Izuchukwu OkosiFollowing the humiliating 4-0 defeat suffered by Chelsea against Arsenal in the last game of the Florida Cup pre season friendlies early Sunday morning (Saturday night in the U.S) the Blues manager Thomas Tuchel believes Mikel Arteta ‘will try to start’, the same lineup that began Arsenal’s 4-0 thrashing of Chelsea when the Premier League kicks off.
In his post match press conference, the Chelsea boss insists that Arsenal played with their ‘strongest’ XI during the pre-season game and they have ‘strengthened’ it this summer, as well as this current team being together for ‘more than one year’ now.
“I think we deserved to lose,” said Tuchel. “We can argue they played with I think their strongest line-up; they’ve had now together several weeks and for more than one year. They’ve strengthened their line-up, played the same structure, and this is the line-up they’ll try to start Premier League games.
“I saw today a team in Arsenal who are mentally committed to an idea of playing, a level of exhaustion, a level of physical commitment that we could not match.
“Also, a level of mental commitment that we lacked because we have a lot of players who are thinking about leaving and looking at their options. We have players that have left and I think at the moment that’s obvious.
“My personal feeling, I don’t know if I ever lost a match in pre-season 4-0. I can’t remember not winning two matches in a row in pre-season. I’m a huge fan of a strong pre-season in everything: atmosphere, feeling, performance, belief.”
The Gunners have not lost in five pre season friendlies adm will now head back to London for Saturday’s Emirates Cup action against La Liga side Sevilla – their final pre season game before the 2022-2023 Premier League opener on August 5 against Crystal Palace.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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