Arsenal prepare for the Community Shield as Tottenham prepare for…. err….

 

 

 

• Arsenal team today and previous results against Dortmund
• Fifa attacks media, media attacks un-English football managers

By Tony Attwood

Pre-seasons are funny affairs.  As supporters we want Arsenal to win, but the management team want to learn how fit players are, and how well youngsters can ease themselves into a first team experience.  And there is the Community Shield match, which is only days away?

Winning the Community Shield is of course, neither here nor there – no one remembers who has won, but victory in the shield game (now moved to Cardiff because someone at the FA forgot to book Wembley in time) is good if we the first XI play and they play well.  

I suppose from the recent build up match I would pick out Martin Odegaard, who is gently being eased in; gently to make sure there are no more injuries.  And Christo Tzolis, who seems to be promising.  

But I suppose one can console oneself by saying that Arteta has other ideas up his sleeve for Cardiff, but isn’t revealing them before he has to.   We are after all playing ManC under new management and then we’re into the new season – and I have to admit I don’t really have a clear idea of what our best team now is.   Although maybe that is a good thing, since it might just also mean that the opposition don’t know either.

ManC finished their 2026 pre-season Asia Tour by beating Atletico Madrid 3-1 at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.   The rest of their pre-season has been a bit on and off as they followed a 2-0 win over Preston with a trip to France to play Troyes being cancelled because of worries about a Covid outbreak .  So ManC had the pleasure of beating Barnsley 4-0 at the Ethiad. 

Atletico seem to be putting themselves around a bit as after Manchester United managed to lose 0-1 to Wrexham they beat Rosenburg 5-0 away and then got a victory of 2-1 over Atletico Madrid.   A couple of days ago they drew 1-1 with PSG.

The other pre-season that has caught our attention was Liverpool who lost 2-3 to Monaco at Anfield, and “threw away” (as the media put) it a 2-0 lead.  It was Andoni Iraola’s first game in charge at Anfield so I am sure he must have said that he learned a lot from the experience.

Although Aston Villa ended up 20 points behind Arsenal last season they did manage to come in fourth.  They too have played a variety of pre-season games, some against teams whose names I don’t recognise, but the big results have been a 2-1 defeat to Porto, a 2-4 defeat to Real Sociedad and a 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich.  A bit of a pattern there. 

Of course we don’t consider Villa as rivals any more but Tottenham, after finishing 17th.  So the Tots rather wisely left the continent and did a tour of Australia and New Zealand.  But then on their whizzo website I couldn’t find the results, but I did see a some forthcoming games under the “matches” link,  and that gives us a clue to the fact there is something a bit odd going on down the road. 

The first thing to notice is that Tottenham’s friendly against Getafe was announced as only 70 minutes long (without any reason why).  Now that can be ok for the first run out after the summer but this game was played two weeks before the Premier League starts once again, and without explanation, which was a trifle odd, although perhaps we might say, normal for Tottenham.   But it was noted that Mateus Fernandes and Dominic Solanke were both absent from the squad to face Getafe and it seems not all supporters were aware how short the match might be.

It was also then announced that a second “internal match” as this type of game is seemingly called.   Newspapers and blogs have reports of fans demanding a partial refunds on the grounds that they were not told of the shortness in advance of entry, but I can’t verify that.  Although I did like the unattributed comment, “They took one look at our front line and felt sorry for us.”   Especially since the game also included Trumpy style hydration breaks.

But without explanations from the club as to what it is playing at, it is understandable that there should be published comments such as “The season starts in two weeks. Why are we doing 70-minute matches at Hotspur Way,” and it does suggest the Hots still haven’t got their PR sorted out.  Managers can of course have their reasons for all sorts of experimentation, but since fans pay to keep the club alive, they really deserve some sort of explanation.

So to help, here are some details.  Tottenham have beaten MK Dons, Auckland FC, Sydney FC on penalties, and then Chelsea in which Tottenham managed to go down to ten men – which is quite something for a friendly.

Still even though I have no idea what’s going on, I am sure they know what they are doing.