Yet again the refs change the rules and go way overboard with it. Im all for punishing unsportsmanship but the partey yellow was bad enough, he didnt even kick the ball away he touched it back to where the foul was committed and was only outdone in its ridiuclousness by the alvarez booking who tapped the ball out because the ball boy had already provided another ball for the arsenal player. Ending with 10 men for 2 of them is pathetic, hopefully pep drills it into our players not to do it, as we do have a habit of it.
As for the gane, its about time grealish sobered up and got himself involved, been non-existent in all pre-seasons games so far and same again here. Not seeing where the creativity is or how we create chances consistently with this 11. I'd take grealish off on performance alone but given alvarez has a yellow and the ref is clearly desperate to send someone off I'd swap alvarez for foden at halftime and see if he can create something in a central role.
Akanji looking like a right sided defender playing wrong side but no disgrace against one of the best right wingers, ake shut him down completely 3 times last season and gvardiol will do the same. Kovacic nice and neat as good as to be expected at this stage. Like to see us use haaland more he will bully their defenders if we feed him earlier and play off him.
