Following our pre-season opener against Bournemouth, we’ve gone through the full match replay to pick out some moments that might’ve passed you by.
From the template for our first goal being hinted at early on to an impressive defensive shift by Myles Lewis-Skelly, here are six things we noticed.
A sign of things to come
It took just two minutes for Reiss Nelson to beat Max Aarons on the left and put a cross in for Fabio Vieira - a warning sign for Bournemouth with our goal in the 18th minute following exactly the same formula.
When we did take the lead, it came courtesy of a well-timed left-footed volley from Vieira, who picked out the bottom left corner with power and precision, giving Neto no chance.
Lewis-Skelly impresses
Those who keep a close eye on our under-21s team won’t have been too surprised to have seen Myles Lewis-Skelly - a central midfielder for the majority of his career so far - being deployed at left-back by Mikel Arteta.
Myles has already proven to be capable in the position for Mehmet Ali’s young Gunners, and the step up to the first team didn’t seem to faze him.
It was an inverted role that allowed him to drift into midfield with Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand sometimes dropping back.
From a defensive point of view, Myles didn’t put a foot wrong, putting a good tackle in on Marcus Tavernier in the second minute and again doing really well in the 24th minute to win the ball back with Tavernier bursting down the right.
Solidity at the back
Centre-back pairing Ayden Heaven and Jurrien Timber handled everything Bournemouth threw at them in the first half. Ayden put in a solid challenge to end a spell of Bournemouth possession in the ninth minute, before Timber did well to track Dominic Solanke and block his shot after the Cherries had got in behind our back line.
Mentions should also go to Oulad M’Hand and Nelson, who both showed calmness and composure to alleviate pressure on us in the 33rd and 37th minutes respectively. On both occasions, captain Eddie Nketiah was able to breakaway on the counter-attack.
Skip to 36:50 on the full match replay to enjoy Reiss’ cheeky nutmeg on Aarons after keeping the ball in play!
In-possession trickery
Replacing Oulad M’Hand as our one change at half-time, Martin Odegaard instantly settled into the match with a lovely bit of skill - a Cruyff flick at 53:10 that allowed Thomas Partey to surge forward and feed Vieira on the right.
Notice how, at 54:10, Partey lets the ball roll between his legs when receiving a pass from Lewis-Skelly with the knowledge that Timber is behind him, allowing us to go on another attack.
Then again from Odegaard, right after Bournemouth equalise at 73:10, he takes down a cross from Oleksandr Zinchenko really well before flicking it to Ben White with the back of his heel.
How about the passage of play at 79:40, with Odegaard pulling the strings and playing one-twos with Ethan Nwaneri, Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus? Everything was going through the captain.
Vieira taking on responsibility
In his post-match interview, Fabio Vieira spoke about becoming one of the senior figures in the team when surrounded by young Gunners from our under-21s side.
He showed that he was comfortable taking on the responsibility of standing over corners and free-kicks in Odegaard’s absence during the first half, and Fabio carried out his defensive duties with aplomb when he tracked back to clear a dangerous cross at 59:00.
Hein’s heroics
Winner of the Player of the Match award, Karl Hein made a big save from close range at 67:00 to deny Dango Ouattara after Bournemouth found a way through.
He went on to be the hero in the penalty shootout, saving Bournemouth’s second penalty, which was powerfully struck by Philip Billing, before getting both hands to their sixth one which was taken by Ryan Christie, subsequently allowing Jakub Kiwior to score the winning penalty.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
