Arsenal vs Real Madrid – 1st team starting to look promising

I have got to say, the trip to the Emirates yesterday was fantastic. It represented for me the proper return to football after the summer, despite seeing other friendlies on TV, there is no substitute to actually being there to support your team. It also represented a glimpse at what wenger has in mind for the opening match of the season, as bar Cesc Fabregas and Kolo Toure, no-one else will return before the match at West Brom and indeed the Champions League qualifier against the The Wally with a Brolly himself.

The Team:

————————- Almunia ————————-

Sagna ———– Gallas ———— Senderos ——— Clichy

Walcott ———- Diaby ———— Denilson ——— Nasri

—————– van Persie ——————————

—————————– Adebayor ——————

Back to the Real Madrid game and I thought that overall Arsenal played excellently throughout against a fairly rusty Real madrid side, with numerous positives that we can take out of it.

First of all, it was far more like a proper Premiership match than even the two previous friendlies which were higher in tempo. It was very competitive, tackles came in and passing had to be crisp and fast paced. Early on Arsenal got at Real Madrid, with the right flank pairiing of Sagna and Theo Walcott looking far better than anything we have seen so far from Eboue and Sagna all last season. Hopefully Wenger will take note and not hesitate to give Theo a first team place.

Robin van Persie, dropping deep, picked up the ball and played a wonderful exchange of passes between himself and Adebayor before picking out Theo Walcott storming into the box. The young Englishman’s shot was well saved by Dudek, but it proved to be a sign of things to come for Arsenal as they continued to press.

Gael Clichy was played in down the left and he blazed over with a speculative effort, before more wonderful football led to Nasri playing in van Persie with a delightful through ball, only for the Dutchman’s perfect cross being wastefully headed wide by Adebayor. Theo Walcott was next to get a chance, combining with van persie and using his pace and trickery to get enough space to striker at goal. Unfortunately his finishing was wayward on this occcasion. The first half action had not ended yet though and an Arsenal-like mistake from a corner by the La Liga Champions gave Adebayor a looping headed chance that was only just saved by the former Liverpool keeper Jerzy Dudek.

As they came in still level at half time, the most impressive aspect from my point of view was the link up play between the full backs and wingers. Nasri and Clichy, good friends off the field, were combining just as well as Sagna and Walcott were on the opposite flank, and if this trend continues we could once more have the fantastic attacking play we had from Ljungberg and Pires not so many years ago. Not only that, defensively both wingers work very hard, Walcott enjoying a great tussle with Robinho throughout the half. Of course, Sagna and Clichy have already established themselves as majestic attacking and defensive full backs so it should be great to see how these four do this season.

Half Time: Arsenal 0 – 0 Real Madrid

The second half began well for Arsenal, with Real Madrid threatening no more than they did in the first and things got immediately better when van Persie was clattered by Salgado in what was a very stupid foul to give away in a penalty box and something you don’t expect from someone of Salgado’s experience. Nevertheless, the referee pointed to the spot and Adebayor stepped up to blast the ball into the top corner with fantastic technique. The Togolese striker wasn’t finished there either, and after some dubious badge-kissing he set about taking on the entire Real Madrid team and almost came out on top, only just seeing his shot go fractions wide. With more moments like these, Adebayor can start to win back belief by the fans in him.

Before Adebayor made his fine individual run, Denilson, working brilliantly and tirlessly in midfield (unlike his partner in the centre) had forced a comfortable save from Dudek. Less comfortable was Almunia a little later, having to punch the ball away from van Nistlerooy’s shot. But the Spaniard was very rarely troubled in a fairly one-sided game.

The young guns appeared from the bench after this, with Bendtner, Vela, Ramsey and Wilshere coming on to try to impress Wenger in the last quarter of the game or so. And Wilshere did exactly that, bursting down the left and cutting past the depairing attempt of a foul by Javi Garcia, producing a good dinked ball which Bendtner could only direct into the side netting. Had Bendtner been in the middle and not the diminutive Vela, the big Dane could easily have scored from a header from a fantastic cross.

