Top of the morning to you all and welcome to another glorious week. We won the Emirates cup for the first time since 2010! I know, i know, that’s weird right? I mean the Emirates cup is our birthright, that’s how they used to make fun of us isn’t it? Well we won it again and i thoroughly enjoyed it.
Our preseason has gone pretty well all things considered. We’ve played four games, scored 14, conceded 1. That makes for pretty good reading. Now let us not forget that this was preseason, it doesn’t mean we’ll magically waltz to the league title, but at the same time it doesn’t mean that we haven’t done pretty well.
Preseason is generally about fitness and if the last four games are anything to go by then we are pretty fit don’t you think?
Well here are some of my thoughts on it:
Walcott played in the middle against Wolfsburg and from where i was sitting, it was an audition of sorts. I feel at the end of the game Wenger has made a decision one way or the other on what he wants to do about that position. It really was a striker audition to be honest. Akpom, Giroud and Walcott all played through the middle and the last two scored.
Walcott’s goal though came from when he was moved from the center, he was in the center but as a result of a switch between him and Akpom. The youngster will probably have left the pitch a bit disappointed. He was unable to score, not for lack of trying though. In fact, he was trying a little too hard and in situations where he should have passed he went for the shot instead and was unable to get on target.
I don’t know what to say about the auditions, i think the strikers did well, the ball is now in Arsene’s court as to what he wants to do about that position. He has already mentioned that he is open to buying a striker but it remains to be seen what happens.
Speaking about youngsters. Jeff Rene Adelaide is quite impressive isn’t he? When preseason was starting out, the youngsters that came to mind as ones to watch were Zelalem, Crowley, Akpom et al. I knew when we signed Adelaide, i didn’t think much of it and i don’t think he was in Singapore, but over the weekend against Lyon and Wolfsburg, he played with a maturity beyond his years. He was pacey, skillful with a good passing range including a lovely pass to find Walcott to score the only goal of the game against Wolfsburg. He may be one to watch out for.
The Ox was another player i was keen to watch and over the course of the preseason, i saw enough to be happy about. He was direct, bullish, quick and just generally pretty good to watch. I feel he could improve on his passing but beyond that he was quite good and if he can stay injury free this season, then i expect this to be a really, really big season for him.
All in all it was a good preseason, we scored loads of goals and conceded a negligible amount. I hope this carries on into the season, whether we buy players or not i genuinely feel this team can challenge barring injury of course.
So here’s hoping we can win the Chavs next week and at least give ourselves a nice psychological boost going into the new season.
Till later.
