Arsenal vs. Borussia Dortmund: Are the Gunners under pressure to triumph in Sunday's Emirates Cup fixture?

Ahead of Arsenal's pre-season friendly with Borussia Dortmund on Sunday, Sports Mole's Site Coordinator Ben Knapton discusses the contest.

Ben Knapton, Site Coordinator: "How much does it actually matter?"

This Dortmund team has lost two of their top four scorers from last season though. Julian Brandt has gone to Ajax. Karim Adeyemi is now at Barcelona. 

Their pre-season has been mixed: two wins and two defeats. They beat Tokyo 1-0 last time out, with a winner from Fabio Silva, who the Wolves fans among us will remember. 

He really struggled last season with only three goals in all competitions, so he is not the chief threat. But Serhou Guirassy came off the bench in that game. 

He was the top scorer last season by far, with 22 goals in all competitions. He was formerly linked with Arsenal when they were looking for a new striker. 

I remember him from his time at Rennes, and in a recent Champions League season he was either winning or pushing hard for the Golden Boot. 

The Arsenal centre-backs will have to watch out for him. Similarly, Maximilian Beier got 10 goals last season but interestingly played as a wing back in the Tokyo win. 

It'll be interesting to see what position he takes up. His German teammate Felix Nmecha had a decent World Cup for Germany: disappointing collectively, but he was a player who stood out. 

He's also a player Arsenal could be facing in the Premier League next season, with Newcastle pushing for him as their Bruno Guimaraes replacement. 

Finally, there's Konstantinos Karetsas, the 18-year-old Greek forward. Arsenal were linked with him last year, and there were even reports in Greek media of advanced talks to sign him. 

That didn't come off, but he's now at Dortmund, which is a fantastic move for any young player. Lots of creativity and lots of goals in that Dortmund team that Arsenal are going to have to keep a lid on. 

It's always that perpetual debate in pre-season: how much does it actually matter? Any win, no matter where you're playing or who you're playing, is a good win, but it's not the be-all and end-all. 

Arsenal beat Man City in the 2023 Community Shield and ended up not winning the Premier League. 

They broke so many goalscoring records that year, so maybe that momentum carried forward, but it didn't help them win a trophy at the end of the season. 

In 2020, they beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final, then beat Liverpool in the Community Shield. That 2020-21 season was really poor, with Arsenal and relegation being used in the same sentence. 

It's absolutely not the be-all and end-all, but you want to win every game. Arteta said the players were fuming after the Real Betis defeat, which is a really good sign. 

The goals came from mistakes, and it wasn't a completely full-strength Arsenal team. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't mean so much. But this Arsenal team are winners now. 

They've won the Premier League, and winners want to win every single match. The Emirates Cup is a fixture Arsenal tend to turn up for. Their last four Emirates Cups, they've won. 

They beat Athletic Club three-nil last season, beat Lyon the year before, Monaco on penalties, and in 2022 they beat Sevilla six-nil.

During the banter years, we'd always say 'oh, we've won a trophy' and it was the Emirates Cup, but thankfully we've won bigger trophies since then.