The Gunners will travel back to England with an impressive win over Barcelona their final memory from their pre-season tour of the United States, after a poor run of results
Arsenal bounced back from their disappointing loss to Manchester United to beat Barcelona 5-3 in Los Angeles. It was another sloppy start from the Gunners as Robert Lewandowski tapped in from close range following a blistering run from Abde Ezzalzouli. Bukayo Saka quickly hit back as he capitalised on a mistake from Andres Christensen, but minutes later missed the chance to put Arsenal ahead as he dragged a penalty wide following a handball from Ronald Araujo. A deflected free-kick found its way in after Raphinha’s effort struck Martin Odegaard, but Kai Havertz was in the right place at the right time to level the scores just before half time. Leandro Trossard scored early into the second half to hand Arsenal their first lead of the night, as his powerful effort found the bottom-right corner. Kieran Tierney came off the bench to set up Trossard for his second of the game, as the Belgian this time found the bottom-left corner with his last touch of the game before being taken off. There was still time for two more goals though, as Ferran Torres made Arsenal sweat as he pulled one back with two minutes to go.
However, almost instantly Fabio Vieira curled in a beautiful effort to restore their two-goal lead, saving the best goal of the night until last. It was an improved performance from Arsenal who have struggled in pre-season, with their only win before Wednesday night coming against MLS All-Stars. Six talking points from the game at SoFi Stadium below…
Declan Rice was a notable omission from the matchday squad to face Barcelona, despite taking part in pre-match media duties. The £105million record signing is reportedly suffering from a tight calf, and wasn’t risked by Mikel Arteta.
It was a good job too, as the game against Barcelona was a lot more feisty than expected, with three yellow cards being handed out in the first half alone. Folarin Balogun was also absent, but Arteta will be hoping that Rice’s injury isn’t too serious with just weeks to go until the start of the Premier League season.