Ben White begins pre-season with trademark antics and Arsenal fans love it
07/25/2024 04:21 AM
Ben White was up to his old tricks as Arsenal got their pre-season tour underway in the USA.
The Gunners were facing Bournemouth at the Dignity Health Sports Park, which is the home of LA Galaxy.
One moment involving White caught fans attention and showed that even in pre-season, players do take it seriously.
The Arsenal defender was lining up for a corner next to the Bournemouth goalkeeper and got into a wrestling match with Milos Kerkez.
The pair were running rings around the goalkeeper as they jostled for position.
White is known for his use of the dark arts at corners and grabbed headlines for unstrapping Guglielmo Vicario’s glove during a match against Tottenham last season.
Arsenal were the Premier League’s most successful team from set-pieces last term and White was seemingly given the role of ‘chief s***house’ to block off opposition goalkeepers.
It has become an inside-joke among Arsenal fans and they loved White's antics during the pre-season game.
One said: "I absolutely love him, elite baller and athlete man!"
Another added: "Getting ready for the new season I see."
A third wrote: " As always."
The match itself finished 1-1, with Fabio Vieira and Antoine Semenyo scoring, with Arsenal winning the shootout 5-4.
It was a very young team that Mikel Arteta fielded with Ayden Heaven, Ethan Nwaneri, Salah-Eddine Oulad M'Hand and Myles Lewis-Skelly all handed starts in LA.
"I'm really pleased because we had really special circumstances today," Arteta said after the match.
"We arrived two days ago, we had so many young kids playing with us that had never played before and I think we had a really strong performance against a side that is a bit ahead of us in their schedule.
"They had a full first-team available , so I'm really proud of them, both the young kids and the senior ones, because they have fulfilled their roles in a really impressive way.
"That was a different level today to the game that we played last Saturday, and it was another big step.
“We looked really connected and as a manager, it was just a joy to see the faces of those kids making their debut, participating, and the excitement showed, and as well to see our senior players put themselves in their shoes and give them the support and be the role models that we want."
