Ajax 0-1 Arsenal – 04/08/07 – (Friendly) 5 August, 2007

Two pre-season competitions and two trophies; surely the perfect start to a campaign? Fair enough these are only pre-season friendlies but if you saw last night’s game it was the perfect test going into the season. The game was played with the competitiveness, passion and caution of a Champions League game. Seriously, if you’d not of know it was the Amsterdam Tournament you would’ve thought it was a European fixture. Both teams had strong teams out and both teams needed to score to have a chance to take the cup; we needed to win and a score-draw or win for Ajax would’ve been enough for them.

It was also an extremely physical game. Tackles were flying in all over the place and there were a few squaring ups. If this were a proper game there would’ve been a few red cards I reckon and even though the referee was absolutely terrible he managed to keep the red card in his pocket.

We started with what looks like our strongest team; Gilberto is still on holiday and Fabregas was ill so Flamini and Denilson came in at centre midfield. It was the best team Wenger had available which showed how seriously he was taking this.

We started very brightly and we by far the better team of the first half. The closest we came to scoring was in the 19th minute when Van Persie floated in a beautiful ball for Toure who got a foot on it from very close range but it was straight at the ‘keeper and it was a great save. Van Persie looked on great form and he was really getting stuck into this game. At half time it was 0-0, Athletico hoped the score would stay this way and the cup would be theirs but it did look like a goal was coming it looked like Arsenal were the more likely to get it.

Clichy was also having a fantastic game. He shot from the left and the keeper saved well but the replay showed it was going just wide anyway. It was a game of many chances, Lehmann and Stekelenburg made some great saves to keep their sides in it. In the 80th minute it looked like substitute Eduardo could get the winner. Da Silva came on for Rosicky in the 62nd minute, Tomas looked fairly quiet last night and never really seemed to get involved, he didn’t have a bad game but wasn’t one of his best. Anyway, Eduardo muscled his way through on goal, staying up from some tight Ajax defending; he probably would’ve won a penalty if he’d gone down but he was desperate to get a shot away and stayed on his feet. His shot was saved and Van Persie missed the follow-up.

The goal eventually came 3 minutes from time and you just knew it’d be Robin Van Persie. All the credit must go to Gael Clichy. He’d been running up and down the left side for 83 minutes but somehow found the energy to go on a great run through the tired Ajax players. He cut inside between two defenders and squared to RVP. Robin took a touch and managed to squeeze the ball inside the post.

I’ve never celebrated a pre-season goal so much, it was quite embarrassing. That goal meant we took the cup and it was looking very promising for the new season. Robin was fouled from behind in the last minute and was carried ff on a stretcher. It wasn’t looking good for our no.1 striker but he was out celebrating with the trophy later on so it looks like it’s going to be alright.

In Wenger’s post-match interview he said that our squad looks big enough but is still browsing the transfer market. He also let slip that he’s in contract talks but says he’ll let us know at the right time the news on his future.

In all, a good night for Arsenal. Next it’s Fulham at home in the Premiership opener. Thanks for reading.