Radamel Falcao’s 37th minute header condemned Arsenal to a 4th year of Emirates Cup hurt. The Columbian striker secured Monaco a 1-0 victory over the tournament hosts at the Emirates stadium to deny them another trophy.
Arsenal ended the tournament on 8 points, 1 point behind Valencia who had beaten Benfica 3-1 earlier in the day. There were a few moments of promise in the game for Arsenal, but it was apparent that the match fitness wasn’t quite there, as a number of players looked to be half a yard off the pace.
Olivier Giroud, in particular, looked like he had taken things a little to easily during his extended summer holiday following the World Cup and lacked the sharpness he showed last season. But that is to be expected in preseason.The game started slowly and both teams struggled to carve out any real goal scoring opportunities in the first half an hour.
After a cautious opening period, Radamel Falcao gave the game a much needed goal to put Monaco 1-0 up and put Arsenal’s hopes of clinching the Emirates Cup in doubt. João Moutinho’s aimed his free kick towards the front post of Szczesny’s goal and Falcao converted the chance with his head from 6 yards out.
At the half time break, Arsène Wenger made a couple of changes to try and freshen things up. The struggling Olivier Giroud made way for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, moving Alexis in to the no.9 role as a result. Ignasi Miquel also came on for Calum Chambers, who had played 90 minutes in the game against Benfica yesterday.
5 minutes after the restart, Santi Cazorla managed to squeeze the ball through to Jack Wilshere, who found himself one-on-one Subasic, but his shot was palmed away by the Monaco keeper. He should have scored.
See: Arsenal 0-1 Monaco – Player Ratings
10 minutes later, Wilshere threaded a beautifully weighted ball through a busy box to find Cazorla, who managed to wiggle his was through the penalty area. After a deflection off of a defender, it fell to Alexis 12 yards out, but the Chilean failed to convert the chance.
The most controversial moment in the match came in the 81st minute, when Chuba Akpom found himself through on goal with a chance to win the Emirates Cup for the Gunners.
Subasic brought Akpom down in the penalty area and Martin Atkinson pointed to the spot, only to be wrongly over-ruled by his linesman. Atkinson ultimately awarded Arsenal a free kick on the edge of the area and Subasic got away with only receiving a yellow card. Aaron Ramsey took the free kick but failed to convert it.
After 1 minute of injury time, the final whistle blew. Arsenal 0-1 Monaco.