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Arsenal are now moving into the serious phase of their preparations.

They travel to Cardiff on Sunday to take on Manchester City in the Community Shield, before opening their Premier League season against Coventry nine days later.

For now, Arsenal still look like a team depending on their late World Cup returnees to get fully up to speed and lift the overall standard again.

Pre-season is now over for Arsenal and the Premier League campaign is only nine days away, but the Gunners still appear some way short of hitting top gear.

They head into the Community Shield with Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice still yet to play a single minute for the club this summer.

Both players only returned to training this week, and Arsenal are eager to manage their fitness carefully and bring them back gradually. Neither was included in the squad for this match.

Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber watched Arsenal against Como from the sidelines.

With Arsenal short on depth and therefore needing to be especially careful with Ben White’s fitness, 18-year-old Theo Julienne started for the Gunners.

At this point in pre-season, most clubs are usually close to full strength, but this game still had the feel of a friendly, with players constantly rotating on and off.

Eberechi Eze played only 30 minutes. Viktor Gyokeres, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus each had half an hour in attack. Marli Salmon was the only Arsenal player to be on the pitch for more than an hour.

The World Cup has been particularly disruptive for Arsenal, and they are now in a race against time to be ready for the start of the new season.

It must have been an unusual 24 hours for Lewis-Skelly in the build-up to this game.

The 19-year-old wants to remain at Arsenal and is determined to battle for a place in the starting line-up this season, but he has been linked with Chelsea and Manchester United after both clubs were told they had the chance to sign him.

On the pitch, this was the ideal answer. Lewis-Skelly extended his streak of starting every Arsenal pre-season match and delivered an excellent performance.

He looked assured in possession and linked up especially well with Eberechi Eze. Lewis-Skelly also appeared more solid out of possession in the No 6 role than he had against Borussia Dortmund.

He led the press that forced goalkeeper Jean Butez into an error, and when the ball dropped to him, Lewis-Skelly calmly guided a low finish into the net to score the opener.

The teenager then tapped the badge and raised his hands into a heart shape in a pointed celebration, turning towards every side of the stadium.

Lewis-Skelly should be nowhere near the top of Arsenal’s list of players they may consider selling this summer.

A huge roar went around the stadium when Bruno Guimaraes’ name was announced before the second half.

Another followed moments later when he had his first touch in an Arsenal shirt, with Arteta sending him on at the interval to give him minutes ahead of the Community Shield.

When Como looked to break from an Arsenal corner, Guimaraes got across to cover and slid in to halt the attack. Chants of ‘Bruno, Bruno, Bruno’ quickly echoed around the ground.

He played as the deepest midfielder for the final 30 minutes after Lewis-Skelly went off, but still had the freedom to press high and contribute in attack.

His aggression in midfield was obvious straight away, as after being caught on the ball he instantly sprang up and flew into a challenge, conceding a foul.

Guimaraes then bailed out Josh Ogunnaike in the 90th minute. The teenager lost possession while dribbling out, giving Como space to hurt Arsenal, but Guimaraes recovered and stretched out a vital boot to win the ball.

The Brazilian is also a composed penalty taker, and he showed that in the shootout by using a stuttering run-up before rolling the ball into the bottom corner.