Arsenal vs Hibernian: 3 fairly meaningless pre-season talking points

Arsenal took on Hibernian for the first game of their pre-season campaign and what better way to start than with some mostly meaningless takeaways from the clash?

Mikel Arteta opted to hand full non-competitive first team debuts to two players for the Easter Road meeting with Arthur Okonkwo starting in goal and Harry Clarke lining up in central defence alongside Pablo Mari.

There were also starts for Sead Kolasinac and Willian, but no appearance in the squad for new signing Nuno Tavares who clearly isn’t at the fitness levels yet to earn his first Arsenal minutes.

Rob Holding and Calum Chambers, who had reported for pre-season training, also didn’t feature and weren’t in any of the training pictures revealed in the build-up. Elsewhere there were also the first inclusions in a matchday squad for Omari Hutchinson, Omar Rekik and Jack Henry-Francis.

Arsenal vs Hibernian: 3 fairly meaningless pre-season talking points as Mikel Arteta’s side fall to 2-1 defeat at Easter Road

The home side took the lead after 21 minutes when Cedric’s extremely uncomfortable back pass to Arthur Okonkwo was flapped at by the 19-year-old. Okonkwo initially went to collect the ball before realising it wasn’t a headed pass and proceeded to get himself in an almighty muddle, air-kicking the pass and leaving Martin Boyle with a simple tap-in.

Reiss Nelson came closest for the Gunners with a effort that was parried away by Matt Macey, while Hibs also struck the post following a neat counter-attack.

Only Mohamed Elneny, Pablo Mari, Sead Kolasinac and Cedric Soares kept their places after half-time and one of the subs, Nicolas Pepe, struck the crossbar shortly after the restart.

Arsenal dominated possession from thereon in and came close once more when Thomas Partey smacked the post with a free-kick, only for Hibs to put breathing space between themselves and their visitors after Daniel MacKay nodded home from a corner. Should have been flagged for offside, but so what.

Pepe then missed a penalty before Emile Smith Rowe finished at the back post for a goal, it’s fair to say, was coming. Arsenal pushed but it finished 2-1.

1. Arthur Okonkwo Shows His Nerves on Debut

A first non-competitive senior debut for Okonkwo couldn’t really have gone much worse. But it really doesn’t matter. No need for Okonkwoe. He set himself up for an evening of jitteriness having let a simple cross squirm through his hands, which undoubtedly played a part in his error for the opener.

There was also some uncertainty with his delivery as he rolled the ball out straight to an opposition player without giving his teammate a call.

This is also pre-season, and his debut appearance alongside first team players. Matches such as these are designed to help players not only build fitness, but also confidence and comfort ahead of the coming campaign.

Only 19 years old, the mistakes and nerves can simply be put down to that. Throughout his time with the youth sides errors were few and far between and the club wouldn’t have placed so much faith in him to jump him up into the senior setup if those mistakes were commonplace.

Emi Martinez was at Arsenal for ten years and mostly dreadful for nine of them. Okonkwo getting this out of his system early will do him good. He’ll learn. No need to look deeply into his performance. It’s his first game as a senior Arsenal player.