Arsenal drew against Ligue 2 RC Lens in our pre-season opener but there’s no need to overreact – we’re fine.

Lens showed their intend to win from the start, with a couple of shots saved by Emi Martinez in goal. Although Chuba Akpom also had a go for us, with his shot also being saved at the other end, Per Mertesacker’s pace let him down and almost allowed the Ligue 2 team to score.

Arsenal displayed decent link-up play but were obviously just viewing this as a training session, which it technically is.

Sure enough, in the 38th minute, Lens scored thanks to a poor backwards header from Calum Chambers.

https://twitter.com/Onefootball/status/756571387326820354

It was all change in the second half. Well…almost. Matt Macey took Emi’s place in goal, while Bielik, Gibbs, Campbell, Ox and Gnabry swapped with Debuchy, Monreal, Elneny, Akpom, and Jeff.

One of our best chances of the second half fell to Joel Campbell after some fancy footwork from Theo Walcott (I know, right?) put him one-on-one with the Lens goalkeeper. He rounded the player, dribbled towards the open goal…and skied it.

We had plenty of possession and generally played well. It was exciting to see some of our younger prospects and the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain shining through.

Macey also pulled off a brilliant finger-tip save from a 25-yarder.

With 10-minutes to play, Campbell had a brilliant shot saved from the Lens keeper. Our young players looked promising, and it was the Ox to finally equalise with an absolute stunner. It could have been a cross but who cares?

https://twitter.com/PetrCech/status/756575889178161152

Overall, not a bad show. Plenty to build on but no need to be dramatic.

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