Pre-Season Win For Arsenal As New Signings Feature

Arsenal beat AC Milan 1-0 in their opening pre-season game in Singapore as summer signings Martin Zubimendi, Christian Norgaard and Kepa Arrizabalaga played their first match for their new club in front of supporters.

Bukayo Saka scored the only goal of the match with a close-range finish from Jakub Kiwior’s excellent curled cross.

The Gunners dominated for the majority of the match, with Ben White and Saka linking up well down Arsenal’s right side.

Ethan Nwaneri – playing in central midfield – produced two standout moments of skill, one of which resulted in a shot from the edge of the area that went narrowly wide.

Manager Mikel Arteta also gave some game time to the two 15-year-olds in the squad – forward Max Dowman and defender Marli Salmon.

It was agreed there would be a penalty shoot-out regardless of the result of the match and AC Milan won that 6-5.

Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Dowman, Leandro Trossard and Josh Nichols scored their spot-kicks but Martin Odegaard, Reiss Nelson, Kiwior and Salmon missed theirs.

How did Arsenal signings perform?
Arsenal have spent £128m so far this summer to bring in Zubimendi, Norgaard and Kepa, as well as Noni Madueke – with Cristhian Mosquera and Viktor Gyokeres expected to follow.

Madueke has been given two weeks off to rest after his participation in the Club World Cup with Chelsea, but this was the first time supporters had a look at how Arteta may use his other new signings.

Defensive midfielder Norgaard was the only summer signing to start the match and began in his favoured deep-lying midfield role.

The Denmark international was solid in his positioning and provided a base to allow his fellow midfielders Declan Rice and Nwaneri to get forward.

Zubimendi, a £60m signing from Real Sociedad, came on as a half-time substitute and immediately began to dictate the tempo of Arsenal’s play.

He has a more expansive passing range than Norgaard and showed some of his repertoire, but in the heat and with numerous changes in personnel, the game lost its flow.

Goalkeeper Kepa, signed from Chelsea, was not tested during the 90 minutes but produced an impressive display in the shoot-out as he saved three of Milan’s penalties.

Arsenal supporters are likely to be excited by so many academy graduates being included on the tour and Myles Lewis-Skelly, fellow 18-year-old Nichols and 15-year-olds Dowman and Salmon finished the game on the pitch together.

There has been a lot of excitement around Dowman, with Arteta referencing his talent on a number of occasions last season, and the youngster stepped up to score his penalty in the shoot-out.

Bbc.com