Three things we learned from Arsenal draw as Mikel Arteta left facing fresh headache | OneFootball

Gunners in a race against time to get up to speed

Now, for Arsenal, the serious business begins.

They will travel to Cardiff on Sunday to face Manchester City in the Community Shield before kicking off their Premier League campaign to Coventry in nine days' time.

Arsenal continue to look like a side that are relying on their late returners from the World Cup to get up to speed and drag the standards back up.

Arsenal's pre-season is over and the Premier League season is just nine days away, but the Gunners are a long way from firing on all cylinders.

They will go into the Community Shield with Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice yet to play a single minute for the club this summer.

The pair returned to training this week but the club are keen to manage their fitness and ease them back into action. Neither made the squad here.

Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber watched Arsenal vs Como from the sidelines

With a lack of depth forcing Arsenal to be particularly cautious with Ben White's fitness, 18-year-old Theo Julienne started for the Gunners.

At this stage of pre-season, clubs are normally looking to be at something close to full-strength but there was still a strong friendly vibe to this match with a stream of players coming on and off.

Eberechi Eze only played half an hour. Viktor Gyokeres, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus each got half an hour up front. Marli Salmon was the only Arsenal player to feature for more than an hour.

The World Cup has proved particularly disruptive for Arsenal and they face a race against time to be ready for the new season.

It must have been a strange 24 hours for Lewis-Skelly leading into this match.

The 19-year-old wants to stay at Arsenal and is determined to fight for his place in the starting lineup this season, but has been linked with Chelsea and Manchester United after both clubs indicated they had been offered the chance to sign him.

On the pitch, this was the perfect response. Lewis-Skelly continued his run of starting every pre-season match and played superbly.

Statement: Myles Lewis-Skelly

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He was confident on the ball, combining particularly dangerously with Eberechi Eze. Lewis-Skelly also looked more secure out of possession in the No6 role than he did against Borussia Dortmund.

He led the press that forced goalkeeper Jean Butez into a mistake and when the ball came to his feet, Lewis-Skelly calmly rolled a finish low into the net to open the scoring.

The teenager tapped the badge and held his hands up in a heart gesture in a pointed celebration, turning to all corners of the ground.

Lewis-Skelly should be very, very far down the list of players Arsenal are looking to sell this summer.

Guimaraes finally up and running

There was a massive roar around the stadium when Bruno Guimaraes' name was read out ahead of the second-half.

Another one came seconds later when he had his first touch in an Arsenal shirt, Arteta bringing him on at the break to get some minutes in his legs ahead of the Community Shield.

Debut day: Bruno Guimaraes

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When Como tried to break from a corner, Guimaraes was across on the cover to slide in and stop the break. The 'Bruno, Bruno, Bruno' chants quickly went around the stands.

Played as the deepest midfielder for the final 30 minutes after Lewis-Skelly went off but still had the license to press up the pitch and get involved in the attack.

His bite in midfield was quickly evident, as he got caught on the ball and immediately jumped up to snap into a challenge, committing a foul.

Guimaraes then came to Josh Ogunnaike's rescue in the 90th minute. The teenager lost the ball as he dribbled out and Como had the space to punish him, but Guimaraes got back and stuck out a crucial boot to win the ball.

The Brazilian is also a confident penalty taker and he showed that in the shootout, stuttering his way up to the ball and rolling it into the bottom corner.