First game of the season.

[usedtobeshearer]

Not the best start to a season for us but certainly not for Arsenal either.
A wet afternoon and a host of players getting to grips with the game and the pace of each other. I'd say it was one to mark down as watchable but not super impressive by any means from both sides.

Their goal was a immediate wake up call for Willems who waited for the pass when he should've went to the ball. You live and learn.
Aubameyang was lightening quick as we all know. It's no disgrace if he manages to nip in ahead of a defender. That's his game and we got done. You either get5 lucky with him or he puts one or two away. A mistake let him in and he scored a very good and well taken goal.

We had our chances and were unlucky. I think the result was pretty fair and we now move on.
I take a lot of positives from that game. There's a lot to work with, I think. It's how Bruce sets it out.

Nobody needs to be crucified because it was a good hardworking shift without the overall quality due to both teams not getting fully to grips.

Quite a few of our players were under par but it's to be expected. You either hit the ground running or you drag yourself along over a few games.


Decent enough for us were Ritchie, Manquillo, Lascelles, Schar, Hayden, Dummett, Shelvey, Joelinton.
I thought Longstaff struggled to get into the game and regularly looked below par in his passing. However, he will certainly improve.
Almiron promised a lot and delivered very little, other than pacey runs into nowhere. He certainly put plenty of effort in and will also get much better.

Maximin came on and was a box of tricks. This blokes going to be a crowd favourite very quickly if he can stay focused.

Willem didn't really do a lot and it has to be put down to him for the mistake that led to the goal, as I mentioned earlier.
He's got a good turn of pace though, so I'll just hope he can start to blend in and motor on sooner rather than later.

Dubravka didn't have that much to do but generally he was decent enough for what he did do.

All in all I'm not too disappointed and in fact I am genuinely excited to see this team gel.
It's too early to have big digs but it's never too early to evaluate what you think. And this is what I think.

Subdued crowd didn't really help create any buzz among the players but that'll soon crank up, I'm optimistic of that.

You know nothing about football.