Fabianski Stars As Young Guns Make A Point
Aug 9th, 2008 by 'holic
The final warm-up game in Amsterdam saw a youthful Arsenal line-up snatch an early lead before being put on the rack for long periods. Only in the final ten minutes did a very strong Sevilla side finally snatch an equaliser, although to be fair it was always on the cards.
The opening goal gave us a glimpse of what Carlos Vela will bring to the squad. He showed speed of thought and strength as he dispossessed and then held off Konko before slotting the ball inside the far post. Less than five minutes were on the clock.
The contest then became very much a lesson in patience for the youngsters as Sevilla enjoyed long spells of possession. There were a few pleasing moves from Arsenal but by and large they were pressurised quickly all over the park.
Lukasz Fabianski started confidently, claiming a couple of early corners and then making a smart save at point-blank range from Kone. The second-half all but belonged to the Polish ‘keeper as he produced save after save to keep the Spaniards at bay.
Eventually though something had to give. When the impressive Navas got free for the umpteenth time with just nine minutes remaining he finally found the inch perfect cut-back for Chevanton to convert. In all honesty it was the least that Sevilla deserved.
While it was a difficult night for some there were once again some positives to be had. Jack Wilshere again looked lively and showed little respect to experienced opponents. I have a feeling he has earned himself a place on the bench for the bigger tests to come. A few of his team-mates will now realise just how far they may be from joining him.
Update Inter Milan’s 1-0 win over Ajax was not enough to prevent Arsenal retaining the Amsterdam tournament.
An Apology
On a busy Saturday I have also upgraded the software behind the scenes and, as usually happens with these things, a couple of glitches have resulted. The categories have ‘vanished’ and some text appears differently in places. I will try and get the categories sorted over the course of this week, and will try and capture the text glitches in archived articles at the same time. I will not even attempt to capture everything that may have changed in the the archived comments, so if you do see something odd, I’m sorry.
21 Responses to “Fabianski Stars As Young Guns Make A Point”
we can see that some of young players are progressing well and will be good Arsenal players in the future – Fabi, Djourou, Gibbs, Vela, Nik B, Wilshere all showed that they are superb. Big Phil had a decent game tonight but I thought he was still caught out a couple of times and was a bit slow getting across for the goal. thats the thing with him, he can be great for huge periods and then let himself down and I dont see him cutting that out.
Hoyte and Randall were woeful. I cant be positive about these 2 players, but wenger wants to keep playing them – I cant work out why. loan or sell them and cut our losses, we have better players waiting to play.
Mmmm, this is a cheeky red…
I thought that Emmanuel Thomas was particularly slow and lumbering, but when you consider most of these boys were playing in the Under 17/19’s last year, the step up is huge and they carried themselves off exceptionally well.
One particular highlight for me was seeing that Robin has not been idle on the treatment table but is clearly a budding sports photographer!
Where are the bar snacks tonight?
Glass of red please Holic.
I am looking forward to the lads doing the double this year if we bring in 2 players.
1)a flamini replacement
and
2)a new Martin Keown to give Gallas a kick up the ass when he needs it.
following that performance it is now clear to me and hopefully everyone else that Djourou is ahead of Senderos in the pecking order. He is far more assured with the ball, more athletic and better positionally.
Also, Fabianski sent a huge message out to both Wenger and Almunia. Based on that heroic performance he should be first choice. He came for almost every cross with assured conviction, giving his defence confidence.
OK after the pre-season we can now say without any doubts………..
1. Our defence will still conceed too many goals, Galls & Toure are not the answer, neither is Senderos…Djourou has an outside chance of coming good given the chance and given a class partner!!
2. If we have one or two long term injuries to our 1st choice 11, the quality/experience is not there.
3. Diaby looked woeful in the games he played….but injured again, !!
4. Eboue still looks terrible and a liability….why AW stil continues with him I really cannot understand…can anyone??
5.The same can be said for Hoyte….again, why does AW not see he can’t defend, he can’t pass, his positioning is poor, his covering is worse…and he is our backup right back!!
6.Nevas & Diego Capel showed us what 2 class wide players can do…..they tore our defence to sheds!! Why not buy one or both of them???
7.Ramsey & Wiltshire have lots of promise, but when up against class experience who are committed to play they will struggle, Sevilla ran riot againt them
8. Vela looks good, Bendtner must pass more and think quicker.
9.Adebeyor will continue to frustrate….misses loads, offside too much, miscontrols the ball too much……. but he is the only forward we have who can score goals…Robin VP doesn’t score enough!
And finally….. We will not win anything this season because we do not have the depth
in the squad…..be prepared for another frustratingly, trophyless season guys!!!
Matt you are a know all fucking moaner.
Shut the fuck up and get behind our team.
Matt is exactly the kind of witless cunt I have to sit behind at the Emirates who only opens his mouth to moan. If you want depth in the squad, fuck off and watch Chelsea – imagine how excited you’ll be about the prosect of Claudio Pizarro coming off the bench…
Matt are you the knob with the pony tail?
