Christian Norgaard marked his first appearance at Emirates Stadium with a goal, as our summer signing continues to settle into life at Arsenal.

The midfielder has played at our home before of course, as part of the Brentford team, but he said it was a much more enjoyable experience to walk out with 60,000 supporters behind him this time. 

“It was fantastic of course, walking onto the pitch, knowing you’re an Arsenal player,” he said after the game. “I’ve tried a few times being in the opposing team and it’s more fun to wear the Arsenal shirt! It was a big moment of course.

“It was a big moment as well (to score), but I couldn’t really enjoy it as much as I would have because of the scoreline at the time. And also, not being able to win of course this game at home. But there’s still some things we need to improve before the season starts.”

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Christian’s header from Gabriel Martinelli’s corner in the first half pulled a goal back for us, but ultimately wasn’t enough to prevent defeat in our penultimate pre-season fixture. 

Despite the scoreline, Christian believes there are lots of positives to take from the performance. “It’s just the final execution in both ends,” he said. “They had two or three chances, and they scored on all of them. And we had so many almost-chances like that where we just didn’t execute well enough. 

“So that’s what we have to work on the last 10 or 11 days before the season starts. And if we get that right I’m sure we will be fine in the season.”

All six of our summer signings were involved in the game, and Norgaard said the group is really starting to gel. “I think for me it’s nice not being the only new guy in the class! 

“So I’m enjoying that and to be fair everyone is so nice. It’s been such an easy team to settle in. I really enjoyed my first month and hopefully there’s plenty of more good months to come.”

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