No Goals, But Positive Signs For Arsenal
Jul 28th, 2012 by 'holic
At last. I’ve seen it. Arsenal Player has come to the rescue after the management decided to check if the cable box would record without the benefit of a power source!
Now, I know the result is the important thing when serious action gets under way in just three short weeks, but the performance must have warmed Arsene and his new coaching team yesterday. The concession of two goals in as many minutes at the end of the opening half came when we were very much on the front foot and City cleverly worked the gap on our right flank. That should not be taken as outright criticism of any one player. When defenders join in the attack then cover should be provided.
Typically, one might say, after a bright start City reverted to a cautious approach and Pantilimon ended up being the busier of the two goalkeepers by some way. That we didn’t score owed much to the City ‘keeper, and in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s case a huge slice of bad luck. In the opening half there were encouraging moments as Walcott and Gervinho seemed to interchange at will. Both came close but this was not to be their day.
After the break there were more moments when on another day we might have converted clear cut openings such as those created by Chamakh for Gervinho and Eastmond. There was also an impressive cameo from Chuks Aneke, who appears to be grasping the opportunity to impress while so many remain back at Shenley. A powerfully built midfielder, he may benefit from a loan spell if Abou Diaby can keep his brittle bones in one piece. I wouldn’t be inclined to let him sign up for a twelve month spell elsewhere, just in case.
Now the side has travelled to Hong Kong for an early Sunday morning (UK time) appointment with Kitchee which will complete the mini-tour. We may see a little more of the younger talents on the tour. Another sighting of Aneke would be welcome, and the likes of Eisfeld, Miyaichi, Yennaris and Afobe are probably looking for one more chance to show what they are about.
That’s about it for now. It’s Saturday, which means a trip out to a purveyor of wine and spirits to replenish the fluids used up in this sunniest of weeks. I hope wherever you are that the weekend will be kind to you.
Until tomorrow, ‘holics. Cheers.
104 Responses to “No Goals, But Positive Signs For Arsenal”
First?
ThinsK: Must read the post
Silver……?
Hi ho…..
Thanks Guv. I’m not one for friendlies myself and it’s good to have people whose opinions I respect, such as you and tabs, watch them for me and tell me what happened.
Less than a month to go; can’t pass quiuckly enough for me. If only there were some sporting event to keep us entertained in the meantime.
Sorry WU. Must be particularly galling when it’s spattered with typos. Have one on me.
Bronze?
First!
Well, er, nearly.
i give up on chamakh.thought miquel done well he looks top class
Right! Japan – Sweden just started. This will be fun even if I kind of believe Sweden will lose.
Morning all. Cheers for that mate. I’m busy, too fucking busy. Cleaning flat and packing up. But it aint gonna do itself.
Boilk. 🙁
Nice write up Holic. Completely concur with your view of the game.
I would just add that I think Miquel is worthy of a mention for what was a very assured second half performance at centre half. Looks a much better bet than Bartley.
I don’t want to fall into the trap of drawing firm conclusions from what was essentially a fitness exercise, but Afobe still looks very raw to me. I would be surprised if he forms part of our squad, rather than go out on loan, at this stage of his career
G’day tabs, I agree about Miquel vs Bartley. Thought he looked much better. Thought Gibbs was looking better defensively as well. Oxlade-C shows that he is real quality.
Everything I’ve seen of Bartley and Miguel suggest to me that Miguel are streets ahead of Bartley.
Aneke looks a lot bigger and stronger than I remember him being from seeing him in the reserves every now and then through the past few years. Like tabs I think a loan to a suitable club would do him a world of good.
Bang on about Miquel all. It was remiss of me not to mention him. For me he saves us a fortune on a central defender and frees up some of the ‘player trading account’ for midfield reinforcements.
Morning Chaps.
The Ox looked fantastic Bath,totally agree.
Lars, its a “q”, as I found to my cost in the week. Good job Ollie ain’t around 😉
Holic, agreed, can’t see us buying any defenders.
the only positive i took from the match was the shots from outside the box. we didn’t play that bad but over 15 shots and no goals for a team of our standards is not looking very good. cites keeper was also playing well at least walcott knows striker is not for him nor is it for gervinho they need to focus on becoming world class wingers and leave the the job to a proper man i.e OLIVER GIROUD. UP GOONERS follow me @kyekye45 ill follow back
tabs, I could have sworn it was the other way around and that you had it wrong but now that I think about it and remember the correction that you mentioned you are of course absolutely right. Why can’t they all have names that are easy to spell, you know like “Wojciech Szczesny”?
gunners357: if the shots are a deliberate slight change in tactics, then I see that as a very good thing. We need to shoot more from distance, in my opinion.
What tabs said above;)
Confused about your 14 too Lars, as you mention Aneke while tabs talked about Afobe, no?
Hehs at Lars and Ollie 🙂
Yep, I was talking about Afobe as regards a loan. As regards Aneke, I agree with Holic. Keep him around until Diaby has proven his fitness and then send him out.
Toby – beautiful post at the back end of the last set of drinks.
M18CITD – Don’t know if you’re still reading,but thanks for your response mate. My thoughts and a drink awaits you in the last set of drinks.
