Last night was all about the result and on that basis nobody can have any complaints this morning.
Yes, we all know how light the squad is, we know how many players we had out injured, but there really is no need to cover all the old ground again. As expected we started with Ramsey and Denilson in the centre of midfield and I thought overall they did pretty well. Twente, knowing how youthful we were in there, set up to make life even more difficult for us by playing 5 in midfield. Classic McClaren spoiling tactics and for the most part it worked quite well.
The first half was a real struggle for us. One long range Clichy effort apart (from which Sagna put the rebound wide) we didn’t have much to show as an attacking threat. On the hand there were some worrying moments at the back from us. Almunia came out to smother one attack, Gallas played a crazy offside which saw their striker go through but he stumbled and again Almunia came out to stop the attack, and Clichy and Denilson were opened up way too easily on the edge of the box allowing their player to shoot not far over the bar.
The second half was better from us, Twente faded a bit, we seemed to find our range a bit better and we opened the scoring when the Penis of William Gallas cocked one home from a Robin van Persie free kick. There was a touch of good fortune about it but sometimes that’s what you need. It’s a bit of a cliché but you make your own luck at times and Gallas’ run and the timing of it was down to him being the most experienced Arsenal player on the pitch. We didn’t do much else to trouble the Dutch goal but late on Djourou played a nice ball over the top for the otherwise quiet Theo Walcott who squared to Adebayor who scrambled it home to make it 2-0. Job done and that really is as much as we need to think about this morning (goals via 101greatgoals).
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t much fun to watch, but it’s a result we can take back home and it does make life a bit more comfortable for us. Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:
We were a very young team and we did not lose our nerve, did not panic. In the end maybe our technical superiority allowed us to score two goals – that is a massive advantage for the second leg, but we will be on our toes.
The absence of Cesc was keenly felt but then any side in the world would miss him. What’s amazing about him is the way he finds space and time on the ball no matter who he’s playing against but it will have been a good learning experience for both Denilson and Ramsey. The former really does show for the ball all the time, he doesn’t hide, while Ramsey displayed that fantastic engine the boss spoke about but you can see how he can improve the technical side of his game. It looks like they’ll have to team up again to face West Brom on Saturday so here’s hoping that last night helps them establish a decent partnership.
The return leg takes place on August 27th. Now though it’s time to concentrate on the Premier League. We’re just two days away from the start and we have the honour, if you can call it that, of kicking off the new season. Lots to come in the next day or two in terms of previews and pre-match, pre-season analysis. If you missed it yesterday then Arseblog’s Perry Groves (not the ginger legend Perry Groves) wrote a piece summing up his thoughts ahead of the new campaign. Check out Thoughts from the top of the blue quadrant here.
Theo Walcott is back in England U21 set-up but I don’t think there’s any harm in that. Other than that there’s not a great deal to tell you, news and squad news ahead of Saturday to come tomorrow along with an Arsecast.
Now, the other day we ran a competition for you to win a copy of Arsènal – the book co-written by Alex Flynn and Kevin Witcher of the Gooner. I asked you what was Arsene Wenger’s first game in charge of Arsenal and the answer was, of course, Blackburn Rovers (a 2-0 win). He had a hand in the game against Borussia Monchengladbach but was not officially Arsenal manager at that stage. There are five copies to give away and the RNG has pulled the following fives names from the hat:
John Deasy – Patrick Bogan – Paul Aries – Eoghan Mitchell – Holly Hickman.
Congratulations to all of you. I’ll be in touch to get your details some time today. If you didn’t win thanks for entering (I should repeat that unless otherwise stated Arseblog competitions are open to everybody no matter where you live) but remember you can get the book at a discount price thanks to Arseblog.
Arseblog readers can get over £2 off the £12.99 publishers’ online price, making the book £10.91 plus postage and packing. Of the money you save, over £1 per copy will be donated to charity. Originally, Arseblog was going to donate any moneys raised to the David Rocastle Trust, but it seems to no longer exist. So the next best thing seems to be to donate it to the Cancer Research UK charity in memory of the great man, and in the hope that they can find a cure for the disease that robbed us of an Arsenal legend.
To buy the book online, simply click here and select ‘buy now’. In the window that opens enter the word rocky in the promotion code box and your £2 will be discounted when you press the ‘go’ box next to it.
Right then, that’s your lot. More tomorrow.
