By Bulldog Drummond
So what’s the news?
Sanogo has gone to Ajax, as Bellerin signs a long term contract. (Mr Wenger said, “Hector is a very mature, very focused player, and I am confident he will have a good season again.”)
Elsewhere, Jenkinson goes back to WHU, Cech to make his first appearance today, Dortmund don’t want to sell Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Arsenal ‘remain hopeful over Arturo Vidal despite Bayern Munich interest’ and Arsenal ‘enter into transfer talks for £40 million Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema’ (both from the Metro). Salt and pinches of might be in order.
Today is the second (or last, depending on which newspaper you read) prelim match before the Emirates Cup, and we can make a slightly better stab at the teams than for the last match not least because Arsene Wenger said after the last game,
“Today I left nine players out, they will be involved on Saturday. I will rotate a bit because the week after we play two games again.”
Cech,
Bellerin Chambers Koscielny Gibbs,
Santi Cazorla Ramsey,
Walcott, Ozil Oxlade Chamberlain
Giroud
Here’s the full squad, in case you want to slot anyone else in or guess the subs.
Chuba Akpom, Mikel Arteta, Hector Bellerin, Santi Cazorla, Petr Cech, Calum Chambers, Francis Coquelin, Dan Crowley, Mathieu Debuchy, Mathieu Flamini, Gabriel, Kieran Gibbs, Olivier Giroud, Alex Iwobi, Laurent Koscielny, Emiliano Martinez, Per Mertesacker, Nacho Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, MesutOzil, Aaron Ramsey, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Wojciech Szczesny, TheoWalcott, Chris Willock, Jack Wilshere, Gedion Zelalem
So Cech will now play for Arsenal (or at least there will be some questions if he doesn’t) and will also presumably play in one of the two games next weekend.
Meanwhile because Arsène Wenger also said, ‘If I find an exceptional player to strengthen the squad, I will do it’ everyone is scrabbling around for players we are going to sign.
Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema is top of the blogs for chatter on the basis of that. “Arsène Wenger has refused to rule out a £40m Arsenal move to sign the France striker Karim Benzema from Real Madrid, but has denied that a deal is imminent,” is typical of the comments. Mind you he has refused to rule out becoming a window cleaner after he leaves Arsenal, but it doesn’t mean it is not going to happen.
“I don’t know where that story comes from, but that is not happening at the moment,” Mr Wenger said in Singapore, but I don’t think he was talking about climbing ladders outside houses.
Centre-forward has not been his priority – he has predominantly scouted central midfield and central defence – but that could change if Danny Welbeck’s knee injury persists or Theo Walcott does not reach agreement on a new contract.
And that’s about it except in the Telegraph which tells us that the debate about ticket prices has intensified since Man City failed to sell all their tickets for a match at the Emirates, and Arsenal fans gleefully took up all the spares. Which isn’t really news at all.
The pre-season series thus far – 2013 will appear sometime over the weekend.
- 1996: The pre-season games as Rioch was sacked
- 1997: Before the second double – (updated)
- 1998: Back to sausages after the caviar.
- 1999: Games against Monaco and Saint-Étienne
- 2000: The big transfers but a poor pre-season
- 2001: Campbell arrives, and the prelims to the third double
- 2002: Gilberto’s first game in the tri-team tournament
- 2003: Before being unbeaten (revised & expanded)
- 2004: The Preseason in the midst of the 49
- 2005: The end of Highbury and the Arsenal-Chelsea bust up
- 2006: Pre-season and the opening of the Emirates
- 2007: A hectic round of transfers and a full schedule
- 2008: Beating Real Madrid
- 2009: The media and Uefa against Eduardo
- 2010: Koscielny joins the crazy gang in Warsaw
- 2011: Chaos and disaster, but amazingly Arsenal pull through
- 2012: Nigeria abandoned, Akpom & Bellerin make their mark.
Thank u Arsenal manager
@B Drummond,
I nearly choked on my Complan, this morning at the vision of Arsene eventually doing a bit of window cleaning in order to supplement his pension.
As you rightly say, he’s never ruled that out.
If it DOES ever happen, I think he should stick to bungalows, because he always appears so thin and frail. 😉
Bleacher knows this by getting inside their heads and scratching around a bit.
Maybe that’s why Cech wears the helmet. To keep them out. Technology has improved since the 80s. No more tin foil hats for us.
How’s everyone at Untold doing? I have been away longer than I intended. The constant trolls brought me down and I just couldn’t get myself to come back and get involved too much. Which just enhances the respect I have for Untold, its editors, and its regulars. I suppose the start of a new season is as good a time as any to start coming back into the fold.
