Loads for me to sink my teeth in to today from an Arsenal perspective, so let’s dive right in, shall we?

I’m not even going to go in to detail about the new third kit rumoured to be being released today (with a nice little cameo from Vieira in a video posted last night, I might add), although it does look sensational.

Instead, it’s the 2-0 win over Lyon that we need to talk about, as Arsenal prepared for the big kick off next weekend in the best possible style.

Now, admittedly, Lyon didn’t really provide much of a threat to us and perhaps this is the Arsenal side of my brain that has neurosis when it comes to my football team, manifesting itself in me overthinking about how “we probably needed a bit more of a test, otherwise what have we learned?”, but other than that corner pocket of my mind I thought we looked very impressive indeed. Mikel named what I think most of us – barring maybe a couple of positional questions that are up for grabs – would have though would be the team to start next weekend. Raya in goal, a back four of White, Saliba, Gabriel and Zinchenko, Partey anchoring the midfield with Rice and Odegaard further forward, Martinelli, Havertz and Saka being the front three. It looked very familiar in set up and it kicked off with us dominant in front of a jubilant Emirates crowd, not having to wait long until we got our first. Saliba’s header was firm but the ‘keeper probably have should have done something about it. Maybe. As a former member of the ‘keepers union I will cut him a little slack; sometimes when the ball is pumped straight at you above your head you don’t always have the time to react quickly enough and get your hands there. But from an Arsenal fans perspective who cares, right? One up inside the first ten minutes and it was two on 27 minutes, this time from Gabriel on a corner and hopefully it’s a positive sign that we’re going to once again be a big threat from set pieces. In fact I’ve noticed a bit in the last couple of games that we seem to be happier to swing the ball in and Saka got his head on a couple of chances yesterday too, which was interesting. Arteta has already spoken this summer and at the end of last season that we needed to have more solutions and be a little more unpredictable, so selecting different ways of attacking a box will certainly do that.

We also created chances in behind as Lyon played a weird style that I couldn’t really work out what their gameplan was. On some occasions they seemed to hit with a high press, on some they sat back, so Arsenal exploited the space in midfield by finding pockets through the always excellent Martin Odegaard, who found Havertz and Martinelli quite easily throughout the game I thought. Martinelli was getting on the ball a lot; he got in behind a few times and got to the by-line to get the ball in a few times. He was also put in one-on-one in the first half and whilst he didn’t quite get his shot away which he’ll be disappointed in, I don’t think there’s too much to be frustrated about just yet. For sure he needs to improve his end product this season (something that has been labelled as a deficiency in the past – both from an assist and finishing perspective), but I think it was David Hillier on comms yesterday who said that when you’ve taken a knock in pre season just before the full season kicks in, the last thing you want to do is exacerbate a potential injury by going at full speed. Hence, Hillier thought (and I’m inclined to agree with him) he probably only went at 75% when in behind the defender, which gave him the opportunity to nick the ball away from Martinelli.

For me though it’s more important that he’s getting in to those positions, because not only does it show that we were able to approach the game differently in terms of chance creation (crosses, corners, balls in behind), but it also showed that we have different players to answer different challenges this coming season. And I think that’s where the biggest selection headache for Arteta will come in for next week, on that left wing, because Trossard and Martinelli have both had good games in the last seven days. My gut feel tells me I think Trossard will get the nod on Saturday against Wolves, because he finished last season the strongest, but having somebody like Martinelli there waiting in the wings is very good indeed for us, I think.

Left back will also be a question mark for Arteta eventually, but I suspect for Wolves it will remain with Zinchenko because although we got to see Calafiori in at left back on 65 minutes, it was only for about 10 – 15 minutes that he played there, because off came Gabriel around the 78 – 80 mark and the Italian slotted in at left centre back. Arteta is not starting him ahead of Zinchenko with just 13 minutes of football in that position for Arsenal and with the news that Tomiyasu is once again out injured for a few more weeks, Zinchenko kind of gets that start by default with Timber also having been rested for the last two games. Whether he keeps it for Villa away will be interesting though.

So left back is a selection question for another week for Arteta, left wing will be one for Saturday, but I think a lot of the other positions will be pretty easy to predict. Even in that number six role we saw Thomas Partey get 77 minutes and I thought he performed well. Again, I don’t think we were as tested defensively and so perhaps that is a question we still need the Ghanaian to answer, but he popped the ball around, he looked fit, he was strong and with Rice alongside him as well, we looked like we were comfortable in controlling the middle of the park.

The second half was a little bit more of a non-event on account of Arsenal playing within themselves and the substitutions from both sides turning it in to a scrappy kind of game with little flow to it, but the job had been done by halftime and it meant we could once again see cameos from Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly. No place on the pitch for Nketiah though, which only heightens the suspicions that there might be some movement this week, plus I thought it was interesting that Nelson got on instead of Vieira. Perhaps that was a ‘shop window’ exercise, which would explain it, but I don’t think it bodes amazingly well for the Portuguese that he didn’t see a single minute of a game that I mentioned yesterday was basically a dress rehearsal for the start of the Premier League season. Perhaps he had a knock, perhaps it was a chance to give more minutes to the younger players because we won’t see as much of them this season and Vieira will naturally be given more of a chance, but I don’t think it augurs particularly well for him if I’m honest.

That’s probably enough from me on yesterday’s Emirates Cup win. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more of the usual ramblings, so until then have yourselves a good one and I’ll catch thee in the morrow.