Full Time: Arsenal 1 – 0 Real Madrid

So a very good work out all in all for what looks to be Wenger’s preferred 11 of the players he has available currently. Obviously Fabregas will come in, and judging by performances thus far it will be Denilson and not Diaby that gets the nod as his partner in midfield, barring any signings that Wenger makes. Toure I should think will come back in for Senderos, although it seems to me that the big Swiss deender could form a partnership with Gallas to rival the Toure/Gallas one, particularly against the bigger, physical team that lack the pace to trouble him.

Match ratings:

Manuel Almunia – 6 - Average game, didn’t have to do very much against a bit of a toothless Real Madrid attack. Slightly dodgy for the 50/50 against Raul which could have been given as a penalty, although I’m not sure there was much contact there.

Bacary Sagna – 8 - Fantastic defender, battles with the very best of them and attacks very well. Always an option to pass to and gives a bit of momentum to the side when he comes forward. Having been one of the earlier players to come back in pre-season, he looks fully fit and raring to go.

William Gallas – 7.5 - Composed game from the captain, like the goalkeeper wasn’t overly worked but positionally was excellent and helped out Senderos a couple of times.

Phillippe Senderos – 7 – A couple of mistakes positionally against the wily Raul, but made up for it with commanding headers throughout.

Gael Clichy – 8 - See Sagna. Fantastic full back, and fully fit aftr not playing any internationals in the summer. Thank you Raymond Domenech.

Theo Walcott – 8 - Stunning first half performance, dwindled lightly in the second half but still very impressive. His speed is so dangerous to sides, but his overall passing play is improving a lot, although a couple of telegraphed passes still creep into his game. Another of the players who I would say is fully ready for the season ahead.

Abou Diaby – 4 - Unfortunately looked easily the weakest link in the team. Of course he is behind many of the others in pre-season preparations, but I still expected more from him. I can’t see how defensively he will be able to be Cesc’s partner in midfield, while the amount of unforced errors he makes is inexcusable. But I will wait until the Amsterdam Tournament to really see how he can perform for us this season, as an unfit player does make mistakes of course. Horrible tackle on Sneijder which was a disgrace.

Denilson – 7.5 - Calm, assured in defence, didn’t give away his normal silly fouls in dangerous areas, and he is basically a deep lying playmaker with the ball at his feet. Him and Fabregas will be great against most opposition, but I wonder whether he may be found out against the very best teams defensively?

Samir Nasri – 8 - Very impressed with our new signing.  He is great on the ball, I don’t think I saw him give the ball away once. He is also pretty direct and I expect fairly big things from him this season. I certainly don’t think we will miss Hleb one bit.

Robin van Persie – 7.5 - Very clever as usual, always playing the difficult through ballas and passes with complete ease. But will he stay fit? That is defeinitely the question.

Emmanuel Adebayor – 8 - Such a big unit for defences to handle, and quick with it. Of course he will be a threat for us this season, and hopefully he’ll win us all round once again by scoring a hat trick at White Hart Lane. Just a shame he didn’t just sign a contract at the beginning of the transfer season instead of being ill advised by his agent.

Substitutes:

Emmanuel Eboue – 5 - Didn’t do much bar give the ball away to be honest. I preferred him in the defensive midfield role against Stuttgart! I strongly believe Nasri, Walcott, Rosicky, Vela and even Wilshere are ahead of him in ability on the wing. Despite everyone wanting him out of the club though, he is a decent squad player, and big clubs are always in need of them.

Jack Wilshere – 7.5 - From the short space of time he was in the pitch, he made a very good impact, keeping the ball well, drawing fouls and getting stuck into players who have been there and done it all. Each Wenger press conference has seen the manager give him more and more praise, I think he is very quickly bringing himself into contention for a first team subs place this season. He has the same spark that Fabregas had at his age, and there is no higher compliment than that for a 16 year old.

Carlos Vela – 6 - Quiet but made some good runs behind the Real defence.

Nicklas Bendtner – 6 - Causes trouble for defences and links up well with Vela. Does take a while to get into games though.

Johan Djourou – N/A - On for about 30 seconds…