Been too long.
I saw yesterday the potential 1st 11 of Liverpool as written by Skysports and was wondering that AW is smoking in Singapore in the name of preseason
How dare he sign a player from a rival in Cech. He should have signed Begovic instead.
Arsenal needs a new RB as Debuchy is always injured and should be shipped back to Newcastle.
How dare he keep relaying on old and slow BFG when Johnny Evans is available for just £10m
How about a new LB. Monreal is slow and can’t cross the ball and Gibbs, his right leg is the most useless thing I have ever seen on the football field.
AW then left the “best” DM in the league to go to Manure for a pantry £24m when he would have just bid £25m for his services.
With Ozil reportedly leaving for Juventus for £20m after been tired of winning “Tin Can Cups” and wants to win a real league championship, AW is leaving Vidal to go to Bayern when he would have just added another £8m to acquire him. Now we will have no no.10. Wilshere is a kick away from a long term injury and don’t tell me Cazolar because he is old and will be off to Atletico Madrid to replace Adarn Turan before the window closes.
We all know Sanchez will be late for the start of the season and he is not buying a replacement with our only worthy replacement for LW Poldi already gone.
And the RW is not for Ramsey so why does he keep playing him there when we can easily sign Rues or Aubameyang for £35m – £40m.
Finally, where is our WC 30 goals a season striker. How does he think Giroud, Walcott or Welbeck can score more than 15 goals this season. He should bid £45m – £50m to get Cavani or Benzema and stop dithering before they go else where.
This is my take on the transfer window. Wenger should spend the money as we have over £100 on our transfer WAR CHEST.
#Wenger out
JUST JOKING AROUND!!!
It is the Asia Cup Final & the damned officials are from PGMO!!! What the F are these competitions about? Local officials must know the Laws of Game & should be used.
Barclays do not choose the officials but it seems a shame that we do not see a match played overseas with unbiased (probably?) local officials. It is bad enough seeing tilted pitches in the English league but please allow us some equity abroad.
I have no any doubt in my mind that Arsenal will win the Barclays Asia Trophy as I am positive the Gunners will trounce the Toffees hands down. The Gunners are getting used to winning trophies again after they won the Charity Shield and won the FA Cup back to back in the last 2 seasons. The Boss had said at his press conference that, he will consider playing those 9 senior Gunners he left out of the Singapore selected XI game. Let me dabble into making a starting Gunners XI against the Toffees starting XI. My starts: Cech. DebuchyRhino’KoscielneyGibbs. ArtetaCoquelin. RamseyZalalemOzil. Walcott. My bench: SzczesnyMartinezBellerinChambersMonrealAdelaideGiroudOxchaboAkpomRamseyWilshereWillockFlamini. I want the Boss to start Zalalem for this Everton game so that we can see if he can become a top CAM for Arsenal in the shortest possible time. Akpom has already been marked down as a possible starter next season. Let’s see if he will be convincing at the Emirates Cup games and progress to starting against Chelsea at Wembley for the Shield. I think the Boss will get 1 to 2 young Gunners that will break-in into his 1st team squad of 25 men. I am suspecting the 2 or 1 will come from Chuba Akpom, Gideon Zalalem & Alex Iwobi.
Hope the amazing Asian fans get a good performance today, and the players come through without any injuries, Everton are traditionally a bit of a kicky team even under a purist manager.
Shard
aren’t tinfoil hats supposed to be ok if they are earthed? 🙂
SamuelAkinsolaAdebosin
Chuba Akpom is getting his chance now. I don’t think Zelalem is quite ready for the first team yet, or to put it another way, there is no place, but we will see. I would like to see Bielek perform though.
Mandy
My sentiments exactly. I will be nervous, but only about any violent attacks on our KEY players, and hope they are very aware, nimble(quick and light in movement or action; agile 🙂 ) and versatile.
para
I’m no expert. I’ll take your word for it 🙂
I also agree with both you an Mandy about being nervous facing PL opposition in pre season. I don’t like the idea. But at least it’s not Stoke.
It’s a shame the game is not being shown live in India. There are streams that I will have to use & hope I get sufficient clarity. The games will be shown late night on Star Sports. The win is not as critical as coming away without injuries. The squad is sufficiently diverse to cover the whole requirement.
Enjoy the game all you Gooners.
Arsenal XI vs Everton| Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Chambers, Gibbs, Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere, Ozil, Walcott, Giroud
Walcott in win the first goal….
