In the early hours of yesterday morning, our pre-season tour in the USofA came to an end with a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool.

Our results Stateside read: P3 W 1 D 1 L 1. A bit of a mixed bag. And as expected, there has been an overreaction by some to us losing a friendly to Liverpool.

I would think everyone was ugly enough and old enough by now to not get wound up by pre-season results. Surely we all understand that these games are about getting fitness into players legs?

Every manager has a different philosophy on friendlies, and Arteta’s is to play a 50/50 team, and then switch after 60 minutes. That means we see 50% senior pros, and 50% 2nd string / youngsters. Around the 60 minute mark, he then makes wholesale like for like changes.

Then in the next game, those that came off the bench tend to start, with those who started the last game tending to be on the bench. This can lead to disjointed performances. But these are all about fitness.

You also never know what training sessions teams have had. In the past sides have done full training sessions the morning of a pre-season game, whilst others might have treated it like a proper game and only done stretching and relaxation the day prior.

Some have raised their concerns over our loss to Liverpool and that it shows we are in desperate need for a new striker. But as is the usual with Arsenal for friendlies these days, we have not taken it easy in pre-season with all 3 games against Premier League opposition.

We could have taken it easy in pre-season. Played some random team from Scotland and a lower league English side before flying out to Japan and Korea to play against sides no-one knew existed 2 weeks ago. That could have led to a big load of stat padding for our youngsters and a false security that we were better than what we are.

Whenever people moan about our pre-season results, I always ask the same question: what were our results in 89, 91, 98, 02 and 04. The answer is always “I do not know” which highlights that no-one remembers pre-season.

My final thought on this before I crack o with work early so I can get to the pub: Manchester City have played 3 pre-season games so far. They have lost to Celtic. Lost to AC Milan. And drawn to Barcelona.

Worry about results when proper games begin. Not before.

Keenos