Morning all, a bit of a quickie for you this morning.
We play Everton later in the final of the Barclay’s Orange Tic-Tac Trophy and having left out some of the big names for the midweek game, Arsene Wenger is likely to call upon the likes of Koscielny, Ramsey, Cazorla, Giroud and, of course, new boy Petr Cech. The goalkeeper will make his first appearance in an Arsenal shirt as we continue our pre-season.
The game takes place at 1.30pm UK time, and Arsene Wenger says:
The first half was very, very competitive between Stoke and Everton. The challenges were Premier League challenges and I expect that from Everton. They came out of a season where they did less well than the season before and they certainly want to start strong. They look focused and prepared.
I guess you do want a competitive game, but one that also remembers it’s just a friendly. Picking up any kind of injury today would be a bit of a pain in the arse, but these things can happen in training just as easily so there’s no point worrying too much about it.
Meanwhile, there’s confirmation of the news we covered yesterday with Ajax unveiling Yaya Sanogo, and Hector Bellerin putting pen to paper on a new long-term deal. Positive moves for both players. One gets the chance to develop with regular football, the other has to maintain the level of performance he showed in his first season with the club. On the young Spaniard, the manager said:
“He’s a very serious, mature boy. I met him when he was 15… and I could see straight away that there was something special on the hunger side, on the desire and maturity side. I expect him to confirm all the good aspects of his game that he has shown, and to accept that he has a tough challenge with Mathieu Debuchy.
Mathieu is a guy who has always shown unbelievable mental strength and has top quality. He’s a regular player in the French national team so Hector cannot rest. He has a big battle to face.”
It was interesting to hear the manager say that’s something both Bellerin and Francis Coquelin have to do this season:
“Bellerin and Coquelin are the two players who were not necessarily planned last season to come out. They have to confirm that this season, and that is always very difficult to produce the same performance in the second season, so that is their challenge.”
Of course both Coquelin and Bellerin got their chances because of injury problems. In December we barely had a fit midfielder left so the call went out to the guy we’d let go on loan to Charlton (and whose deal we allowed to be extended there), while the problems suffered by Debuchy opened the door at the right-back. This season, however, the manager is hopeful that things will be better on that front:
“We always try to improve in every department and it’s true that we have done more fitness preparation on the medical side. Every year we try to move forward and we feel that we have done much better last season. I’m confident that we will do better again this season.”
After bringing Shad Forsythe last summer, we’ve recruited one of his former EXOS colleagues to become the Strength and Conditioning Coach (a new role), as well as adding Huddersfield’s former Head of Medical and First Team Physio. The last 6 months of last season showed some progress in terms of players not being absolutely banjaxed, so hopefully that will continue next season.
The expectation that we’ll have everybody fit 100% of the time is obviously unrealistic. There will always be aches and strains, pains and niggles, and regardless of how well prepared you are or how good your staff are, you can’t legislate for things like this or Giroud breaking his leg by blocking a ball.
However, if we want this squad to be truly competitive, in itself and what it does on the pitch, then making sure we don’t lurch into another crisis because of bad practice is paramount – and I think it’s obvious the club have moved to address the issues we were experiencing. Maybe it’s a case of better late than never, but it’s still being done.
Finally for today, I saw much raving about the new Sky Sports ad during the week, featuring Thierry Henry being CGId into various Premier League moments. We know already that Sky have toys that can draw circles and squares and arrows on the screen, and now they’ve invested in a green screen. Whoop-de-doo. It’s all a bit meh if you ask me. ‘Fergie time’ and loving Stevie G? Give me a break.
I mean, it’s well done from a technical point of view, but we live in a world where computers can enhance the cinematic experience by making it rain realistic looking sharks from tornadoes, so I’m just not that impressed, Henry or no Henry.
Right, more tomorrow, and some post-game stuff over on Arseblog News later on in the day.
