After a less-than-ideal summer tour in North America, Arsenal returned to their home ground and completely dominated Bayer Leverkusen, a team that had caused terror in both the Bundesliga and Europe last season.
Despite not being able to showcase new signing Riccardo Calafiori in the final summer friendly in front of a large home crowd at Emirates Stadium, manager Mikel Arteta was not bothered as Arsenal delivered an utterly convincing performance against the Bundesliga champions, Bayer Leverkusen.
Both Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen fielded their strongest available line-ups, showing seriousness in the final stretch before the new season. However, no one expected Leverkusen to be overwhelmed so early and to struggle against the well-organized play of the hosts at Emirates.
In the 8th minute, left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko surged forward from the second line, received a backward pass from Kai Havertz, and took a shot from outside the box. The shot was low and quite tricky, making it impossible for Bayer Leverkusen’s goalkeeper, Matej Kovar, to save it.
Just a minute later, a misjudged pass-back between goalkeeper Matej Kovar and Leverkusen’s defenders was intercepted by Arsenal. After a few quick passes in the visitors’ penalty area, Kai Havertz set up Leandro Trossard, who calmly scored to double Arsenal’s lead.
Not stopping there, in the 38th minute, the only forward for Arsenal in this match, Gabriel Jesus, made a daring run and took a decisive shot from outside the box, perfectly placing it to make it 3-0 before the break.
In the second half, Arsenal made near-complete changes to their team, except for goalkeeper David Raya, but Bayer Leverkusen could not take advantage of the disruption in the hosts’ play. Manager Xabi Alonso failed to improve Leverkusen’s performance, and even Granit Xhaka was completely absent on his return to Emirates Stadium. The German side even conceded a fourth goal in the 65th minute from a Kai Havertz strike before Adam Hlozek scored a consolation goal in the 79th minute. In their four friendlies, Arsenal achieved 2 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss, a fairly decent result for their preparation.
On August 11, the “Gunners” will face Lyon in the Emirates Cup in London, and a week later, they will officially kick off the new Premier League season by hosting Wolverhampton at home.
