Date: 15th December 2022 at 1:00pm
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Arsenal winger Reiss Nelson boldly claims a goal scored against AC Milan in the Dubai Super Cup.

THE LOWDOWN: ON TARGET

Arsenal faced AC Milan in their final game in Dubai before returning to London to continue preparations for the resumption of the Premier League next weekend.

The Gunners had earlier beaten Lyon in the opening game of the Dubai Super Cup. With that win in the bag, Mikel Arteta’s men needed to just beat the Italian side to win the tournament at the expense of other challengers.

Skipper Martin Odegaard grabbed the game’s opening goal before Nelson‘s deflected effort doubled Arsenal’s lead before the break. However, Milan pulled one back through Fikayo Tomori late on but Arsenal held on to win the tournament.

THE LATEST: NELSON’S REACTION

Nelson scored what was Arsenal’s second goal against the Italian champions in Dubai. The winger’s shot was diverted past the keeper via a deflection off team-mate Martin Odegaard’s boot. Reiss however, is adding the strike to his own tally, and has let his captain know!

“I told him (Odegaard), I said listen! I’m joking,” he said after the game.

“I think he got a little toe to it, but it was my goal. It was on target, I’ll take that and I think the scoreboard did, so that’s good.”

Reiss Nelson just turned 23 on Saturday, before celebrating with a goal against the Italian side on Tuesday and he wants the side to keep the winning habit going.

“We want to take that winning habit into every game,” Reiss added.

“It’s a friendly but of course, we take it as a serious game.

“Coming to a place like Dubai, you play under different circumstances, in the heat. Under pressure, playing a team like AC Milan these are the games you dream of, even if it’s a friendly. You’ve still got to look forward to it, even the young boys loved it. It was a great occasion for everyone.”

“It’s been amazing,” he said.

“Mikel has kept the team morale up so high, been doing so many things, activities, team bonding, and also training. We’ve been training really hard but the most important thing was the downtime with the players and integrating everyone in.

“It’s a new group with a lot of different players, (we got) two wins, the performance showed that we’re still ready and ready for the upcoming games.

“It’s always good to show the young boys the experience that I have now, I speak to them all the time and try to put on the table as much as possible and give them encouragement and it’s lovely to see them come through. The Arsenal Academy is producing so many good players. It’s really good to see.”

THE VERDICT: GOOD OMEN

Nelson returned to the Arsenal squad before the world cup break and played a part in the win over Nottingham Forest. He will be keen to continue that form when the season resumes and the goal in Dubai is a good pointer.

 

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