Arsenal has a pretty sweet footballing season, first finishing in the top 4 of the recently concluded Champions League season, and then cracking some promising deals in the pre-season summer transfer window, roping in the likes of Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber into the side. Their sweet run continued into the pre-season as they came out with a thumping victory against the MLS All-Stars team on Wednesday.
While Gabriel Jesus and Leandro Trossard scored in the 5th and 23rd minutes respectively to give Arsenal a 2-0 lead at half-time; the first half saw five yellow cards for the MLS All-Stars. Jorginho, Gabriel Martinelli, and Kai Havertz added goals in the second half to ensure that the Gunners walked home with a mammoth 5-0 victory at Audi Field.
Just a couple of minutes into the second half, things got worse for MLS as Arsenal was awarded a penalty following a forced handball by Jesus (Not God). Jorginho stepped in to take the spot and successfully converted to give Arsenal a 3-0 lead at 47 minutes.
The match also saw the much-awaited debuts of Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber, who were called into the match in the second half amidst a massive cheer from the stadium crowd. Rice, who was recently transferred from West Ham United to Arsenal over a mammoth £110 million deal, and Timber, who moved into the side from Ajax following a £40 million deal, walked as replacements in the 65th minute along with Ben White in the Centre.
Trossard got inadvertently knocked down in the second half as he reeled in pain. The unfortunate injury concern called for a replacement and Gabriel Martinelli was called in to fill in for him. Martinelli eventually went on to net in the fourth goal in the 84th minute for Arsenal after receiving a sublime cross from fellow substitute Martin Odegaard.
Just a few minutes after the Martinelli stunner, with all hell breaking lose for MLS, Kai Havertz added insult to injury as he ended up scoring the 5th and final goal for Arsenal, pushing the scoreline to a massive 5-0 gap in the 89th minute.
The victory was a sweet delight for the Gunenrs and particularly Havertz, who scored his first goal for Arsenal goal, just one day after being widely ridiculed on social media for a poor performance in the MLS All-Stars Skills Challenge. He scored the final goal for his side to make the victory even more thumping for the Gunners.
Arsenal will next be locking horns with arch-rivals Manchester United in their next pre-season game on Saturday in New Jersey.
