Arsenal Vs Atletico Madrid: Things I think

Arsenal played Atletico Madrid on Thursday afternoon in the second official preseason friendly of the summer. Here are some things I think after watching.

It was the first real competitive-ish test for this new Arsenal led by new Head Coach, Unai Emery. Although they have already had one preseason outing this summer, an 8-0 win over Boreham, the disparity in competition meant gleaning genuine and accurate conclusions was a somewhat futile exercise. That is not the case here.

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Although there was the inevitable sluggishness of a preseason friendly with some major stars absent, primarily due to the World Cup, Atletico Madrid, the team that knocked Arsenal out of the Europa League on their way to winning the competition last season, provided a nice test for this new iteration of the Gunners.

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So, given that there was so much to focus on and watch for in this fixture, I wanted to simply give you lots of the things that I noticed while watching. So, here are just a few of the thoughts that I had throughout the match. Not all are fully formed, many will be wrong, but they are simply things to take note of as the Emery era continues to unveil itself.

It was nice to see Mesut Ozil in attendance and get a huge roar when his face came up on the screen. Arsenal need to offer him the support he deserves.
Unai Emery was relentlessly on the edge of his technical area, pointing out tactical elements of the game that he wanted to change. He also wasn’t afraid to pull individual players over and have a one-on-one discussion about a particular aspect of their positioning.
On this, the ten minutes after half-time was the best period of the match for Arsenal. That is a clear sign that Emery’s system is taking some learning. The changes that he made to his team and the instruction that he gave during that 15-minute break made a substantial and immediate difference.
The system changed at the hour mark, from the 4-3-3 that we are becoming accustomed to, to a 3-4-3. Emery, I believe, will use both throughout the season and wants his team to be able to react to the opposition.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang played exclusively out wide, with he and Alexandre Lacazette showing more sparks as an attacking partnership.
Sead Kolasinac played the whole 90 minutes. He is clearly one of the fittest players in the squad and could push Nacho Monreal hard for the starting left back position.
Matteo Guendouzi was the only other player to avoid the 60-minute purge. His performance was inconsistent, showing a business and industry that was nice, a lovely range of passing, switching the play on several occasions, though also allowing himself to get pressed easily and taking a little too slow to release passes.
Why did the commentator keep calling Emile Smith Rowe ‘Ernie Smith Rowe’?
Smith Rowe was one of the best players on the pitch. He scored a lovely goal, was wonderfully calm and composed on the ball, and is an outstanding talent. Please don’t overhype him.
There is much work to be done.

There are many other things that I could have mentioned, from the promising performance of Reiss Nelson to the centre-half and goalkeeping competition. But, for now, they are the key storylines and developments that I was keeping an eye out on for and will continue to do in the coming weeks this summer.