Arsenal 1 1 Monaco Match Report

We rounded off pre-season by beating Monaco 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw, with Gabriel netting the all-important spot-kick to seal the silverware.

Arsene Wenger was the guest of honour on the night as two of his former clubs went head to head, and French international Youssouf Fofana opened the scoring just after the half-hour mark, however captain for the day Eddie Nketiah managed to restore parity just before the break when he converted a Gabriel Martinelli corner.

Another 45 minutes failed to separate the sides, meaning a shootout was required to decide the destiny of the trophy and we managed to convert all five of our efforts, with Aaron Ramsdale saving from Takumi Minamino to ensure we lifted the trophy for the seventh time.

A packed house were treated to first Emirates Stadium starts in our colours for Jurrien Timber and Declan Rice, but proceedings took a while to warm up with Aaron Ramsdale’s low save from an Aleksandr Golovin shot the only thing for the 60,000 in attendance to get excited by in the opening quarter.

Martinelli was looking sharp however, and the Brazilian was involved in all our best moments of the opening 45 minutes, including an intricate passing move that involved Rice, Fabio Vieira and Nketiah, but the striker was in an offside position when he headed narrowly over.

Nketiah went close again after Martinelli tricked his way past right-back Vanderson and got to the byline but the opportunity went begging, and on 31 minutes we slipped behind when Vanderson found himself at the other end, and his cross-shot was diverted into the top corner by the head of Fofana, leaving Ramsdale helpless.

The setback seemed to sharpen us up, and we found ourselves in the attacking third much more regularly in the final stages of the half, creating a flurry of chances that would see us get back on level terms before the break.

On 42 minutes Takehiro Tomiyasu found Rice on the edge of the box who nudged it past two defenders to seemingly look destined to score, but an excellent sliding challenge by Guillermo Maripin blocked his shot.

Then from the resulting corner, Tomiyasu’s powerful header was excellently pushed over his crossbar by Philipp Koln, but the opposition shot-stopper was powerless to prevent us scoring seconds later.

Another Martinelli flag kick was sent towards the back post, and Nketiah ghosted between two defenders to create the simple task of tucking the ball into the net to mark his moment with the armband in style.

Arteta opted not to change his line-up at the interval, but his troops started sluggishly and were fortunate not to fall behind again when Caio Henrique sped down the left and centred for Wissam Ben Yedder who slid in and struck the post, with the rebound ricocheting off the back of Ramsdale but trickled the right side of the post.

Just after the hour mark the pack was shuffled and amongst seven changes Kai Havertz was brought on for his first taste of the Emirates as an Arsenal player, and two other replacements went close soon after.

Leandro Trossard scampered through a hole in the defence searching for his fourth goal of the summer but drove the ball straight at Kohn, with Martin Odegaard curling over from the edge of the area as he attempted his trademark strike.

But the Emirates Cup remained in the balance and only a flying Ramsdale save prevented Monaco going back ahead when Myron Boadu blasted goalwards, while at the other end a decent Vieira downwards volley had to be tipped over by Kohn, meaning penalties would be needed to decide the victor.

After all of the first six efforts were converted, former Liverpool man Minamino was next to step up and he drove the ball down the centre of the goal, and Ramsdale managed to get a strong hand to it to keep it out.

That would prove to be the only miss, and it was up to Gabriel to tuck home the winning kick which he coolly did to round off pre-season in the best possible way.

1-0 Henrique scores1-1 Odegaard scores2-1 Fofana scores2-2 Jorginho scores3-2 Diatta scores3-3 Havertz scores3-3 Ramsdale saves from Minamino3-4 Vieira scores4-4 Volland scores4-5 Gabriel scores

With our pre-season preparations complete, we now head to Wembley on Sunday to take on Manchester City with the first silverware of the season on the line. After that, our 2023/24 Premier League campaign kicks off on Saturday, August 12 when Nottingham Forest head to north London as we aim for a winning start to the campaign.