Who? Frank?
Is Paulie from the other day ‘Arsenal Truth’? Or do people just copy stuff off of Arsenal Truth and paste it in this fine bar as their own?
Aha, Inspector Mollusc uncovers another mystery. Good spot there, slimey one.
G’morning Jackster.
Nearly lunchtime. Little cheese squares and silvery onions are available for regulars. 😉
*puts down magnifying glass, picks up silvery onion*
Whatever happened to those cheesy footballs?
*helps himself to a cheese square*
Any chance of a drink?
Just read Matt’s comments above and I think He and I are cloned! I wouldn’t put his points as strongly, but I agree with the basics of everything he’s said. After whipping up a storm of opposition yesterday to my comments I don’t want to be demonised again, and I do not agree that we will win nothing this season, but we will have to be very lucky with injuries to avoid the same pattern of events as last year
But Matt is right – there are certain players who it seems obvious will never cut it. Justin Hoyte and Mark Randall are 2 prime examples. Other players like Traore, Barazite and Song look to have great potential.
We’ve all gone mad……..I think the weeks deprived have turned us into caged lions to the point that we are at each other’s throats on BLOG sites. Hopefully we’ll have a great start to the season and leave all this bickering behind (but I’d still like to see us sign a big CB and a battling DM!)
Played well the youngsters though dominated from time to time
http://theworldsmostbeautifulgame.wordpress.com/
Anyone else experience problems connecting to oleole.com?
It’s fine now, snaily.
Kir Royale and a pint of prawns please, ‘holic
This season will be interesting. What I think these games have shown is that we are still unable to deal with the big ball down the middle. we got done numerous times last season like it. We need to buy a decent holding player that is not only good on the ball, but is someone who can protect the back 4 in the air. I had hoped Diaby would fill the role but again he is out injured. I think we need someone sooner rather than later. Going forward we will be fine.
Perhaps the best change for us this season is the 7 subs rule. There is absolutely no reason why the likes of Vela, Ramsay, Wilshere etc etc can not occupy one of those places. Then 4 nil up at home with 15 to go, on they come. Some of the young players will have far more chances to gain 1st team experience than before which can only help their development.
hallelujah!!!
It seems every proper, right-minded gooner except those infected with the ‘Arsene knows best’ virus, concedes that we need a top class, combative, defensive midfielder.
The fans, the pundits, the check-out girls in Tesco – all know this. We shouldn’t have let Diarra go, we should have got Flamini to sign a new contract earlier last season, we should have realised by now that Diaby is injury prone and may never be good enough, we should have realised vhat Fabregas was not going to be match fit for the Twente game, we shouldn’t have sold Gilberto until we had secured a replacement for Flamini, we shouldn’t have given priority to signing little known players – WE SHOULD HAVE PULLED OUT ALL THE STOPS AND BOUGHT THE BEST PLAYER AVAILABLE THAT WE CAN AFFORD – AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH1!!!!!!!!!!
Arsene is the best manager we’ve ever had. He had a great working relationship with David Dein. David Dein used to handle all the transfers – and look at what fantastic players that yielded. Maybe the club should get Arsene some top class assistant to take the burden off his shoulders. he can appraise the players and let someone else do ther donkey work.
The fact is that we have fucked up! If we don’t get a good result on wednesday, serious questions will have to be asked…………….
Rasputin
Thats a good monday morning rant!! Can’t find too much to disagree with and its always good to get such angst of ones chest.
I def agree that is was short-sighted to let Gilberto go until there was a replacement but being the eternal optimist I’m hoping that it will all be ok.
Blinkered!! Moi?
CRISIS…………..?????????
Even arsenal sites that have previously played down the defensive/midfield frailty of the squad are expressing their concern today.
ARSEBLOG – who I respect totally sums it up perfectly and mirrors the concerns of the rest of us.
Even if we get away with it over the next two weeks, it will not change the fact that it is extremely unprofessional for the club/board/manager to put us in this vulnerable position.
I have increasingly become disillusioned by Arsene’s statements of late.
First there was the “we do not need to buy a defender”, then “I’ve come with my chequebook” at the start of the Euros, followed by I’ve realised everyone is too expensive” and now “I’m too busy to worry about buying a midfielder”. Well for christ’s sake – is there no-one at the club who isn’t ‘too busy’.
Reading between the lines, I wonder if arsene’s last statement was his clever way of telling us that he needs help. I don’t think a man as calculating as him would have let this situation arise. I hate to say it, but the S****s midfield is lookking very good and all of their purchases will improve their squad. I know it is a fact that we cannoot compete with them, manure, chelski and quite a few others in transfer budgets, but are we really that poor that we can’t invest in a player/players that will give us a chance to compete.
What would it cost if we don’t qualify for the CL next season. Yes – I dare to ask the question – shoot me for it…..