Another Tantalising Glimpse Into The Future
Sep 24th, 2008 by 'holic
What a strange night that was. Chasing streams that didn’t actually exist meant half-time had arrived before I had a clue what was happening, and I know I wasn’t alone. Everywhere you looked on the web the same question appeared, ‘anybody got an Arsenal link?’.
So I followed the second half on the Beeb live text service and warned the management that I would be watching the game at midnight on Arsenal TV. “You must be mad” was, I thought, a fairly predictable response.
Well, I’m glad I did. Those of you who have already witnessed it will know this was not just a 6-0 win. This was the promise of things to come. As a group they may not all be ready for the Premiership yet, but the current incumbents of those precious first-team places know there is some real talent backing them up.
Sheffield United fielded an experienced side, and were chasing shadows after the opening quarter of an hour. I had thought of singling out Gibbs, Ramsey, Wilshere, and Vela. These four caught the eye but then my thoughts turned to Randall, so effective doing the donkey work in midfield. I have not seen him have this sort of presence in reserve matches.
Then there was Gavin Hoyte, highly regarded at Shenley, but who struggled a little when given opportunities in pre-season. Last night he showed confidence and real ability. In fact no matter how hard you looked, you couldn’t find anybody who didn’t play well.
The hat-trick for Vela suggests he will get further opportunities in the not too distant future, and dare we hope he and Walcott might be tried on the flanks against Hull on Saturday? Possibly a bit too gung-ho, that thought.
Anyway, I am pleased that the 56,000 who took advantage of the reduced prices last night were treated to quite a performance. Let’s hope we get another home draw, preferably a test against one of the other big clubs, in the next round.
Or failing that, Tottenham would do.
27 Responses to “Another Tantalising Glimpse Into The Future”
1st Drink!
Russian Mule and a packet of Pork Scratchings please barman.
Was well impressed with the kids last night. Vela’s 2nd goal was pure class.
Great stuff for an old cunt.
Newcastle please.
Pint of Babycham please.
Oh yes, Tottenham would do just fine.
Time to shut their gobs.
Fantastic effort and the quality of each goal, not just finish but the link up play and assists were top draw!
I was so pissed off last night. I couldnt get ATVO live audio commentary…did anyone else get it, so i had to settle for text comm on the ARsenal website which was absolutely useless. I mean how can they write > Goal from the danish international Bendtner, beating the keeper to the right…etc etc, so i was alternating between BBC and ATVO. Then at midnight ATVO was still not working.
Did anyone else have issues with the online service?
went to the game last night and was amazed at some of the quality, right from the goalie to the strickers oozed pure arsenal style. my first thoughts were that this is amazing and what is to come, my second was how are arsenal going to keep all of this talent happy with sitting on the bench for a couple more years, we have seen this happen before with the likes of bentley and hoyte i would be really upset to think that arsenal were putting in all of this hard work just to sell the players off cheap to benefit other clubs because we coudnt keep all of our talent happy, what are other thoughts?
“..Let’s hope we get another home draw, preferably a test against one of the other big clubs, in the next round.
Or failing that, Tottenham would do.”
true that 🙂
Attended the game. Loved it. Gald Goonerholic watched the match and picked up on Randall’s performance. A couple of sites have suggested he didn’t do that much but he did the donkey work.
In the first half he put the big tackles in and set Wilshere and Ramsey off to do more creative stuff.
I’m pleased for Randall as I and some others haven’t been that impressed with his (few) first team appearances so far.
Randall aside, the rest looked like they’d played at the Emirates for years.
Well done and fantastic value at a tenner, or twenty!
All 3 of Vela’s finishes were exquisite. He requires little backlift, shoots early, accurately, and seems to whip the ball past the keeper at pace rather than punching it through it, making it much harder to handle and to predict its trajectory. That’s the sort of finishing we have lacked in Eduardo’s absence: controlled, calculated and very aggressive – this is a very important distinction with RvP, who tends to hammer it as hard as he can and seems less discerning in picking his spot. In tight games, putting chances like that away will be very important. Don’t get me wrong, I rate RvP highly, but I don’t necessarily think he’d have scored the 3 goals Carlos did yesterday.
Also, what more does Nik B have to do to get in the starting line-up for us. I don’t think we can realistically hold him back much longer. Look at how great he is even coming on as a sub or getting smaller games – now imagine how great he’d be as our number one striker, starting every game! He’d become a monstruous striker – one I’d be very happy to see up against Terry/Carragher/Vidic.
All i can say is , wow what a performance
Top management control, guv’nor!
Pint please, and more of the same in the next round. Can’t wait to see Vela do it in the premiership.
seeking refuge from the chaos that is arseblog…
terrible !!
hello everybody !
=)
Great write-up, Goonerholic.
Dan said:
“how are arsenal going to keep all of this talent happy with sitting on the bench for a couple more years”
That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking! If you add to the 26-man first team squad reserve players like Randall, Gibbs, Lansbury, Merida, Coquelin, then add players currently on loan like Traore, Barazite, Botelho and Nordveit… That’s quite a backlog of talent!
forgot to mention holic.
top blog. i don’t normally comment on here, but you’re consistently a good read.
cheers
I’ll just have a glass of cava, ‘holic. I’m having a low rent night
I ended up on ATVO after R5 switched to the mancs game. Stupid c***s! What a game though. Vela`s goals were all superbly taken ; the first well-placed, the second a sublime chip over Kenny and the third driven in with just that extra bit of power. Absolutely superb goals by the sort of natural finisher who will be the envy of everyone in a year or two. Also a nice goal by Wilshere, who in one report today was referred to as better than Rooney at the same age. If this is the future, it is extremely rosy.
Pint please, Harrison. Mind if I wait in here for a bit? Ta.
Heh.
Have a pint on the house. Big screen is playing up again…
Lovely job, much appreciated.
What kind of crazy server have those lot got? It’s appallingly bad.
*laughs at OleOle*
It’s not just me then 🙁
Pint of lager please, ‘holic.
I get all my morning work done, nip onto the arses to say hello before lunch, and yet agian OleOle are staking a claim to be the worlds most useless morons!
Oh, and i’d love one of those Cheese and Ham toasties if you’re still doing ’em?
One alcopop and a croque monsieur for table 24, coming up.
Jug of Sangria for me please
A pint of apple juice and soda please, ‘holic