Our pre-season tour of the USA ended in defeat as Liverpool got the better of us in front of a packed house in Philadelphia
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Fabio Carvalho gave the Reds a healthy lead after 33 minutes, but we quickly came fighting back and Kai Havertz pulled one back to get us back in touch.
However despite enjoying the better of the chances in the second half, we couldn’t quite find the equaliser we deserved, but more useful match minutes were banked as we continue our push for peak fitness with the Premier League campaign on the horizon.
Mountain to climb
Nearly 70,000 supporters packed into Lincoln Financial Field, breaking a record for a soccer game in the stadium, and there was plenty of supporters of both teams to enjoy in the first half.
We looked sharp in the opening exchanges, with passes fizzing between players and nice touches putting us on the front foot. In the first minute, Gabriel Martinelli took aim from 25 yards and narrowly missed the target, and soon after some great pressure from Gabriel Jesus saw him charge down a Caoimhin Kelleher clearance but the ball trickled agonisingly the wrong side of the post.
But in the 14th minute, the Reds took the lead against the run of play. Diogo Jota headed a long Kelleher clearance into Harvey Elliott’s path, and he threaded a pass through for Salah to race onto. Despite Gabriel’s best efforts, the Egyptian held him off to fire into the bottom corner.
Arne Slot’s team grew in confidence after that but only a brilliant piece of defending by Jarell Quansah prevented Jesus a tap-in after he slid in to intercept Martinelli’s square ball, but Liverpool raced straight down the other end and Jota wrapped a shot against the post after some neat build-up play.
And then on 33 minutes, the lead was doubled. Once again, Elliott was involved when surrounded by defenders, he managed to chip the ball over our backline for Carvalho to run onto and powerfully volley through Karl Hein’s legs to make it 2-0.
Philly fightback
But we came roaring straight back and six minutes later were back in the contest. After a corner was cleared out to Oleksandr Zinchenko, he linked up well with Martinelli whose ball into the area fell to Martin Odegaard. Some great quick feet by our skipper created a yard of space, and with it he picked out Havertz to sweep the ball past Kelleher and give us something to hang onto going into half-time.
The German had the first attempt of the second 45 when he dragged a shot wide, but after that the goalmouth action dried up as the players battled hard in humid conditions. Half-time substitute Fabio Vieira forced Kelleher into a save with a fierce drive, and Gabriel headed the subsequent corner over before both managers introduced a raft of replacements.
Opportunities kept falling our way and Jesus headed over before Eddie Nketiah was picked out by another inch-perfect Odegaard pass but faced with a tight angle couldn’t get his attempt on target, as we ended the tour with our first pre-season loss.
What's next
After returning to the UK, we have two more friendly games at Emirates Stadium. On Wednesday, August 7 we host Bayer Leverkusen, before Lyon head to north London for the Emirates Cup the following Sunday. Tickets for both games have sold out, but you can stream them live right here on Arsenal.com and the official app.
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