Full-time ratings v Orlando

What a difference a signing makes, especially with the qualities of Gabriel Jesus! The former Man City added zip to the whole team or maybe it was the other four changes.

Turner 7 - kept a clean sheet and looked solid.

White 7 - snappy passing and brought Pepe into the game. He may well start the season at right back, as Tomiyasu still remains crocked.

Holding 6 - a similar showing to the first half.
(Saliba 7 - excellent with his feet and his positioning when up against Michel, especially. Strong, fast, cool, calm and collected, so Arsenal need to get him to sign a longer-term deal as soon as possible.)

Gabriel 6 - more switched on than Mari.

Tavares 7 - looked more assured in the second half, but skied a couple of long-range efforts. It's good that he has the confidence to try things out, especially as Zinchenko's imminent arrival may push him down the pecking order.
(Bellerin - 6 minutes isn't really enough to stake a claim, but tried his best on the left.)

Pepe 7 - should have won a penalty, but the officiating let him down.
(Saka 7 - cheered when he came on and beat his man convincingly almost immediately, which highlighted what Pepe had struggled to do for 60 minutes. Registered an assist and nearly scored himself from close range against 'The Octopus' in Orlando's goal.)

Odegaard 7 - provided some incisive passes and helped out defensively.

Elneny 7 - started the second period promisingly.
(Partey 6- looked rusty at times, but hit the target with a dipping free kick.)

Lokonga 7 - brighter in the second half and had a shot on target.
(Xhaka 7 - feeling the love of the fans at last and deserves it, as he's not surrendering possession easily nowadays. He also went close with a free kick.)

Gabriel 8 - getting hacked away at by opponents, mainly because he's such a handful. Inadvertently set up Nketiah for Arsenal's second.

Nketiah 7 - looked sharp overall and was clinical in front of goal. A five-year and the number 14 shirt seemed to be working wonders.
(Nelson 7 - with only 15 minutes or so to stake a claim, he did particularly well to score with a volley from Saka's cross. He nearly added to it with a powerful shot from a free kick.)

It's Chelsea next for Arsenal in the Florida Cup series.

Arsenal’s 100% pre-season start continues

Despite all the 'bad' news circulating around Arsenal, such as Marcelo Flores being upset about being left out of the pre-season squad to tour America, Omari Hutchison's defection to Chelsea and Oleksandr Zinchenko's inclusion in Manchester City's pre-season squad, the 2-0 demolition of Everton gave fans something to cheer about.

The truth was that the second half was nowhere as good as the first, from an Arsenal perspective, yet never did the Gunners look like surrendering their two-goal advantage.

Player ratings:
Turner 7 - never looked likely to concede.
Cedric 8 - tidied up well at the back, when needed to.
(Bellerin 7 - looked quite sharp.)
Saliba 7 - mostly played it safe.
(Mari 6 - didn't make much impact.)
Gabriel 7 - quite solid.
(Walters 7 - the youngster has been well-coached, as he kept it simple.)
Tavares 6 - not at his best yet.
(Holding 7 - passed well in a back three in the second half.)
Partey 6 - not influential.
(Elneny 7 - dominated the midfield, in the second half.)
Xhaka 7 - a good shift and hit the post with a header from a corner.
(Sambi 6 - played down the left, but couldn't make much of an impact.)
Saka 7 - scored the second goal and was a handful for Everton.
(Pepe 6 - nearly got in a fight at the end of the game, so is clearly frustrated to be a squad player at best.)
Odegaard 6 - a quiet game for the skipper.
(Maitland-Niles 5 - I only noticed he was on the pitch when he hugged Everton's Iwobi, a former Arsenal team-mate, at the end.)
Martinelli 7 - gave Everton problems.
(Nelson 5 - couldn't impose himself on the game much in 18 minutes.)
Jesus 8 - one goal and one assist in 45 minutes, plus another good shot on target. Hopefully, he wasn't too badly injured by Godfrey's rash, OTT challenge.
(Nketiah 6 - faced a tougher defence in the second half with Tarkowski in the team.)

Injuries
Ben White (quad)
Emile Smith-Rowe (muscular)
Kieran Tierney (muscular)
Takehiro Tomiyasu (muscular)
Fabio Vieira (bone)

Arsenal 2-0 Everton H-T friendly

Gabriel Jesus is at it again, scoring at the far post from a corner and setting up Bukayo Saka three minutes later for Arsenal's second.

Aside from that, Xhaka hit the post with a header, again from a corner and Godfrey was lucky only to see yellow for an x-rated challenge on Jesus.

Arsenal's new number 9 remonstrated with the referee after that and earlier he went close to opening the scoring with a shot that Pickford could only parry.

Saliba, meanwhile, acquitted himself well if unspectacularly against Calvert-Lewin, staying tight on his man. Whenever the Everton striker did escape, Cedric was there to sweep up.

Turner in Arsenal's goal was called upon a couple of times, but looked solid.

Mikel Arteta will no doubt be pleased by the side's showing in the first half.

Goalkeepers - who’s in, who’s out @ Arsenal FC?

Gunners fans can't really complain too much about the transfer window, so far, although it's been said that Arsenal need to land at least one more player, who can fill in at left back or play in midfield.

Perhaps one of the ways fans can determine whether or not players will stay at Arsenal is by looking at their respective contract situations.

Thanks to The Athletic's (theathletic.com) recent article entitled: 'Every Arsenal player's contract situation explained', perhaps we can make some educated guesses as to who will stay and who will go (no deliberate reference to the Clash's song of the same name!).

Keepers
Aaron Ramsdale (2025)
Apparently, this deal could be extended until 2026, and he does seem like England's future number one, despite his slightly shaky end to last season.
Nevertheless, he was absolutely outstanding, when he first broke into the first team and his positive attitude is infectious. In this way, he's as much a catalyst for the high-energy performances of this current Arsenal team as Eric Cantona was for a Man U team of old, adding arrogance and belief to a team of youngsters.
Verdict: STAY

Bernd Leno (2023)
The 30-year-old's last display in the Arsenal first team was incredible and, based on that, you'd expect a queue of suitors.
Clearly, particularly in a World Cup year, Leno needs to move on and Fulham seems the most likely destination. A fee of £10m seems to be a fair amount, given the Germany international only has a year left on his current deal.
Verdict: GO

Matt Turner (2025)
Turner is expected to be Ramsdale's deputy for the forthcoming season but, based on what I saw in the friendly against Nurnberg, he's certainly not an upgrade on Leno.

Nevertheless, Turner has an excellent pedigree, being a USA international, who was voted the best keeper of the CONCACAF Gold Cup of last year.
Verdict: STAY

Runar Alex Runarsson (2024)
It's quite difficult to imagine how Runarsson is going to resurrect his career with Arsenal. Although he kept a clean sheet in the Gunners' victory over Dundalk in the Europa League back in 2020, he seemed extremely nervous. His hesitation in his first and only Premier League game at Wolves, after Leno got sent off, beggared belief.
Hopefully, the club that took him on loan last season, OH Leuven, will snap him up on a permanent basis or if not, some other club will come in for the Iceland international.
Verdict: GO

Arthur Okoronkwo (2024)
After his calamitous air-kick in a pre-season friendly game last season against Hibernian, I lost belief that this highly-rated youngster would develop into an Arsenal first-team keeper. Indeed, he has not yet made his official debut for the club at that level.
Based on last pre-season, the best young keeper at the club is Karl Hein, who has more presence than Okoronkwo and was snapped up by Reading last season on loan. Quite why the Estonia international is not part of the first-team squad, while Okoronkwo is does not make much sense.
Verdict: GO