Featured Image Credit: Arsenal Football Club
Topics: Arsenal, AS Monaco, Fan Reactions
Ryan Smart
Arsenal fans are all saying the same thing after conceding the opening goal in the Emirates Cup against Monaco.
The popular friendly, which was previously held as a four-team tournament before changing to a stand-alone match, is Arsenal's first match of the 2023/24 season in front of their own fans in north London.
Eddie Nketiah was given the captaincy for the match in the absence of other options, and started in the centre forward position.
It wasn't exactly the first half that manager Mikel Arteta will have hoped for, however. Monaco went ahead towards the end of the half, Youssouf Fofana finding space inside the area before heading beyond Ramsdale.
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And the Gunners faithful were far from impressed with Arsenal's defending for the goal.
Arsenal fans react to opening goal vs Monaco
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Taking to Twitter, one fan wrote: "Something about our defence is off this pre-season. Gotta work around letting in these easy goals."
That was echoed by another fan, who said: "Arsenal's defending has been rather bad this entire pre-season. Huge gaps."
A second fan added: "We've looked really frail in defence. Arsenal are missing Gabriel."
A third wrote: "We're too open, Arsenal defence is all over the place."
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And another said: "Poor from Martinelli to allow player to so easily get the cross in."
The Gunners did end the half on a positive note, however, Martinelli redeeming his earlier error by whipping in a superb corner for Nketiah to head in to the back of the net.
And with the Brazilian combining well with new signing Declan Rice, Arteta's side will hope to continue that momentum into the second half.
From the defensive side of play, though, the Spanish boss will be keen for his side to iron out any mistakes ahead of their first competitive match of the season - facing off against Manchester City in the Community Shield.