10 goals for The Arsenal & other news 28 July, 2008

Well the latest news is that we’ve just beaten Burgenland 10-2 on our Austrian tour. It’s not really a game worthy of a proper match report, especially because the game kicked off 2 hours before I thought it did. Shit. I only managed to watch the last 40 minutes of the game but I have seen the highlights. If you want to read a match report here’s a link to Arsenal.com

It wasn’t a full strength side, there was no Nasri like I thought there might, he’s playing on Wednesday though according to Arsene. The first goal came in the very first minute of the game, the ball ran through the box to Wilshere who stubbed the shot but it very slowly looped in and just crossed the line. An odd goal but we had learnt already how poor the Burgenland defence we’re.

Bendtner got the first of his four in the 14th minute. He completed his hat trick only quarter of an hour later and then added a forth to his collection just before half time. Nick showed some great skill and cool finishing for his goals and has had a great pre-season so far. He’s been really keen to impress and he’s come up with the goods. He was replaced at the break by Jay Simpson, he had a really good second half but he just couldn’t score! He had some great chances but the ball just wouldn’t go in the net for him, easily could’ve had a hat trick, I hope this doesn’t dent his confidence.

It was 7-0 by half time thanks to Carlos Vela, he scored his first goals for Arsenal this evening and he made it a hat trick early in the second half. I was a bit disappointed with him last week against Szomagufbgjkfgfhkhfl, he had some great chances to score there but didn’t. Well he more than made up for it tonight against Burgenland. There were two great finishes from him tonight and one tap in but he still did well to take the touch under pressure and make sure he scored. He still takes a touch too many at times but still looks a nice little player.

Wilshere got his second from the penalty spot in the 65th minute. It was his run into the box that earned the spot kick but I will admit it did look like a bit of a dive. Cool finish though. A few minutes later Walcott grabbed a well deserved goal but credit must go to Wilshere again, it was a sharp little run and he showed great vision to square it to Walcott. Nice Arsenal goal.

The two Burgenland goals came in the second half and both times it was down to poor defending. The first came from a corner, it wasn’t cleared and the shot went high above Mannone who couldn’t stop it. The second was embarrassing for Sagna and Gavin Hoyte. The striker went through but our defenders couldn’t decide who was going to track him and he went straight through. Really bad defending but now’s the time to do it if you’re going to do it at all this season.

So it finished 10-2 and a good little run-out for the lads. Next up it’s the first serious game of the season against Jens Lehmann’s Stuttgart on Wednesday. I’m expecting a decent team for this one, could be the first chance to see Nasri, van Persie, Gallas etc this pre-season.

Right now on to the news. Yesterday I spoke to you about Cesc Fabregas and how he’d speaking about Real Madrid and our lack of trophies. Well it turned out to be a load of bollocks; Cesc never even spoke to the press. It’s really not that much of a surprise that Marca (a Spanish newspaper) made this up, they do it all the time. I’m glad though that Cesc was so quick to react to this and completely deny it all:

“I have not spoken to any media so it’s frustrating to read quotes that I have supposedly said about my future. I have spent the summer relaxing with my family, friends and girlfriend and I return to training with Arsenal tomorrow.

I think that some people are just trying to make mischief but my intentions are very clear. I am happy here at Arsenal, my future is with Arsenal and the priority is to achieve success and win trophies at Arsenal.”

Still, my comments yesterday all still stand, we cannot carry on without winning anything and I still believe that Cesc will leave one day, it seems inevitable to me. Of course I hope he doesn’t, I love Cesc, but I couldn’t stand in his way if he wanted a new challenge.

William Gallas has been talking about the coming season and how he wants to change the way he acts as captain. At the moment, I personally don’t believe we have a captain decided for the new season yet. I think everyone is on a level playing field and I am awaiting Wenger’s announcement. It wouldn’t surprise me if Gallas kept the armband though, I thought he was ok but made some vital mistakes, if he changes that then good. He says he learnt a lot last season and says he wants to change the way he speaks to the players.

As we all know, there is a vacancy in central midfield this summer and no one quite knows who is going to play with Cesc next season. Denilson and Diaby have both shown interest in the position. They’ve both been at the club for a few years so you can understand them looking at a promotion into the first eleven. They’re two very different players but they both have their talents. Whether they have what it takes to hold a starting position in the top flight is yet to be seen, good luck to them both though. Hopefully I’ll get to talk properly about our central midfield situation soon when I get a moment, something to talk about when there’s no news anyway.

Ok that’s all for tonight. Thanks for reading.

“10-2, to The Arsenal! 10-2 To the Arsenal…”