The opening weeks of the new season suggested Arsenal manager Unai Emery was well on his way to ridding his side of the long-standing cliche of a squad with an abundance of talent but a dire shortage of commitment.

Five things we found out about Unai Emery’s top-four pretenders

Ireland hopeful Ryan Johansson started for Bayern Munich as they lost 2-1 to Arsenal in a pre-season friendly in the United States.

Arsenal’s schizophrenic, rollercoaster of a season continued at Goodison Park yesterday where Unai Emery’s side maintained the worst away form in the top nine of the Premier League, squandering the chance to move third in the table in the process.

For all the weariness with Wembley, the place was rocking for the North London derby.

Petr Cech will bring the curtain down on his glittering career at the end of the season.

Unai Emery is prepared to stand up for himself against star players and even the crowd after he was booed for the first time as Arsenal manager when making a substitution.

Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno is looking forward to returning to action so soon after the Gunners were thrashed by table-topping Liverpool.

Between defeat at Chelsea in their first away game under Emery and mid-December, Arsenal took 14 of a possible 18 points on the road, but face trips to Brighton and Liverpool having been haunted by the ghost of seasons past against Southampton at St Mary’s.

Bernd Leno will make his Arsenal debut against Vorskla Poltava tonight with head coach Unai Emery challenging him to oust Petr Cech as his first-choice goalkeeper.

Bernardo Silva wrapped up Manchester City’s opening-weekend victory at Arsenal before insisting the result was a statement of intent from the Premier League champions.

Petr Cech has given another indication that he is planning to stay at Arsenal by declaring himself ready to step up and be one of the club’s five captains.

Arsenal, Manchester City, and Chelsea are on high alert after Cristiano Ronaldo’s buyout clause at Real Madrid was reduced from €1bn to €120m.

Australia 2

Joachim Low's much-changed Germany opened their Confederations Cup campaign with a 3-2 victory over Australia in Sochi.

Tottenham 0 Bayer Leverkusen 1: Dele Alli voiced his frustration as Tottenham’s Wembley curse struck again as Mauricio Pochettino’s men slipped to a 1-0 defeat in the Champions League.

Bosnia has been here before, and so has Miralem Pjanic.

Atletico Madrid 1, Bayer Leverkusen 0:

Atletico Madrid have a mountain to climb if they are to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals after they endured a night to forget at Bayer Leverkusen.

Atletico Madrid have a mountain to climb if they are to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals after they endured a night to forget at Bayer Leverkusen.

Bayer Leverkusen 0 Paris St Germain 4

David Moyes has claimed Ryan Giggs is getting even better.

Bayer Leverkusen 0 Man United 5

Bayer Leverkusen 0 Manchester United 5

Man Utd 4 Bayer Leverkusen 2

Unsettled Arsenal striker Robin van Persie came off the bench as the Gunners ended their pre-season preparations with an emphatic 4-0 victory against Cologne yesterday.

Lionel Messi struck five times as Champions League holders Barcelona hammered Bayer Leverkusen 7-1 to confirm their place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Barcelona 7 Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Barcelona win 10-2 on aggregate)

Barcelona put one foot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League with victory over a Leverkusen side who might wonder what might have been had they attacked from the start last night.

IF CHELSEA weren’t a club in crisis before last night, they are now.

Bayer Leverkusen 2 Chelsea 1

Chelsea 2 Bayer Leverkusen 0