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Arsenal have so far played three official games in pre-season, winning two, against Boreham Wood and PSG respectively, and losing one on penalties against Atletico Madrid after a 1-1 draw in Singapore. The game was one full of positives, especially with young players such as new signing Matteo Guendouzi and Emile Smith Rowe making their presence felt in the game, with the latter scoring a sublime goal just after the interval.
The Gunners, for most parts of the game, played some neat football and their interchange of passes was very good. In the PSG game as well, they improved significantly, especially with the likes of Mesut Ozil coming back into the fold. Their passing got better and better as the game progressed. In the first half, there was a quick combination of passes between Aubameyang and Ozil to free Alex Iwobi up front, but the Nigerian could not beat Gianluigi Buffon in the PSG goal.
Another noticeable difference in the games seen so far as compared to Wenger's reign as manager is how quickly the team breaks forward when an opportunity of a counter-attack presents itself. This was evident in the game against Boreham Wood and we saw lots of that in the PSG game, which of course, led to Mesut Ozil's goal in the first half of the game.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was left free on the right and with his searing pace fed the ball to Ozil in the box, who made no mistake while slotting it beyond Buffon. Another thing of note is Unai Emery's idea of playing a deep-lying midfielder who has the ability to play passes over the top of the opposing team defence, especially with the pace of Aubameyang who can make those diagonal runs in behind to create a goal scoring opportunity.
With the likes of Xhaka, Torreira and Guendouzi in the middle of the park, Arsenal have players who can find the runs of pacy players like Aubameyang, Ozil and the likes. The use of this tactic by Emery to break opposition defences who play a high line is very good for the team.
However, Unai Emery admitted in his post-match press conference that the team are working on their attitude when they do not have the ball, especially pressing the opposition to get the ball back. This is something very key if the Gunners hope to secure a top 4 position this season and compete for major honours. A team looking to achieve this cannot afford to ship in 50 goals like they did last season and the high pressing tactic Unai Emery is trying to bring in has to be adopted by the players.