Whatever’s on tap, please, ‘holic.
…and thanks for the report. I’m not one to readily jump to the conclusion that the media is anti-AFC, but their reports of “City steamrolling Arsenal” did seem exaggerated from what the Guardian’s mins.-by-mins. report had told me. Still, it’s just a friendly. We’ll crush them in the league (fingers crossed).
Great summary again, goonerholic
I have been very impressed by the composure and confidence of Aneke, Eisfeld and Miquel.
Ollie/tabs, I could have sworn I read “Aneke” but apparently not! And I can see the point in keeping him until Diaby proves his fitness, but I think a loan would be better – we could always have a clause in the loan deal about us having the right to recall him at short notice.
Ok, I think my attempt at clarification may just have muddled thing even further:
Afobe: loan him out.
Aneke: loan him out too, but with a recall clause
in casefor when Diaby gets injured.Got that first time, Lars, thanks 🙂
Lars, will you please keep out of that CMC ! 😉
Haven’t seen more than 10 minutes of our games so far but based on his performances during last season, Miquel is a keeper for the future. At least until his Barcelona DNA kicks in. 😉
I’m very encouraged by Aneke as he looks so powerful and composed with a decent shot. I concur that a loan to get some competitive action would be great for him. Miquel has looked really good and much better than Bartley. City were outplayed for most of the game but that Yaya guy made the difference as we struggled with his powerful counterattacking runs.
Actually 8ball, he’s a centre back. 😉
Mr. T
Yes I saw him in that position once or twice too. An amazingly composed AND versatile player for his age. 🙂
Mr T@27: wish I had dipped into the CMC, then I would at least have had something to blame…
Wait. Where’s all the contents of the CMC gone?
No idea Mr C, but it seems like the whole ‘drinking’ population has gone lethargic 😉
Holic, why is it everytime we play citeh, it brings out the best in our lads, even when we lose! My goodness, where to start. Theo, AOC (what a game he had) and Gibbs, wow, they brought their canons and were firing some mighty fine (long distance) shots. And I think Miquel is gonna be a star, let’s just hope he stays put! Btw, cheers to The Management (opening line, made me laugh!). Enjoy your day Holics!
I seem to remember Miquel saying 12-18 months ago that wild horses couldn’t drag him back to Barca after the way they treated him there. He does look the business. He stood in well at LB last season for a couple of games but CB is clearly his longterm future. Hopefully at Arsenal.
We seem to have a lot of CBs all of a sudden:
Capt TV5
Kos
BFG
Djourou
Miquel
Bartley
Squillaci
Plus, they say young Martin Angha is really one to watch.
I am not really convinced on Gervinho. I really do know. He might not have that grittiness like a real forward. He is more like a winger at best.
I am not really convinced on Gervinho. I really do know…( I mean to say –I really do now know) …. He might not have that grittiness like a real forward. He is more like a winger at best.
Missed the game as the tennis I was playing up Finsbury Park with my mates and my brother when on and on for 4 hours hehe, going to have to watch it on Arsenal Player when I get a chance.
But as I was missing the match, I took the opportunity to get Henry 12 with the PL Badges done on the back of last season’s Away Shirt that I bought on the day from The Arsenal @ Finsbury Park, my Summer Quest for the 2011-12 Away Shirt is now complete after 3 weeks of searching endless Sports Direct and other sports stores 😀
Add that to the Arteta 8 with the PL Badges I got done on the Home Shirt last week or so and I’ve done the 1-2 pole with Home and Away Shirts for the 1st time since I started buying Arsenal Shirts, I’m a very happy boy
All the football commercialism is a bit silly.
So they have the French ‘Shield’ in NJ but they have to play it at a time suitable to French television.
Hence playing it in stupid heat.
I doubt about the intensity of the game.
Evening all. Been having a “nother” lazy day reading up on a few blogs & reports of the ceremony last evening. The Daily Hail of course called it a left-wing propaganda exercise but even they in the end had to grudgingly give credit to its “spectacular-ness” …
I am a big Miquel fan and a hope that he gets a proper chance this season – maybe teaming with the BFG as an alternate CB team. We shouldn’t wait for suspensions & injuries before we make changes. And I have spoken on here about my concept of “pairs” of players teaming up so that when you change one you change the other as well. That way the pairs can develop a relationship by constantly playing together as a team within the team…
One thing we do need though is a Yaya Toure type player. A Box-to-Box, brick-shithouse-type player who can also play a bit. Maybe Aneke can develop into such a player. He has the Brick-shithouse-ness thing down already, and he appears to have a nice touch. What I am not sure about is his pace ..
All in all though I rather enjoyed the game and thought we controlled large parts of it. With no experienced strikers in the touring squad I didn’t really expect us to get as many chances as we did against what was a very experienced city defence. The game also showed how scared Mancini is of the Arsenal. He knows that we have his number and its only a matter of time IMO before we are on their level..
Funny though. While for some odd reason Howard Webb was exported to China for a friendly, this very official French game is being officiated by a Merkan referee….
