{"id":57118,"date":"2025-08-10T06:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T06:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/57118\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T06:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T06:57:09","slug":"three-things-we-learned-from-arsenal-fc-win-over-athletic-club-as-new-midfield-shines-and-valuable-weapon-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/57118\/","title":{"rendered":"Three things we learned from Arsenal FC win over Athletic Club as new midfield shines and valuable weapon emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Arsenal<\/p>\n

Arsenal<\/a> finished their pre-season in emphatic fashion by beating Athletic Club.<\/p>\n

Arsenal kick off their Premier League campaign against Manchester United at Old Trafford next week and will now head there in a confident mood.<\/p>\n

And, here, Standard Sport takes a look at three talking points from Arsenal\u2019s final pre-season game\u2026<\/p>\n

In the end, it turned out to be worth the wait as the trio excelled during this victory over Athletic Club.<\/p>\n

Zubimendi was the star performer, creating Arsenal\u2019s opening goal with a brilliant cross that Gyokeres headed home.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard dovetailed nicely with Rice and there was a new shape to Arsenal\u2019s midfield compared to last season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Martin Zubimendi ran the show for Arsenal against Athletic Club<\/p>\n

Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Rice played as an advanced No8 last year, but he was much deeper against Athletic and sometimes even behind Zubimendi.<\/p>\n

The fluidity suited both players, with Rice thriving by being able to find Saka early from deep with long passes.<\/p>\n

Zubimendi, in turn, was able to shine in tight spaces on the edge of Athletic\u2019s box by pushing forward.<\/p>\n

Gyokeres gets off the mark<\/p>\n

After finding the net, Gyokeres merely raised his hand to the Arsenal fans before his team-mates mobbed him.<\/p>\n

The Swede then began walking back to his own half, before Rice stopped him and forced the striker to go back to the fans.<\/p>\n

Gyokeres turned and did his signature celebration, much to the delight of the 60,000 supporters – who had been waiting all afternoon for that moment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Off the mark: Viktor Gyokeres<\/p>\n

Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

They will hope to see it plenty of times this season – and this was an encouraging display from Gyokeres.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old took his goal really well, hammering home a header after Zubimendi\u2019s cross picked him out.<\/p>\n

Gyokeres could have had a second after the break, but Athletic goalkeeper Unai Simon tipped his diving header onto the post.<\/p>\n

When he came off with 20 minutes to go, Gyokeres did so to a standing ovation and the Swede will hope he has done enough to start at Old Trafford next week.<\/p>\n

Calafiori catches the eye<\/p>\n

Riccardo Calafiori only played 45 minutes of this victory – but it was a timely reminder of what he can offer.<\/p>\n

The Italian caused countless problems by overlapping Gabriel Martinelli, galloping forward like a wild horses.<\/p>\n

Calafiori played a different role to that of Myles Lewis-Skelly. He did not tuck into midfield, but instead operated as a conventional left-back.<\/p>\n

It gave Arsenal more width and a different point of attack, which could prove useful in the coming season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Impressive: Riccardo Calafiori<\/p>\n

Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Gunners have struggled to break down teams playing in a low block and, even from left-back, Calafiori could help change that.<\/p>\n

His natural width from left-back stretched the game against Athletic and, in doing so, gave Saka more space on the other flank.<\/p>\n

Lewis-Skelly will most likely start the season as Arsenal\u2019s left-back, but Calafiori has underlined how he can be a valuable weapon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal finished their pre-season in emphatic fashion by beating Athletic Club. Arsenal kick off their Premier League campaign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,47064,596,6235,8316,85,6245],"class_list":{"0":"post-57118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-declan-rice","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-martin-zubimendi","13":"tag-mikel-arteta","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-viktor-gyokeres"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}