Alexis Sanchez

Arsenal 5 Benfica 1

Emirates Cup, London

The first round of the weekend games was played on 2 August 2014 as Arsenal crushed Portuguese champions Benfica 5-1 at the Emirates Cup

Yaya Sanogo led the way with a four-goal haul and World Cup Costa Rican star Joel Campbell was also on target. Sanogo scored in the 26th, 44th 45th and 49th Minutes, while Campbell netted in the 40th minute. Nicolas Gaitan scored Benfica’s consolation on 61 minutes.

A huge roar went up all around the Emirates as Chilean World cup star Alexis Sanchez came on for his debut with just over 15 minutes left, and he provided an entertaining cameo in the short time he was given on the pitch.

Additionally Calum Chambers, a defensive starter, and Campbell also made their Gunners’ debuts.

Sanchez, along with yet another debutant Mathieu Debuchy, started in the second game of the weekend against Monaco, though a 1-0 defeat ensured that Valencia won the Emirates Cup in 2014.

Arsene Wenger summed up Arsenal’s differing performances over the weekend:

“We demonstrated a lot can change in 24 hours. As much as our performance on Saturday was sharp, dynamic, creative and mobile, today was static, lethargic and not convincing at all”.

We were asked by Andy Exley to write in last season’s Emirates Cup programme about 10 big Gunners who made their first team debut for the club during the pre-season. This was a tie in with Petr Cech who made his debut a week before the Emirates mini tournament at the 2015 Barclays Asia Trophy final

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