Arsenal 2, Athletic Club 0. Easy as that. The sun was shining, the crowd was buzzing, and—surprise, surprise—Arsenal actually looked like a team ready to wreck people this season. New guy Viktor Gyokeres, yeah, the dude they just splashed a truckload of cash on from Sporting Lisbon? He didn’t waste much time making noise, bagging his first goal for the Gunners in front of a rowdy Emirates crowd. Talk about a debut flex.
So, picture this: Arteta rolls out the heavy artillery for the last preseason game. Raya between the sticks, Saliba and Timber holding it down at the back, Rice and Odegaard running the show in midfield. Saka and Gyokeres up top—good luck, Bilbao. Valverde tried to match them, but honestly, his boys looked a bit lost chasing shadows.
First half? Arsenal were all over it. Saka almost put them ahead early, but Unai Simon—gotta give it to him—pulled off a solid save. Gunners kept poking and prodding, cranking up the pressure, and finally, in the 35th minute, boom—Gyokeres rises like a salmon and heads home a wicked Zubimendi cross. The crowd went bonkers. First goal for the new striker, and you could practically hear the sighs of relief from the Arsenal board. Big money, big moment.
And then, before you could even grab another pint, Saka doubled the lead. Two minutes later, slick team play, Saka gets the ball, cool as you like, slots it past Simon. Athletic Club? Yeah, their heads dropped. Two goals in two minutes, and the rest of the half was just Arsenal flexing.
Second half, both managers started swapping players like it was Sunday league. Arteta threw on some youngsters, Bilbao tried to claw something back, but Saliba and co. weren’t having any of it. Arsenal’s defense looked solid, Raya barely broke a sweat.
Stats? Arsenal had over 60% possession, 15 shots (seven on target), and Bilbao… well, they managed five shots, and only two of those actually made Raya do anything. Dominant stuff.
Honestly, this was exactly the kind of performance Arsenal fans wanted before kicking off the league against United next week. Gyokeres scoring right away? That’s a big mood booster. Rice and Odegaard looked like they’d been playing together for years, and the defense was basically a brick wall.
Arteta seemed pretty chuffed in the post-match interview. “Good performance, controlled the game, scored at the right moments, blah blah blah…” The usual manager stuff, but you could tell he was buzzing over Gyokeres getting off the mark. Arsenal fans have heard the “we still need to improve” line a million times, but hey, this time it actually feels like they mean business.
I mean, let’s not get carried away—it’s preseason. But if Arsenal play like this when the real stuff starts, you’d be daft not to call them title contenders. The squad looks deep, the new signings have slotted in nicely, and there’s just this swagger about them. Now, let’s see if they keep it up when things get spicy in the Premier League.