Gunners shutout at Tottenham. Where will the goals come from?

The preseason has come to an end, and after watching today’s performance I don’t think Arsenal are quite ready to start the Premier League season. Do you?

My number one concern is, where will the goals come from? In our last two preseason matches, against two very good sides, the Gunners were only able to muster one goal. (Two if you count Joe Willock’s ghost goal v Chelsea). Anyway, I’m deeply concerned we will struggle to find the back of the next this season. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang failed to score in all six preseason matches. This is not a good omen.

Defensively, Tottenham carved us open on numerous occasions, and also missed at least three to four easy opportunities to score more goals. Yes, I am worried.

So, we head to Brentford on Friday. My guess is Arteta will probably go with the same starting XI we saw today at Tottenham.

After the match, Arteta told Arsenal.com,
“It was a great test to play that type of game before starting [the season]. I think the game had different phases, 10 minutes when we had some problems with our high press and we were a little bit disorganized, after that we got control of the game and dominated it. We had some big chances but didn’t score and they had one big chance and they didn’t score. Second half it was very interrupted with the amount of substitutions that happened so to get a flow in the game is more difficult and the game was decided in an action where we made a mistake and we got punished. Take the positives and learn and for the next time be more prepared and better. We took a lot of good things. We played with a lot of kids as well who did extremely well today, so I think it’s good for the preparation. In terms of preparation, we have done everything we could. With all the difficulties we’ve had with this Covid world and surprises but I think we improved a lot as a team and we worked on a lot of things. In some moments in games we put them the way we wanted and in some others we’ve still made some errors that are costing us games.”

Outside of the injuries to Thomas Partey, Gabriel Magalhaes and Eddie Nketiah, two other players were notably absent, Joe Willock and Rob Holding. Arteta said Holding was not fit enough to play, while he was more vague about Willock’s absence. My guess is Willock is on his way out of Arsenal, and on his way to Newcastle United for a year-long loan spell.

Regarding Arsenal’s need to find a back-up goalkeeper in this transfer window, the boss said, “I don’t know, I repeat myself. We train with the players we have available, we are trying to do the right things to improve the team in the areas that are needed. At the moment we have come so far and the window is still open.”

Here’s our current list of potential transfer targets buzzing around the internet, through the rumor mills, and various other outlets. Forgive me if I missed anyone: Lautaro Martinez, Tammy Abraham, James Maddison, Martin Odegaard, Houssem Aouar, Kieran Trippier, Aaron Ramsdale, Ruben Guimaraes, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Max Aarons, Ruben Neves, Joaquin Correa, Bernardo Silva, Manuel Locatelli, Marco Asensio.

We still need a top playmaking midfielder, a right fullback, a back-up goalkeeper and another striker. In a perfect world I would like to see James Maddison, Kieran Trippier, and Lautaro Martinez fill those roles, respectively

I’m concerned this club is not ready for Friday, and then what lies beyond until the transfer window closes on August 31st. It’s so important for the Gunners to get off to a strong start this season. We can not continue to play from behind again. Playing catch-up is not one of our strong suits.

So, with any luck, someone will start scoring goals, and hopefully, on Friday.

Cheers.

Gunner1953