Right, somewhat sleepy this morning due to copious amounts of sweet, life giving booze last night but some thoughts on yesterday’s 1-1 draw with AC Milan.
- Of all the Arsenal Emmanuels, past and present, young Frimpong excites me like an altar boy in a room full of bishops. Except not in that way. I think a season out on loan would be the perfect thing for him but of all the youngsters he’s the one making the most impact in pre-season.
- Well, him and Jack Wilshere who played centrally and I thought was very good indeed. From Arsene’s post-match comments it seems both of them will be part of the squad this season.
- New boys Koscielny and Chamakh looked impressive. The latter got our goal, a nice finish it was too, generally held the ball up well, brought others into play cleverly and overall was pretty impressive. At the other end Koscielny was reassuringly good. He’s quick, confident, reads the game well, likes a tackle and his passing was good. Still needs to hit the gym.
- I wonder if it was telling that Lukasz Fabianski started against Milan. The keeper did all right and whatever you think about the Polish Gary Sprake it’s better for us that he does well when called upon.
- Kieran Gibbs is going to give Gael Clichy a real run for his money this season. This is good.
- The goal we conceded was a bit silly but the way that screeching witch Alan Parry was going on you’d swear it was the end of days. It’s a fucking pre-season training game and why does he get to commentate on so many of our games? The sooner Sky introduce a red button to just watch the game without a commentator the better. I would pay extra for that.
- Our new kit is seriously nice. It’s the kind of kit that demands you win a trophy. Having proper white sleeves makes us more Arsenal than last year. We need this.
Overall, it was a good run out against a top team who are, in fairness, a few weeks behind us in terms of their pre-season preparations. Nevertheless, you have young lads like Wilshere and Frimpong who are using it to show what they can do and force their way into the manager’s plans for the season ahead. Is young Eastmond injured? If he is it’s a shame for him because the Frimster has surged ahead of him in the pecking order, I reckon.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of a team he puts out today against Celtic. We know Almunia will start but surely those who played 90 minutes yesterday won’t be used. Djourou and Nordtveit at centre-half, perhaps? Hopefully an Alan Parryless TV will reveal all later.
Afterwards the manager was asked, inevitably, about Cesc and said:
At the moment, what is important is that when Cesc comes back, that he comes out.
Which is going to be quite the shock to his girlfriend, I’m sure. In seriousness though, the manager made the point that the only way the speculation will completely stop, despite Arsenal saying we won’t sell and Barcelona saying Arsenal won’t talk to them, is for Cesc to nail his red and white colours firmly to the mast. He said:
Who can stop the speculation? Only Cesc maybe, I don’t know, maybe not even Cesc. But that is how I feel. We cannot go into a season where everyday you read about that. He has not played today and I sit here and speak about Fabregas.
And if it’s tiresome and trying for us it must be just that for Arsene too. A line has be drawn at this point, we need to focus on what’s important, Cesc needs to come back and lead this team, and once that’s all done everything will fall into place as we begin our historic four trophy season ending in a 5-0 (Eboue 3, Bartley, Sunu) humiliation of Barcelona in the Champions League final. Hey, it’s pre-season, and I’m still a bit drunk.
In a quick Sunday gossip round-up the News of the World links us with Bosnian defender Emir Spahic, whose name makes me think of middle-eastern lesbians for some reason. He currently plays for Montpellier and is being lined up, apparently, in case we can’t sign Mertesacker.
Told you it was quick. That’s all there is. More football again later, can’t argue with that. Don’t forget the classic shirt competition, see yesterday’s blog for more. Have a good Sunday.
