Arsenal, who returned from last season's Premier League in defeat, has made a big reinforcement this summer, and tonight will usher in the first official warm-up match of the new season, challenging Germany's "old enemy" Nuremberg away from home. Arsenal's training lineup has changed a lot, and is expected to be mainly a trial lineup to help players find their best form. The tactical implementation will not be too strict, and it is likely to be a "free play battle" full of goals. The last time these two teams met, they scored more than 8 goals, so a repeat of that history is not out of the question. (Match starts at 1:00 a.m. on Friday)
Arsenal made their debut away to Nuremberg, also in the Bundesliga, in a pre-season warm-up match last season, and they chose that opponent again this season. At that time, new signing Gabil Jecsis scored twice, and eventually won the match 5-3 after being down by two goals. For this match, Arsenal will also be looking to new signing Xaviers and other players to show their strength. Although the understanding between him and his new teammates such as Martyn Odigat and Bukayo Shaka will take time to develop, Xaviers is good enough to produce goals based on his individual ability alone.
With the starters not having been back in the team for long, it is expected that Arsenal will only play them for half of this game, providing more opportunities for the younger players to get on the pitch. These include two 16-year-olds, Warnely and Skelly, as well as young players such as Balrogaan and Marquinhos, who are returning from loan spells. Leader Adi Da will be experimenting with the lineup. Looking back at Arsenal's first warm-up matches in the past five seasons, the total number of goals scored reached more than three, which shows that its performance on the attacking end is quite outstanding.
