Wednesday night was one which once again gave Arsenal fans high hopes that their team is ready to begin the approaching Premier League season. After earlier wins against Boreham Wood and Paris Saint Germain, some factors were considered which made those victories meagre. In the former, we concluded that it was against an average team while in the latter, it was generally opined that the PSG side missed many of their big names who were yet to resume after their involvement in the just concluded Russia 2018 World Cup tournament. Putting the aforementioned into consideration, they were just ordinary wins.
This was not the case (we played a strong Chelsea team) when Unai Emery piloted his side to victory against our bitter rivals in our third game of the International Champions Cup. In the said game which held in Dublin in midweek, the Gunners beat Chelsea through penalty shootout as the game ended in a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes.
A Rudiger header from a Fabregas corner kick put the Yokohama Tyres shirt ambassadors in front before the break and even though they had about three other clear goal opportunities which included a penalty taken by Morata, the score remained unaltered at halftime.
Arsenal despite their improvement in the second half were unable to come on level terms until very late into the encounter when Frenchman Alexandre Lacazetter sent one in to make the game proceed straight to penalties as per ICC regulations.
Both sides were able to convert their first five chances before Petr Cech and Alex Iwobi saved one and scored the decider respectively. Obviously, the duo were the heroes of the night.
Our record with Chelsea is gradually becoming better compared to the past few years and we hope we will improve on our results whenever we play them in future. Our second Premier League game of the 2018/19 season will be against them.
As per reports by the Sun and from what he himself revealed at his first Arsenal press conference, Unai Emery has not ruled out making more signings before the end of the transfer window. At least one more could still follow the arrivals of Stephan Lichtsteiner, Bernd Leno, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzia.
In a recent development, Arsenal have been said to be after Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele who seems to be surplus to requirements at the Camp Nou following an injury-plagued first season. However the Spanish outfit have reportedly demanded a move for Aaron ramsey in the opposite direction.
From what we gathered from unconfirmed sources, Barcelona will accept a player plus cash offer to enable them consider selling out the French attacker.
This is a deal I don't see materializing as our manager already said Ramsey is a vital part of his plans. This is another reason why the club want him to sign a new deal to make him stay longer at the club.
In as much as we need Dembele, I don't think it wise to allow Ramsey leave if we will not get a replacement for him. What is your take on this? You can drop your comments below.
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