Theo Theo Theo Theo Theo
OOOO Wilshere twice. Easy please…
Awesome ball Rambo to Wilshere…
Good first half for Arsenal.
Ozil, Carzola and Rambo showing they will be contenders for the best mid-field pairing in the season.
Go Gunners, Go!!
The team lines up to start the game….but very difficult to determine some players’ position. There is just so much movement up and down and across the field. And Arsenal is moving the ball faster in the game!!
This could be breathtaking at the emirates pitch….
hahahahahahahahahaa…
Theo. close
oooo…ecthoar..
A cheeky one from Santi.
Goal No. 2 for ARSENAL!!
It was in the offing all the while.
Aye Santi…
It would seem that the delay on the Daily Mail today is not as pronounced as it was for The Guardian on the first game, as you lot haven’t said anything about Cazorla scoring the 2nd yet. I gather Theo should have buried his chance a couple of minutes ago.
COYG!
Now, Ozil makes it 3
Almost as if Ozil assisted himself…
Meshooot,,,yeah
oooooo Ox..close
The guy at the Daily Mail hasn’t had enough coffee or something. He wrote that Ozil ran through the Arsenal defence to score against Everton.
Come on Ox, put those shots away. 🙂
COYG!
Barkley retrieves one for Everton
Ox does his Monaco trick again. When will he learn?
Hopefully he won’t do it again in a competitive match from now on.
Yep, the Ox with the assist…. for the opposition! 🙂
Must be some bug at Daily Mail. Now an Everton player attacks the Everton defence to score against Arsenal. No sense testing any of this before a game, eh?
Where’s Arteta playing, deep?
COYG!
Andy….Its just a pre season game.
More mistakes now better.
Off topic but I think Untold could do a good piece on the news that Peter Scudamore from the PL has suggested the spuds should share the Grove while their dump is being done up….
Ermmm, I dont think so…
Right on, Arsenal 13.
Come on Chuba, another hat trick, please.
COYG!
ARSENAL13, Agree more mistakes now on the basis that it will result in less mistakes during the competitive season, but it doesn’t make it enjoyable watching now.
WOO HOO, HOO ! Up the Gunners ! And on a canter , too.
Good result & looks like all healthy at the end. Fantastic movement & team effort.
Amazing how many times Giroud fouled from behind & ignored by ref. Looks like he will have his work cut out in the league.
Match report is on line!
Corruption
In a report on finance issues:
> Lalovac: CHF-HRK exchange rate to remain frozen unless solution is found
The last paragraph brings up football corruption in Croatia.
> Asked if further investigations in football-related corruption could be expected, following a probe into senior Croatian Football Federation officials, Lalovac said that all large-scale transactions would be investigated.
Macdonalds has joined Coca-Cola in pushing for reform at FIFA.
Brazil is still investigating corruption in the Brazilian football community.
The president of the Bolivian FA has been arrested on corruption charges, and other Bolivians are being investigated.
The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission, USA) is investigating a number of public companies with respect to bribery and corruption. There is no official statement, but it seems likely the Nike is one of the companies being investigated.
A blog on socialism has an article about sexism at the Women’s World Cup, has a paragraph about how the WWC was received world wide:
> A record 1.3 million people attended this year’s Women’s World Cup which was hosted by Canada. Even more stunning is the record number of people who watched the final game between the US and Japan. Fox Sports reported that an astonishing 25 million people tuned into the game. That’s more than Game 7 of last year’s World Series , and more than the decisive Game 6 in this year’s NBA Finals. In fact, more Americans watched this game than any other soccer game ever broadcast!
The article is nominally an overvue, showing how widespread sexism is within FIFA. The article title is:
> Women’s World Cup Exposes Rampant FIFA Sexism
the blog is Socialist Alternative.
Gord, What’s “Game 7 of last year’s World Series, and more than the decisive Game 6 in this year’s NBA Finals.”?
That’s that sexism post, that quoted paragraph was talking about the WWC Final; comparing how many people watched the USA vs Japan final of the WWC to some events in the USA.
Great performance from Carzola and the lads. cant wait for the emirates cup!
Andy – the decisive matches in US baseball and basketball – second and third to gridiron I think in TV popularity in the country.
Baseball. Isn’t that known as ’rounders’ in the UK.It’s barely interesting as a player. I’m not surprised no one watches it then.
Lots of times, I’ve heard baseball described as America’s favorite past time. I would agree with that. I do not think baseball is a sport. It has the same average energy expenditure as chess. Is chess a sport?