Arsenal Match Reports
Arsenal’s Girona Win Showed Control, Depth and Several Encouraging Individual Displays
Arsenal beat Girona 4-1 as Dowman, Tzolis and the defence all made promising preseason impressions.
Arsenal began preseason with a 4-1 win over Girona, and the performance reflected the balance, quality and depth that Mikel Arteta now has available. The contest was disrupted later by substitutions, but before that point Arsenal had already taken control and made the stronger impression.
Girona briefly found a route back into the game after the interval when Arnau Martínez won in the air from a corner. Arsenal answered quickly. Dowman restored the two-goal advantage with a sharp finish into the bottom corner, and Gabriel Jesus then converted after a Ben White recovery to make it 4-1 in the 55th minute. From there, the match became more fractured, though the outcome had been settled in all but name.
Dowman stood out as Arsenal’s most dangerous player. He continually looked capable of producing something decisive, and that feeling proved justified. In one early move he dropped into midfield, received the ball, turned away from his marker with a strong first touch and played a perfectly weighted pass that put Havertz through one-on-one with the goalkeeper. When Girona scored, Dowman responded by taking the ball in the right half-space, cutting inside and driving a shot into the bottom corner. His creativity and finishing were both evident, but so was his understanding of when to release the ball, when to keep possession moving and when to beat a man.
Tzolis also offered encouraging signs in his Arsenal debut. The left winger, signed from Club Brugge, held the width on the left and worked within Arteta’s positional structure. His first goal for the club came after Ricardo Calafiori found him in space inside the box, and he finished after a slight deflection. He is still imperfect, especially on his weak foot, but he ended the game with the joint-most touches in the opposition box.
The back line was equally notable. With Jurriën Timber, Gabriel and William Saliba absent, Arsenal still fielded Ben White, Piero Hincapié, Christian Mosquera and Ricardo Calafiori. Girona managed only two shots in the first half, both from outside the box and off target. Ethan Nwaneri, back from Marseille, completed all 26 of his passes but had limited impact in the final third.
Arsenal Match Reports
Arsenal Benefit From Late Offside Call After Another Questionable Decision
Another disputed VAR call left Arteta puzzled, but Arsenal still beat Hull City 1-0.
Mikel Arteta may soon need extra storage for the collection.
At Anfield, the Arsenal manager had already been arguing that Jurriën Timber’s pull on Alexander Isak should have brought a penalty, only for the decision to go the other way. A week later, the same theme returned at the Emirates, with Arsenal on the receiving end of another strange intervention from the officials, this time involving Kai Havertz and Hull City’s Nobel Mendy.
Havertz was hauled down in the box by Mendy, but no whistle came immediately and play was allowed to continue for several minutes. The move carried on until referee Farai Hallam finally stopped the game after a Hull attack had developed at the other end. What followed only added to the confusion.
After going to the touchline monitor, Hallam informed the crowd: “After review, there is a holding offense by Blue No. 32 on Red No. 29,” and the initial reaction in the stadium suggested a penalty might be coming. But the decision then shifted. “However, Red No. 29 is in an offside position, so the final decision will be a free kick for offside to Hull City.”
That explanation did not settle matters. The sequence looked like a needless interruption to many inside the ground, and the laws of the game point in a different direction. Law 11 in the FA Handbook states: “In situations where … a player in an offside position is moving towards the ball with the intention of playing the ball and is fouled before playing or attempting to play the ball, or challenging an opponent for the ball, the foul is penalized as it has occurred before the offside offense.”
In other words, Havertz’s position beyond the last defender should not have outweighed the foul that happened first.
“This should really have been given as a penalty kick,” Darren Cann, the former World Cup final assistant referee, told BBC’s Match of the Day.
Arsenal were spared in the end by Martin Ødegaard, whose 72nd-minute finish secured a 1-0 win. Arteta, though, stopped short of a full condemnation of the officials. “I was surprised because when they sent the referee to the monitor, I was being told it was a clear penalty for a pull,” he said. “They decided not to give it because of the starting position of Kai—he was offside—so I’m not sure what the interpretation is, I’m sure they will make it clear to understand.”
Arsenal
Madueke answers England omission with another Arsenal display
Madueke backed up his England setback with a decisive Arsenal display and renewed purpose.
Noni Madueke’s latest Arsenal outing offered a familiar reminder of what has made him such a striking presence this season: persistence, self-belief and an ability to keep forcing the issue even when the margins are tight.
“Being a footballer is not all highs,” Madueke once reflected. “In fact, it’s 50% lows.”
That outlook felt apt as he dealt with another setback from England manager Thomas Tuchel, who left him out of the squad for a second camp in a row. Yet the winger did not drift. Instead, he kept searching for space, repeatedly attacking Hull and refusing to ease off even when the contest threatened to settle into frustration.
His reward arrived after 72 minutes. Madueke found a small opening, let fly and forced Konstantinos Tzolakis into a save that dropped kindly for Martin Ødegaard to score the only goal of the game. Even before that decisive moment, Madueke had already shown the determination that has defined his recent rise, and he later passed up two more chances to add to the lead.
The wider context gives his contribution extra weight. Before the September international break, Madueke had played just 42 combined minutes in the Premier League and Champions League this season, despite being fit for every match. Mikel Arteta was blunt about his early level of influence, saying, “I haven’t liked too much what he was doing, and it was impacting the game”
After being left out by Tuchel, Madueke took a personal trainer on a warm weather break to refine his game. Arteta later said, “That’s Noni and that’s his mindset,” and then described him as “the best player” in training at London Colney. “He gave me no option not to select him.”
His recent run has also owed something to events around him, with chances opening up on both wings. But the way Madueke takes those moments matters just as much. He lives by what he calls a “healthy delusion”, and as he explained: “When that delusion comes in,” he once explained, “I feel like that’s when you can really reach new heights. You need it as a football player. You need it.”
That same belief, along with his “extreme faith in your ability,” carried him through the backlash around his arrival from Chelsea in the summer of 2025. Saul Isaksson-Hurst summed him up simply: “Noni is a mentality monster. He is so driven, sometimes you have to tell him to calm down. He is very aware, very astute.”
Arsenal
Ødegaard Steers Arsenal Past Hull to Preserve Top Spot
Arsenal stayed top after a narrow 1-0 win over Hull City, with Ødegaard striking the decisive goal.
Arsenal stayed at the top of the Premier League after edging Hull City 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
For much of the afternoon, the home side found Hull difficult to break down. The breakthrough eventually came in the 72nd minute, when Noni Madueke’s effort was pushed into the path of Martin Ødegaard, and the captain reacted first to finish and settle the contest.
The result extended Arsenal’s best-ever start to a Premier League season. They now have 27 points from their first 10 matches, with nine wins and only one defeat.
It was not a fluent performance, but it was the kind that matters in a title race. Hull made the game uncomfortable, Arsenal were not at their sharpest, yet they still found a way to take all three points. That is often the difference between champions and the sides chasing them.
Ødegaard was the decisive figure. More commonly praised for his passing and creativity, he showed a different side here, finishing like a striker rather than a playmaker. Kai Havertz and substitute Viktor Gyökeres had struggled to provide that edge earlier in the match, which made the captain’s intervention all the more important.
There was also a reminder of Ødegaard’s wider value to the side. He has at times been judged on goals and assists, but this was a timely example of him taking responsibility when Arsenal needed someone to do so.
In the end, the numbers and the scoreline told the same story. Arsenal were not at their best, but they remained in control of the summit and continued to defend their crown with another narrow win.
