If this is a sign of things to come, then the 2024/25 campaign could bring more thrilling football and another hatful of goals at Arsenal.
Tearing strips of Bayer Leverkusen in front of a joyous Emirates Stadium crowd, Mikel Arteta’s team went into overdrive as they hammered the Bundesliga champions 4-1.
With the new Premier League season now only a week away, this felt like a statement of intent.
Yes, it was ‘only’ pre-season. But the swagger and the intensity with which Arsenal went about their business – 2-0 up through Oleksandr Zinchenko and Leandro Trossard within the first nine minutes – means you would be brave indeed to bet against The Gunners going hell for leather at the top of the table yet again.
Alonso, in his post-match press conference via Hayters TV, felt that this is an Arsenal side capable of challenging or England’s biggest honours yet again. He admits his Leverkusen side simply could not cope with the free-flowing nature of their devastating frontline.
As for Arteta, the growing understanding between Kai Havertz and the back-in-form Gabriel Jesus provides another reason to be excited.
Arsenal hammer Bayer Leverkusen at the Emirates
“It’s something that you can see coming. It’s natural and it flows,” Arteta told Football London of the Havertz and Jesus connection. “There is good chemistry between them and Leo too, because those three all have that false nine profile.
“I really liked what I saw today.”
“You have to be very sensitive to read the information the players are giving you. Not only individually, but the chemistry within the units. How things flow on one side or the other,” adds the Spaniard, who also praised Havertz as he scored in the 2-1 USA defeat to Liverpool too.
“It’s telling something that we can still develop, especially on our left side. Those combinations are giving us options and they are all really, really good players so the competition is quite big there.”
Havertz, up against the team where he made his name back home in Germany, was outstanding. Another display which felt like one in the eye for his critics.
Alternating with the ever-mobile Jesus and Trossard, Havertz set up Zinchenko’s thumping early opener before flicking the ball into the Belgian’s pass for an immediate second.
The £65 million signing from Chelsea would get his own name on the scoresheet just past the hour – following some fine approach play from Bukayo Saka – but not before Gabriel Jesus skipped his way through the located the bottom corner.
Arteta feels that, after an injury hit second season in North London, Jesus is ready to go again and make up for lost time.
Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus both score
“As I said from day one, the first feeling when I saw him after talking to him at the end of the season it was something different. I could sense it,” Arteta says of the reborn Brazilian.
“His energy was different, the way he looks is different, the way he’s moving is different and he really wants it.
“Now it’s a question of finding the consistency and doing it consistency and doing it in any context, any situation, any day, every three days, for 90 minutes, for 30 minutes, for 70 minutes.
“He looks good.”
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