Pre-Season: Arsenal win Markus Liebherr Cup

On Saturday we all got to see Arsenal's first pre-season matches as they played in the Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup at St Mary's in Southampton. The tournament was contested between Southampton, Anderlecht and Arsenal and consisted of 45 minute matches. The tournaments victors were Arsenal as they won and then lost a game on penalties. Those results were enough to see the Gunners pick up the trophy with a tally of 4 points.

Arsenal took mainly a youth side to the competition which meant the likes of Thomas Eisfeld, Ignasi Miquel and Chuks Aneke played. There was also gametime for first teamers such as Gibbs, Santos and Chamakh.

The first game of the tournament was between Southampton and Anderlect which the Belgian side won 1-0. It was then down to Arsenal as they played Anderlecht and won 1-0 thanks to Henri Lansbury who was back in the red and white of Arsenal and trying to impress after a succesful loan spell with West Ham in the Championship. In the game Damian Martinez and Thomas Eisfeld played their first games with the first whilst Eastmond and Watt also received game time after being on loan throughout last season.

The Arsenal side that played Anderlecht was: Martinez, Boateng, Miquel, Gibbs, Jenkinson, Yennaris, Eastmond, Lansbury, Eisfeld, Watt, Chamakh.

Arsenal then played Southampton and the game finished 1-1 after normal time. Southampton took the lead through Rodriguez but then Arsenal equalised 4 minutes later on 35 minutes as Gervinho scored a brilliant solo goal after taking on a few players before firing the ball home. The game then went to penalties in which Southampton won 5-4. The game saw promising youngsters Meade, Ebecilio, Angha and Olsson all receive first team action.

The Arsenal side that faced Southampton was: Mannone, Meade, Santos, Bartley, Djourou, Eastmond, Ebecilio, Lansbury, Coquelin, Aneke, Gervinho.

Johan Djourou lifts the Markus Liebherr Cup