Like many Gooners yesterday was my first trip to Ashburton Grove of the season and I have to say the atmosphere was great. On a personal note I left my bag contain my car keys, recent Arsenal purchase and my Motorola Xoom in the cafe and had to run back and get it and then showing how well I learn from my mistakes I left it in the pub we were enjoying a few beverages in afterwards. Luckily it was still there after I sprinted back down Gillespie Road to get it so I could in fact enjoy my day.
Our new number one, well number 13 technically but you know what I mean, was first out of the tunnel. He jogged over to his training goal to wonderful applause and then we saw NY Red Bulls come out, the crowd were almost silent as they waited for the arrival of some french bloke who was apparently quite good in his day. I said to the guy next to me I bet Thierry is just stood in the tunnel so he can come out on his own and just as I said it Mr Henry jogged out onto the Emirates pitch and the crowd erupted and choruses of 'Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry' echoed through the ground for the duration of the game. It was a fantastic reception for a true Arsenal great and a wonderful welcome home. The crowds reaction was so good in fact most people didn't even realise that the rest of our boys had come out to join Szczseny.
The game got underway and songs that went into hiding at the end of last season were being belted out by the Arsenal faithful and it was at that point I knew the football season is back!
I'll skip over the result of the tournament because it was only a friendly so although it would have been good to win it, the trophy in all honesty doesn't really mean anything (do i sound convincing?) and besides it was only fitting that on his trip home we let Henry lift the cup and as the referee supposedly refused Henry's request to put on an Arsenal shirt for the second half that meant NYRB had to win it. (For those that don't know and want to, we drew 1-1 after letting another lead slip with some silly defending which meant NYRB won the cup with 4 points.)
Its about now that people try to work out who will shine through the coming season and the Emirates Cup is a great place to judge that. There were two players that were head and shoulders above the rest today that was the unlikely combo of Thomas Rosicky and Benik Afobe. TR7 moved central after Wilshere was taken off after 5 minutes and absolutely ran the show. His movement, passing range and decision making was spot on throughout and if he gets the chance to replicate his performance in the league then he will have a very good year. Afobe is a player I have heard mentioned a lot by those that watch our youth system closely such as YoungGuns Blog but never really seen that much of. He came on for Wilshere and was moved out wide, mainly on the right hand side. He looked at home with the rest of the team, held his own against the opposition and showed he was there to perform not just be the token youngster in the side. Dare I say it but he impressed me almost as much as Jack Wilshere did when he I first saw him against Rangers a few years back.
Everyone else played there part and there were more positives to take. Keiran Gibbs was solid. He tackled well, judged when to step forward for the intercept well and as always, joined in with the attacking movement of the team really well. Gervinho looks more exciting every time I see him play, at £11m he surely must turn out to be one of the best buys of the summer. Our first choice back four played together for the first time and looked good for the majority. Players like RVP and Ramsey looked really hungry for the ball and the team seem to have remembered how to close the opposition down all over the pitch.
However, (you knew that was coming didn't you) there are still some glaring issues that don't seem to have been fixed over the summer. Both goals Saturday came from silly defending and yesterday we again failed to keep a lead and late on in the game we were cut through like a hot knife through butter as we conceded another needless goal. This needs to be fixed very, very urgently. Concentration needs to be kept for every minute of the game by every player on the pitch, if it isn't we will again find ourselves losing valuable points because of stupid mistakes. Is the addition of another centre back the answer? I don't know but Wenger has just under two weeks to find the answer before we travel to Newcastle. The memory of our last visit to St James Park should give AW all the motivation he needs to get it sorted.
The other point I noticed was that outside of our starting XI and maybe a couple of others we severely lack creativity. If we are hit by our usual injury crisis we will struggle to find the goals we need to push on and win games and challenge for that long overdue title. If the press is to be believed then Wenger is doing his best to sort out this issue starting with the seemingly immanent arrival of Juan Mata from Valencia in a deal worth a reported €22m. On top of Mata's arrival it's also still to be seen if Fabregas or Nasri will be with us next year so at the moment we have a few rays of light that will hopefully help the worry of this particular issue.
We have just one more friendly to get through before the proper stuff starts and by then I hope we will have an end result to the Nasregas saga and have a couple of fresh faces modelling their new Arsenal shirt.
Till next time,
Goonerfish.
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