I’m watching France’s women team decimate the North Koreans, 3-0. Cracker of a game. We’re in the 2nd half, and boy, these ladies are good.
4-0 now. Very impressive stuff.
I think I just witnessed one the most spectacular headers ever, 5-0.
Lots of interesting comments.I agree any suggestion that there was a gap in class was frankly ridiculous with seven of our best players at home and hopefully more to be signed.
The player that has crept up unnoticed is Eisfeld.He hasn’t played much but he is clearly a talent and may well be a very useful squad player.
Funny how moods change just as transfer gossip waxes and wanes. It looks like we are at least looking at very good players and the number of realistic buyers for RVP appears to be shrinking. If a couple of players of the calibre of Sahin or Cazorla do join—and RVP does stay we look very well-placed for next season
Can anyone here confirm kick-off in GMT tomorrow? Getting 10am and 12:45pm on Twitter, little bit confusing 😕
10:00 AM Wind. You better get some sleep mate. At 4:00 AM Jamaica time I already know I will miss this game. Ah well…
🙂
Don’t listen to GT, Wind, it’s 10am BST 😉
I know the weather’s been confusing, but it IS summer.
That’s 11.00 CEST Wind! 😉
So, to summarise: 9am GMT/UTC. Add your own milliseconds.
Szczesny, Djourou (c), Miquel, Eastmond, Gibbs, Diaby, Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Ryo, Chamakh.
That’s an offensive lineup if I ever saw one.
I don’t feel offended.
Confused about this line-up.
Is Coquelin playing right back then?
Badabum pshh, Olls.
I guess so, yeah. So once again, I’d say it’s a very… attacking line-up.
PravdaTV says Eastmond at right back, so that’s a midfield of the Coq, the Ox and the Diaby in midfield.
Oh, it’s one of the close-to-the-pitch-camera-stadiums. It’s so hard to get an idea of how the game is going (well, can always look at the scoreline for a hint) when the camera is so low.
Alas, it does reinforce the games status as a training game.
well..time to wake up lads lol
A peach of a goal. Lovely pass, I’d say that’s the best assist of the pre-season tour.
You mean Miquel (was it him?) poor pass from defence?
That was a rotten banana of a pass, Ollie. And yes it was.
Now that was a great run from Miquel. He gives and takes.
Yeah, good Chamakh-Miquel combo there.
Shouldn’t we be the ones sponsored by ‘Canon’ ? 😉
You should really suggest that to Ivan’s team, Ollie.
And good work from Diaby there.
Great work/pressure from Diaby, Feo makes it 1-1.
What. A. Free kick. I almost wish it had gone in.
Was a very nice trick indeed, Toby.
Wenger, Wenger, sign them up.
Boys not in it at all …hopefully Arsene will have some nice team talk during half time. It is only friendly I know but I really dont want to read another doomsday headlines should we lose:D
Heh, Diaby was named as “V. Diaby”. It’s not that usual that he is actually called Vassiriki.
of the post come on!
Better start to this half, Afobe should have scored though.
Oh Oh Afobe
Gervinho delightful to watch so far
oh Afobe Afobe *shakes head*
Oh Oh x 2
Perfect cross from the Ox
Gervinhoooooo
Gerv the swerv
Gervy to Iceman well in
And again, but without the goal.
Gervinho looking good.
But can he do it on a wet night at Stoke?
I like Eisfeld!
Yes, but can HE do it on a wet night at Stoke?
Nah, seriously, I really like the look of Iceman as well. And not because of the goals, but rather his play. Two goals in the end of pre-season games anybody can get. But he looks a player.
Great play by Iceman again.
I’m not sure what a wet night in Stoe is lie 😀
Def potential for first team
*stoke*
I really liked this game. We were mostly horrid in the first half, but Kitchee has been very positive, both in approach and when it comes to sportmanship, they work hard for each other, tried a few overhead kicks and their manager looks like nice bloke as well.
A good second half from us, Gerv has looked great, as has several others, and now I get to see penalties without any pressure.
I hope Eisfeld tickles one.
2nd half Iceman, Jenks and Arteta impressed but still have my doubts about Gervy in EPL
First half it was Ox who impressed but Miquel and Theo deffy not goo enough
I do agree about Gervy, Cognac. He looked great today but you just feel that against defenders of a bit more class he runs into a wall instead of getting around. That’s not to say that he can’t get better and that he might well prove me wrong. And as they say, you can only beat what is in front of you, and that he did quite a few times, even if the score is still just 2-2.
No penalties after all.
Meh! No penalties. I feel cheated.
You can have a go at the century instead, Toby.
*kicks ball and runs after it*
Might as well.
*starts a Vermaelen like run, from defence through the midfield*
*joins in for tiki taka-ish one-two opening up the defense*
*assists*
Boom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un43ZP3aiS0
And another classic from Toby!
Well played!
I’m getting good support. This is a team game.
Nice one Toby!
And the Eisman scored a nice one as well, its like whenever he comes on for Theo he can help but score 🙂
Only really caught the 2nd half sadly but I think it was the better half so that’s not too bad.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Now out for Sunday roast in a country restaurant. Laters all.