Arsenal saw off Al-Nasr Dubai SC with a 3-2 victory in their mid-season friendly, with a number of youngsters given the chance to impress.
Unai Emery gave chances to all the senior players who made the trip to Dubai, but that still left room in the team for a number of academy stars to make rare appearances for the first team.
The combination took a little while to gel though, with Al Nasr taking the lead in the 14th minute. Carl Jenkinson brought things level before half time, before Alexandre Lacazette and debutant Tyreece John-Jules made it 3-1. There was still time for the hosts to pull one back with a 90th-minute penalty, but Arsenal left with the win.
The main thing was to avoid injury and get a good run out, and on that front, the event was a success. Let’s have a look at our player ratings for the match.
Goalkeeper and Defence
Bernd Leno 6
There was nothing Leno could do about the goal he conceded, as it was a fine finish from Fernandez in off the post. Other than that he dealt with the opportunities Arsenal conceded well, even if his defenders seemed to ignore his clearly audible shouts to leave the ball when he came for catches.
Carl Jenkinson 7.5
Jenkinson always seems to give his best when he pulls on an Arsenal shirt, and he put in a typically hard-working performance in a game many of his teammates were playing at walking pace. Eventually, he was rewarded with a goal, shortly after hitting the post. He then came off at half-time.
Shkodran Mustafi 3
Even against relegation battlers from the UAE Arabian Gulf League, Mustafi still managed to make defending look difficult. Al Nasr had chance after chance in the early stages in areas he was supposed to be covering, and then they scored after he seemingly fell over whilst trying to block a shot. He also came off at half-time.
Konstantinos Mavropanos 6
Mavropanos was one of few to last the full 90 minutes, which will be a positive for him after his injury problems. He misplaced one or two passes and wasn’t faultless defensively, but he was a lot better than some of his partners at the back and he showed good physicality throughout.
Zech Medley 5
Medley was playing at left-back, rather than at centre-back as in his Europa League appearances. At first, that seemed to be working well, as he had a few nice early touches. However, he quickly wore out in the humidity and didn’t seem up for sprinting up and down the touchline. That led to a couple of mistakes at both ends of the pitch.