Arsenal enjoyed an exciting and successful return to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening when they comfortably dispatched of Bayer Leverkusen with a 4-1 win. It was a game that provided some very interesting subtexts to the overall feeling around the club after the defeat to Liverpool across the pond.
This side looked different, it looked ready. Without even the benefit of players like Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori, the side is just over a week out from the first Premier League game but the mood is up. That said, the first goalscorer on the day, Oleksandr Zinchenko, provided fans with something of a rethink.
When it was announced that £32million signing Zinchenko had changed his squad number to No.17 it came with an understanding that despite uncertainty over his future this move was one pointing toward him staying. Arsenal have shown they don’t tend to like keeping players on deals falling below two years but this seems different for the Ukrainian.
