(This article was supposed to be posted tomorrow, but time does not allow for this so I am posting it today)
Arsenal were beaten 2-0 by Manchester City in yesterday's friendly match. The game resembled the Carling Cup match played between the 2 sides last season, where Arsenal were largely dominant but couldn't find the end product. Man City played on the counter attack and both of their goals came within 3 minutes of each other at the end of half time. The goals were a cause of lackluster defending from the full backs and lack of concentration from the midfield. We looked vulnerable whenever they came forward with numbers. Yaya Toure was their best player by a long shot and their goalkeeper also had a fantastic game.
From our point of view Alex Song wasn't the best defensively yesterday. I really don't think he wants to be or can be a proper defensive midfielder. He loves to get forward and whenever he gets the ball he is looking for a decisive pass. I think he was our most penetrative passer yesterday and always looked to make things happen. We need a midfielder dedicated to sitting in front of the back four to protect them from the counter attacks and Song is not that type of player. We cannot make definitive decisions from a pre-season friendly but from what I saw yesterday, Arsene hasn't instructed him to do anything differently to last season. Mikel Arteta was uncharacteristically sloppy with his passing yesterday. Nothing to worry about though, just a lack of sharpness and fitness which comes with playing matches. Abou Diaby was decent as well. He really is like a new signing when fit and a valuable asset to the midfield. With more match fitness he will be really dangerous. Gervinho played through the centre as a lone forward and didn't do to badly. He made some intelligent runs and his link up play with Walcott was good. A player like Giroud was needed as a target man yesterday, balls were played into the centre but often there was nobody there or the City defenders were to strong for the likes of Chamakh or even on one occasion Santos. It was a positive performance going forward. The defense still needs work, but that will come when the likes of Koscielny and Mertesacker are involved.
Just before kick off yesterday the Spanish press were reporting that Nuri Sahin was going to come to Arsenal on a loan deal. They then changed their story to 'probably coming to a Premier League club'. Jose Mourinho confirmed that it was best for him to leave and twitter was exploding with excitement. Sahin was out for the most of last season with injury after his 10mil move from Dortmund. With Madrid likely to land Modric, he is unneeded at the Bernebeu. Arsene Wenger was asked about the rumour and he said that the report was wrong and that we hadn't signed anyone. That doesn't mean we won't sign him, the deal clearly isn't done yet. But with names such as Cazorla and Sahin all strongly linked, Van Persie's statement that we lack ambition is certainly looking more confusing. Arsene also said that there have been no offers for Robin yet, which has come as a surprise. I wonder how he feels about that. He must have thought that he was hot property and he would have a plethora of offers on the table. Turns out that only 3 teams are interested and only one of those teams maybe cough up the 20mil+ we want for him.
Other than that, there isn't anything else too exciting. I really hope we get these players in as soon as possible. If we can't get Cazorla, we should already have a back-up plan. Sahin's loan deal makes sense. It will allow Wilshere to get introduced slowly and it won't kill the career of Coquelin.
'Till Tomorrow
"But with names such as Cazorla and Sahin all strongly linked, Van Persie's statement that we lack ambition is certainly looking more confusing"
ReplyDeleteWe've had years of being "strongly linked" with great players, but very few actual signings resulted from all those linkings. So hopefully this year will be different, but there's still no ink on the paper yet
We have already seen the difference between this summer and previous ones. You may argue that the Van Persie saga feels all to similar but there's nothing we can do to change that - we cannot force him to sign a new deal. He says we lack ambition. I am merely stating that the top class signings and targets should be ambition enough. The point is that I don't think Van Persie is concerned with our ambitions as much as our ability to spend huge amounts of money on players. A top signing doesn't have to cost over 20mil, just ask Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City and countless other clubs who have splashed the cash on average players - and it doesn't make sense to do the same.
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