Arsenal’s summer signing Riccardo Calafiori has made an impressive start at the Emirates Stadium, marking his first start for the Gunners yesterday with a fine goal in the 2-2 draw at home to Manchester City.
The Italy international joined Arsenal from Bologna this summer, and has made some decent substitute appearances for Mikel Arteta’s side so far this season, before making his debut in yesterday’s big game.
Still, the chance clearly didn’t come to Calafiori, who curled in a delicious effort from outside the box to make it 1-1 at the Etihad Stadium after Erling Haaland’s opener for the home side .
According to Opta in the X post below, Calafiori is now only the second Arsenal player to score from outside the box on his full Premier League debut for the north London club…
20 – Riccardo Calafiori is the 20th player to score on his first Premier League start for Arsenal, but only the second of them to do so with a goal from outside the box, after Fábio Vieira against Brentford in September 2022. Introduction. pic.twitter.com/ds08BLbAFW
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 22, 2024
Calafiori looks set to be a huge signing for Arsenal, with the 22-year-old sure to improve even more in the coming years, with Arteta surely the type of manager who can really get the best out of him.
Arsenal eventually went 2-1 up with Gabriel Magalhaes heading home a signature AFC corner, but they were denied what would have been a famous victory with just ten men when John Stones equalized City in stoppage time.
Still, Arsenal have plenty of positives to take from this game, and Calafiori’s sublime strike and all-round performance will be among the highlights.
It can’t have been easy for Calafiori to make his first Premier League start against such formidable opposition, but he handled the occasion well, and it will be a joy for Gooners to see if he comes up with a few more strikes like this superb one effort in the 22nd minute.
The result brought a decent end to a difficult run of games for Arsenal, who won 1-0 at Tottenham last weekend and drew 0-0 at Atalanta in the Champions League in mid- week
Their next games are at home to Bolton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup, before welcoming Leicester City to the Emirates in their next league game.
