Episode 839 - "It's only pre-season"
Arseblog Arsecast, The Arsenal Podcast
arseblog.com
4.8 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode I'm joined by Tom Canton from The Gooner Talk to discuss Arsenal's defeat to Villarreal on Wednesday evening. We talk about finding the balance between the fact 'It's only pre-season' and some worrying aspects of the Gunners' performance – including defensive instability, and how we need to change aspects of the way we play with Viktor Gyokeres up front. There's also discussion of midfield, the need for more creativity, some positives with the return of Gabriel and Jurrien Timber, and Max Dowman continuing to impress. Should he be in the squad for Old Trafford? All that, some Noni Madueke, and lots more.
Follow Tom on BlueSky - https://bsky.app/profile/tomcanton.bsky.social – and visit The Gooner Talk here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGoonerTalkTV
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to another ArsBlog, arsecast, right here on arseblog.com. |
| 0:29.7 | How are you? |
| 0:30.8 | Hope you're well. |
| 0:31.3 | Thank you very much indeed, as always, for being here. |
| 0:34.7 | Preseason continued yesterday evening with a three-two defeat to Via Real. |
| 0:41.8 | Results at this time of the season don't really matter that much, but performances when you're just |
| 0:47.1 | a little over a week away from the start of the new Premier League season do matter a little bit more, |
| 0:53.3 | and I think it's fair to say that on that |
| 0:55.9 | basis, there are some interesting talking points from last night's game, particularly when you |
| 1:01.8 | put them in the context of preseason in general, all the games that we have played so far. |
| 1:08.2 | So that is what we're going to delve into in today's show. And of course, |
| 1:11.8 | there is another game this weekend against Athletic Club, Athletic Bilbao, taking place at the |
| 1:18.7 | Emirates on Saturday. It's the Emirates Cup game. And I hope that when Michael Artetta comes to |
| 1:24.2 | picking his team for that game, it is in the, in the ballpark of the team that |
| 1:29.3 | he's going to pick for Old Trafford, because I think throughout this preseason, the selections |
| 1:34.3 | for obvious reasons, you want to give players minutes, et cetera, et cetera, have been a bit |
| 1:38.3 | hodgepodge, mix a match, and I don't know that we've seen anything close to what is, should be our first 11. So we'll see what happens in that regard. And I think that might also be a bit of a talking point when we look at the VRIL game. So let's just get on with today's show. And with me to look back at last night's game from the Gooner Talk TV. It is Tom Canton. Good morning, Tom. |
| 2:05.7 | Hello, May, how are you? I'm good, thank you. I'm good, thank you. Listen, discussions of preseason always have this, it's only preseason caveat to them, which I think we all understand. |
| 2:12.4 | But at the same time, we're looking at these games, we're looking at what happens, we're looking |
| 2:15.8 | at performances, we're looking at individuals, we're looking at the collective, and we're trying to assess |
| 2:20.2 | our readiness for the new season, right? So last night against Villarreal, you know, Hong Kong, |
| 2:28.2 | Singapore, it's humid, it's hot, the conditions are difficult, you're looking for an |
... |
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