The Arsenal Chronicle
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Arsenal
Lautaro Guzmán and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Valentín Serrano was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Luca Franco
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Franco Ríos joins the Arsenal first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Franco Ríos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Fernando Benítez steps up from the Arsenal academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fernando Benítez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Benjamín López steps up from the Arsenal academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Benjamín López has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Arsenal promote Pablo Herrera from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pablo Herrera has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match8 Aug 2026
Matías Sosa sends Arsenal past Maipú
It finished 1‑0, and it was Matías Sosa’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arsenal.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Brahian Alemán falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
- The dugout Iván Cabrera gets it from the manager
- Squad Arsenal lose Fernando Benítez
- Player ratings The afternoon belonged to Matías Sosa