Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » Let the football begin: Arsenal back in action on saturday
By Tony Attwood
It seems like forever since we had any real football, but there’s only five days to go before we start again – as usual at Barnet.
Last season the game was curious: we had two different teams out for the two halves (that’s fairly normal) but with some of them playing out of position.
For the first half we had
Almunia
Djourou – Gallas – Vermaelen – Silvestre
Wilshere – Randall – Frimpong –
Arshavin – Rosicky – Watt
In the second half it was
Mannone
Eastmond – Ayling – Vermaelen – Cruise
Barazite – Coquelin – Henderson
Simpson – Sunu – Emmanuel-Thomas
So what can we learn from that? Four centre halves playing across the back line was curious in the first half – was it just to make the newly signed Vermaelen feel at home? And Rosicky as centre forward… Watching the game I remember wondering if it was all done just to wake the players up and not allow them to drift back into their normal roles?
Looking back I am not too sure what the team tells us – especially the second half team. Eastmond’s star has risen dramatically but he’s off on a six month loan to Yeovil, while Ayling, who I thought was brilliant in the match a year ago is now permanently at Yeovil which shows what I know. I think they have a thing about players called Luke. Coquelin has gone on loan for a year.
What did strike me from the second half line up is that the match is used as much as anything as a show-piece for any managers of lower league clubs who might want someone on loan – we put out our potential loanees on display and say, come and take your pick.
In fact if we go through all the players from that match and see who we still have – and leaving aside the ones we know all about there’s…
- Emmanuel Frimpong who was expected to break through last season but got injured a lot, and never seemed to get going.
- Randall seems to have shot his bolt. He played 16 times for MK Dons, but I personally can’t see him coming back.
- Sanchez Watt who played for Derby and who looks set for a Carling Cup / reserves year
- Tom Cruise got into the team against Olympiakos,
- Barazite was left out of my list of up and coming yesterday, and was the player who got more mentions in correspondence than anyone else.
- Henderson was injured for much of the season
- Simpson went out on loan and didn’t seem to impress much,
- Sunu was on loan at Leeds
So picking up from the list published yesterday of our non-world cup players who are all ready to go along with our up and coming we have…
Goal: Almunia, Fabianski, Mannone, Szczesny
Full backs: Gibbs, Traore, Hoyte the Younger, Cruise
Centre backs: Vermaelen, Djourou, Koscielny, Nordtveit
Midfield: Denilson, Nasri, Wilshire, Lansbury, Rosicky, JET, Barazite
Forwards: Arshavin, Chamakh, Eduardo, Walcott,
Plus whoever needs exposure in the world of the up and coming or who is put on display ready for a loan deal.
I will of course be utterly wrong and something quite different will happen.
On the issue of selling players
I would not be surprised if our backup players are not sold and we have a bigger squad than last season. After three years of wholesale injury, it surely makes sense to have a bigger squad, and if needs be play some of them in the Unnecessary Cup games. If the onslaught of injury has been a statistical quirk over the last three years then we’ll end up with some fed-up players and the opportunity to do some rotating, but if the cause of the injuries is the speed of the game and the deliberate attempt by the media and clubs to raise “play dirty” to an art form, and to exonerate the likes of Shawcross, we will need a lot of players.
On the WC cup final
Speaking of which the papers I saw over the weekend were praising the Netherlands for learning how to “play dirty”, and it seems they got their wish. I didn’t watch the match but I hear it was run as something of a tribute to Shawcross and Taylor and their English style of football. I’m rather glad I was enjoying the open vistas of an almost utterly empty M6 instead.
Untold did reveal exactly how England could win the world cup during the past month or so – and it turns out it would take two very simple changes to the way the game is organised in England. But perhaps I should save that for another time. There’s been far too much of this world cup gibberish for one century.
POSTSCRIPT AND ADDENDUM
As several writers have pointed out in the correspondence I have screwed up the loan details, reversing a couple of clubs for loanees and mixing up who is at Yeovil (only players called Luke go to Yeovil). Apologies all round.
I’m living in a foreign country but I’m bound to cross the line
Beauty walks a razor’s edge someday I’ll make it mine
If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born