Xavi: 'Arsenal play friendly like Champions League'
"I told Mikel Arteta at the end that Arsenal played like the Champions League," Xavi said at his post-match press conference in California. "They played with unusual intensity with a friendly match. We just played the first match after being infected with the virus. That made things really difficult."
On the SoFi field, Arsenal controlled 40% of the ball, but finished 20 times with nine shots on target - compared to Barca's 9 and 4. "Gunners" scored five goals thanks to Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Fabio Vieira and a brace from Leandro Trossard, while Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Ferran Torres respectively scored for Barca. Arsenal have 22 fouls, nearly twice as many as Barca - the team a few days ago had to cancel a friendly match with Juventus due to the majority of players infected with gastrointestinal viruses.
"Everybody wants to compete, but this is just a friendly match," Xavi added. "Arsenal plays at a different level in terms of intensity, physicality. But I see positive things from Barca."
After that, the Spanish military leader softened his voice, saying that Arsenal deserved to win anyway and was satisfied with Barca's performance. "The main reason is the difference in speed and intensity," said the 43-year-old coach. "Barca deploys the ball well from home and has many dominant moments in the midfield. But we are defensively uncertain, and the virus infection is not an excuse."
Finally, he gave many compliments to Arteta, commenting that they have similar coaching careers when they both accepted the job of leading the old club at a difficult time. "Arteta is very competitive and I have a lot of respect for him," Xavi said. "I don't know Arteta very well, but our coaching careers and styles are very similar."
In terms of individuals, Arteta rated Gabriel Jesus having the best performance in months, and praised Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard for their ability to score goals, play variety and it will be a headache to choose a starting player. next season.
He also said that Declan Rice had a problem in training and missed the match against Barca because he did not want to take the risk, and Oleksandr Zinchenko suffered a muscle injury, but will return soon.
On August 2, Arsenal closed the pre-season with a match against Monaco in the annual Emirates Cup friendly, then against Man City in the English Super Cup match at Wembley four days later. Meanwhile, Barca also meets Real Madrid on July 29 and AC Milan on August 1 in the US.
