Premier League ‘Invincibles’ squad of 2004.
Back to the game and, after that initial goal-burst, many inside the stadium would not necessarily have expected the tally to increase.
Yet Jesus was not to be denied a home hat-trick and, 14 minutes from time, he was perfectly placed to smash home the fifth after a Gabriel Magalhaes strike was half cleared.
Jesus was one of four Gunners players to come off to a standing ovation moments later and it was one of his replacements, Eddie Nketiah, who had the final say a minute from time as he added a sixth, tapping in a Martinelli ball as Sevilla were caught napping – not for the first time.
That summed up an encounter when the energy was as largely one-sided as the SBOTOP club friendly 2022 betting odds in a meeting between two clubs who had Champions League football in their grasp last term, yet only one made it.
Now, of course, that was the dominant force in the Europa League of recent years who claimed fourth place in La Liga, while Arsenal missed out to a resurgent Spurs in the Premier League, so we won’t read too much into this result.Fifth place constituted significant progress but they should have held on to a top-four spot: a lack of depth, and arguably genuine quality, in key positions was an obvious reason and Arteta has spent his summer attempting to correct it. On this evidence, his efforts may well gain rich rewards.
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