Scout Notes – Pre-Season Round-Up

Sergio Aguero emerges from the bench to net in his first appearance under new Man City boss Pep Guardiola. Chuba Akpom and Joel Campbell grab a goal apiece as Arsenal defeat an MLS All-Stars team, whilst a Mark Noble penalty isn’t enough as West Ham fall to defeat in the Europa League qualifiers.

AT&T All-Stars 1 Arsenal 2

Chuba Akpom struck late, from a Nacho Monreal cross, to secure victory for Arsenal over a star-studded MLS team.

Joel Campbell opened the scoring in the first half, converting a penalty he had earned himself, before a certain Didier Drogba came off the bench to score his usual goal against the Gunners.

With Per Mertesacker missing the start of the season with a knee injury, Gabriel sidelined due to illness and Laurent Koscielny yet to return to action, Arsene Wenger handed a debut to new singing Rob Holding at the heart of the defence. Petr Cech and Jack Wilshere were also given their first run-outs of pre-season and Theo Walcott started up front.

Wenger then made five changes at half-time, with Hector Bellerin and Granit Xhaka, playing for the first time since Euro 2016.

The more pertinent events seem to be happening off the field, with reports that the Gunners are close to signing Leicester midfielder Riyad Mahrez. Although he refused to discuss an transfer targets, Wenger confirmed he is determined to bolster his options in the final third:

”At the moment, I do not have too many attacking options. Let’s not forget that there are still a few players at home, and that a few players didn’t play today, like Cazorla. Then of course you have Ozil and Ramsey at home, even Giroud is not here. We have options, but we still look outside to find one more”.

The Arsenal boss also took time to praise the performance of Holding – priced at 4.5 in FPL – in the heart of defence:

“He has adapted surprisingly in a very good way. He reads the game well and understands what’s going on. He anticipates well and that’s a quality, at such a young age, that you don’t find a lot”.

Arsenal XI: Cech (Martinez 67), Debuchy (Bellerin 46), Gibbs (Monreal 46), Holding, Bielik (Xhaka 46), Campbell (Reine Adelaide 67), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Willock 67), Elneny (Zelalem 67), Coquelin (Chambers 46), Wilshere (Iwobi 46), Walcott (Akpom 67).

Man City 1 Borussia Dortmund 1 (City win 6-5 on penalties)

Pep Guardiola oversaw a win, of sorts, as stand-in goalkeeper Angus Gunn excelled in a penalty shoot-out victory over Dortmund.

The side was decidedly more senior than the one that took the field against Bayern Munich, and Guardiola took the chance to start with an experimental formation involving three centre-halves – Nicolas Otamendi, Aleksandar Kolarov and Tosin Adarabioyo – and Gael Clichy and Jesus Navas used as wing-backs.

Dortmund had the better of the first period, but the introduction of yet more first team regulars among eight changes at the break galvanised City.

On came Yaya Toure, David Silva, Wilfried Bony and Sergio Aguero as Guardiola reverted to a back four and watched his team exert a measure of control that led to Aguero’s 76th minute tap-in from a Silva pass.

Jason Denayer was also given his first run-out of the summer, as was new signing Nolito, who came on as a late sub for Toure.

An even later equaliser then sent the match into penalties as half-time substitute Gunn enjoyed his moment of glory.

One player who covered himself in rather less glory was unused sub Samir Nasri – the first official ‘victim’ of Guardiola’s new stand against overweight players.

The City boss issued an update on the Frenchman, who has yet to feature due to fitness concerns:

“Samir arrived a little bit overweight but he’s much much better now. Still there is a little bit of weight. Last season he was injured and we want to avoid that. The players that are on the pitch they are fit, their weight is in the right place to arrive at many minutes like Tosin [Adarabioyo] today or like Fernandinho or like Kolarov and all the other ones. But hopefully in the next two weeks he will be right with us.”

Man City XI: Caballero (Gunn 45), Clichy (Maffeo 45), Otamendi (Denayer 45), Adarabioyo, Kolarov (Angelino 64), Fernando (A.Garcia 45), Delph (Toure 45 sub: Nolito 84), Fernandinho (c), Zinchenko (Silva 45), Navas (Bony 45 sub: Sterling 84), Iheanacho (Aguero 45).

NK Domzale 2 West Ham1

West Ham emerged from their first competitive fixture of the season with a vital away goal and serious concerns about their defence.

The Hammers were outplayed for large swathes of their UEFA Europa League third qualifying round first leg in Slovenia, and only a superb late double save by Adrian kept the scoreline the right side of manageable.

Coach Slaven Bilic had to watch the match from the stands as he serves a UEFA touchline ban, and the view from there was not a good one – with Aaron Cresswell out for four months with a knee injury picked up against Karlsruhe he was forced to play Sam Byram out of position at left back while using Michail Antonio on the opposite flank.

The latter struggled throughout, perhaps raising question marks over his ability to nail down a role in Bilic’s defence. Antonio lost possession in the lead-up to Domzale’s first goal, when Havard Nordtveit was adjudged to have handled in the area, and was way out of position when the hosts regained the lead early in the second half.

In between those two strikes Mark Noble converted a penalty after Winston Reid had been flattened by Domzale’s goalkeeper Axel Maraval, but West Ham were second-best for most of the night, betrayed by an understandable lack of sharpness and a defence that failed to work as a unit.

New signing Sofiane Feghouli was one of the few positives for the Hammers, attacking with real potency and providing excellent set-piece deliveries in the absence of Dmitri Payet, but he faded markedly after the break – much like the rest of the team.

After the loss, assistant boss Nikola Jurcevi gave an update on injured duo Gokhan Tore and Manuel Lanzini ahead of next week’s return leg:

It’s difficult to say which players will play because Gokhan Tore was injured in training on Monday and he must have a scan. Tore has hurt his knee, but we are not sure how serious, It was a very easy training, but after five minutes he felt some pain in his knee. He will have a scan on Friday and we hope it will not be serious. With (Manuel) Lanzini, we don’t have exact information. He will come back from America, where he wanted to play in the Olympic Games for Argentina. We don’t know, but we think he will not be fit for the next game against Domzale.”

West Ham XI: Adrian, Antonio (Quina 80), Nordtveit, Reid, Byram, Obiang, Kouyate, Feghouli, Noble, Valencia, Carroll.