Thursday, July 14th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Walter Broeckx
Okay forget all the transfer rumours, forget all the gossip, forget it all. As from today the only thing that really matters in football has restarted: the game on the pitch.
I am full aware that you don’t win anything in pre-season games. Apart from the Emirates cup maybe. But after sitting here watching at my TV or PC with no Arsenal football to be seen I must confess that even a game between the Arsenal U10 (the real boys that play on the field) and the U10 of Leyton Orient would be enough to get me excited. Okay, I do admit this is a bit exaggerated. But only slightly.
Who we play doesn’t matter the most important part for me is that we play. And this promises to be an interesting period for most of us. Several questions are waiting to be answered in the next month (as it is just one month before the start of the EPL) as we play our first pre-season games. So I will try to give my views on what we know now and not based on the rumours from some rubbish newspaper. And I will leave Gervinho alone for the moment as he is still in London to sign a few things. Well all the better so I will have the privilege to see him live for the first time in an Arsenal shirt when we play at Cologne.
The goal keeper question? I think Szczesny will start in goal this season. He didn’t do much wrong in my opinion last season and showed that he is a cool keeper who is not afraid to risk his bones at times to prevent danger. I know he still has a few things to learn but he looks to be a bit intelligent or at least smart enough to learn things. And he also has that little bit of crazy goal keeper bit in him which every good goalkeeper needs. And if Fabianski (who is not completely recovered from his shoulder operation in January) comes in goal I will not be frightened. This season Fabianski has shown that he can be reliable and important for us. I can only remember one mistake during the many games he has done but for the rest he also was very good in goal.
And then we have Mannone who will maybe get a chance and who had a good season at Hull before he got injured and I have seen some good games from him late at night on the BBC. So I think with those 3 young keepers we have enough quality to get us through the season. And if all get injured we could get Martinez from the youth to fill in somewhere. People say he is very talented but I must admit I haven’t seen him play a complete game so I cant comment on him.
In defence we lost Clichy. People have been slating him for a few seasons and said he was the weakest link. I kind of liked him in fact because I thought he was a player that gives it all and, well, I know people can make mistakes. So it looks as if Wenger allowed him to go as he surely didn’t go to much trouble in order to keep him.
Who will replace him is still to be seen. In my two articles I talked about Botelho but he seems to be going on loan again together with Wellington. And this leaves us with Gibbs, Traore and Vermaelen. Going for the latter will mean that we have to buy another centre back. Or change the system and revert to just 3 defenders like someone suggested? Where Vermaelen covers as the left defender, Djourou in the middle and Koscielny on the right?
And then Gibbs or Sagna could be free more to support the attack? It sure does sounds exciting to me and maybe we will see some experiments in that way later in pre-season, but for the first game we had Gibbs at full back.
I also would like to point at the fact that compared to last season we already have one more defender in our team. The return of Vermaelen is important and he has vowed to make up for the lost season. So Vermaelen, the captain yesterday, looks like a new signing, but one we already know and thus making less headlines. So one out for the moment and one in. If we add another one and we think of players like Bartley and Miguel who can move up the ladder it should be enough I think.
And we also have brought in Jenkinson who started in the first pre-season game. Now I don’t know how good he will be but I think it is fair to think that he will be one playing his heart out when on the pitch for the team he loves not as a player but most of all as a supporter. I bet there will be an excited dad somewhere in the Emirates this season. Let’s hope his son can make him very proud with his performance.
If we look at our midfielders I want to point at Ramsey. Another new old signing for me. With the old and for him his returning season behind him he can now have a proper pre-season with the rest of the team. If we think back at the Ramsey we have seen in the games before his leg was broken we have seen a great player coming above water. In the game against Manchester United where he scored the winning goal but was also very prominent in midfield we have seen the old Ramsey back. But as this was a bit of a stop and go season for him it will be vital for him to making progress. If he can do this he will be great.
And just imagine that combination of Aaron and Jack a few seasons ago when as 16-17 year old young boys they trashed a few teams in the Carling Cup. Now the boys have grown up and if they can produce performances like in those days but now in the EPL in the coming years. There is a lot of water in my mouth just by thinking of this happening.
So once again Ramsey is in fact a new old signing and it will be interesting to see how he develops further.
Another new old signing we welcome back is Frimpong who played yesterday in the second half. Last pre-season he was great and he stunned us with some great and strong performances. It was a real blow for him and for us that he then got his terrible knee injury which made him lose a year. Once again we are at the same point now and we just hope that he can reproduce his firm form of last pre-season and give us an extra option in midfield. So Ramsey and Frimpong are in fact two new signing in midfield for us this summer.
So plenty to look forward to in this Asia tour I think. Let the ref blow the whistle to start the game please.
Arsenal’s opening team for the first pre-season game was…
Wojciech Szczesny
Carl Jenkinson, Laurent Koscielny, Thomas Vermaelen (c) Kieran Gibbs
Alex Song
Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey
Ryo Miyaichi, Marouane Chamakh, Theo Walcott
And in the second half…
Vito Mannone
Bacary Sagna, Sebastien Squillaci, Johan Djourou, Armand Traore
Emmanuel Frimpong
Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky
Carlos Vela, Robin van Persie, Andrey Arshavin
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