By Walter Broeckx
A bit late this match report but better late than never is what we say in our country. The big surprise (not for those who listened to Wenger in the last days) was the first start given in a home match to Iwobi. He started on the left flank in attack. Martinez was in goal and Cech on the bench with Szczesny taken selfies in Rome.
The team that started was Martinez, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Coquelin, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Iwobi, Giroud.
Subs: Cech, Gabriel, Monreal, Chambers, Bellerin, Hayden, Arteta, Cazorla, Reine-Adelaide, Walcott, Akpom. Ref on the day was John Moss whom we have seen rather a lot lately each time with some good results for Arsenal at the end of the match.
Arsenal starting with attacking intentions from the start but nothing really worth mentioning when it comes to goal chances. Lyon and Arsenal both pressing high when they lost the ball. Gibbs with some early nerves it seems. A player who feels he has a big battle to win his place and therefore a bit overdoing it and trying to impress too much. Iwobi at the edge of the penalty area, could have taken a shot but went for a pass to Ramsey who stepped on the ball and the shooting chance was gone.
Iwobi showing some nice touches and dribbles but also losing the ball on a few occasions but that is learning when to do it and when not as can be expected with such a young kid. Lyon trying to go forward when they can. Martinez with a good stop when Lyon get a good shooting chance. At the other end Giroud with a missed shot that ends up behind Özil who tried a back heel that went over. Nice improvisation. Rose from Lyon getting a yellow card for a rash challenge on Coquelin. Still 0-0 after some 16 minutes of play.
Lyon player Grenier hurting his hip without an Arsenal player near him forced him off the pitch after 25 minutes. The Mexican wave rolling through the Emirates. Özil trying a shot with his right foot but he couldn’t get passed Giroud. Arsenal more and more dominant nearing the half hour mark. A foul on Debuchy resulting in an Arsenal free kick taken by Özil from the left and GOAL!!!!! for Arsenal. Giroud shouldering the ball in the goal a la Mertesacker after 29 minutes. 1-0 to The Arsenal.
Minutes later a counter started just in front of the Arsenal penalty area, the ball going to Giroud who waited on the overlap from Oxlade-Chamberlain who burried the ball at the far post with a low hard shot. GOAL!!!! 2-0 to the Arsenal after 33 minutes.
Arsenal win the ball back again hardly a minute later some nice one touch passing coming from the right hand side ending up on the left flank and Alex Iwobi finishes it off with a hard shot under the cross bar. GOAL!!!! 3-0 to the Arsenal after 35 minutes. What a way to make your home debut.
And as if that wasn’t enough hardly a few minutes later Özil puts the ball delicately in front of Ramsey who pokes it in at the near post! GOAL!!!! 4-0 to The Arsenal after 38 minutes. Unbelievable stuff from Arsenal in the last 15 minutes. Just before half time Martinez with a good save after a Lyon attack. But that was a rare effort from the French team while Arsenal completely dominated the match. Coquelin picking up a yellow for pulling a player back. What a first 45 minutes from Arsenal resulting in a 4-0 lead at half time. And in between even a disallowed goal from Iwobi for offside….
No changes at half time in the Arsenal team. Oxlade-Chamberlain with a goal bound shot but a defender diverted it in corner. Arsenal not really giving it 200% as in the first half and that was very understandable, this is only the Emirates cup and no need to risk too much for this trophy but still a few promising attacks but no end result for now. Giroud with a half volley just wide and some more situations that could have lead to another goal. But it was only a matter of time because Özil set up an attack and with the assist from Ramsey and Giroud it ended up at his feet again and with a low shot he scored a 5 GOAL!!! to Arsenal. Time to make some subs. Ramsey, Özil and Iwobi came off and Santi, Akpom and Arteta came on.
Akpom with a good run on the left but his shot was smothered and the keeper could pick it up. The Mexican wave again rolling through the stadium. Theo and newcomer Reine-Adelaide came on for Oxlade-Chamberlain and Giroud with some 20 minutes to go.
The match was of course already completely over by now and so Arsenal took their foot of the pedal and was more or less satisfied with playing the ball around a bit. Lyon trying to score at least a consolation goal but the Arsenal defence wasn’t in to giving any presents.
A foul on Akpol just outside the penalty area and Cazorla stepped up behind the ball and GOAL!!! to The Arsenal. Santi counted on the wall to jump and he steared it low under the jumping wall in to the net. 6-0 to The Arsenal after 85 minutes… Unbelievable….
Akpom almost made it 7 but the goal post stood in the way. Replace that one please people who work on the pitch. Theo also with a chance but good goal keeping denied him this time.
What a great match from Arsenal to start this tournament with. Özil the assist master and scoring himself was leading the line in a very impressive way. But after such a team effort it is difficult to pick one player out as they all performed exceptional.
Looking forward to the second day of the Emirates cup on Sunday.
Thanks for the write up Walter. I hope you had a good dinner.
As near as I can tell, Grenier (for Lyon) tore his quad, and could be out for a while.
Thanks Gord, the dinner was nice but not as nice as the Arsenal performance 😉
I have run across many news articles mentioning that Iwobi is Jay-Jay Okocha’s nephew. From the write up at Arsenal.com, it is obvious that Jay-Jay was at the game, with a bunch of other family members. Why didn’t anyone ask Jay-Jay what he thought of the game?
Thanks Walter for the report.
It was a great team performance. The atmosphere lined up to expectation. Like I’ve asked on earlier thread, is this the first time we’ll be seeing the Mexican waves at Stadium Wenger?
Gord, Jay-Jay himself, being an artist of a player would have nothing to say but admiration and genuine praise for this Arsenal team. I mean he wont say it because his nephew is in the team.
Damilare
Arsenal got the wave in Singapore. There, it is called the Kampala wave. I first heard of it as the Mexican Wave, which is how you described it. I’ve no idea about when this spectator wave might have been at Wenger Stadium.
Most parents (uncles, aunts, …) are supposed to support offspring. It doesn’t happen universally (personal experience). But, I am still surprised that there are no interviews with Jay-Jay about his nephew in the Emirates Cup.
I would have thought the English and world public who knows football would recognize his name, and be interested in his opinion.
Great game by our boys. I suppose what we shall want to see is a balance between offence and defence. In the final analysis as long as you win…but against teams that don’t break down easily, like Chelsea, it is important to not over commit numbers forward and have them hit you on the counter/rebound off of the bus.
GoingGoingGooner:
I think the team will play to what type of opposition they have. What i noticed was a more togetherness between the players, even with the newcomer youth(who have been training with the main squad), the new things done in training coming out in the games and the confidence and non-panic in the team. Do not worry, they will know that Chel$ is a different beast and will be ready for them.
Best thing to defeat Chel$ is if they park the bus, then we park it too until they get bored and decide to come out. 🙂 We can’t play our game and let them pick us off. I wonder what strategy AW will have for Chel$ this time round.
Looking forward to today’s match after a thoroughly deserved win yesterday. So far our offense looks impeccable. i would like us to be tested a bit more at the back and see how we react. Good day everyone
couple of years back, people wanted ARSENAL to sell Rambo and sign Grenier and Gonalons…
its only pre-season, BUT….
If Ozil was not a footballer he would have been an orchestra conductor. So glad he is back to his very best. With a full preseason he is ready to rock the EPL!
Typical Arsenal – getting six different players to score one each .
If ‘they’ had their way ,all six would have been scored by A WORLD CLASS CF !
Wanted ?
Wife : ” I’m already 58 years , yet one of your friends still finds me sexy !”
Husband : ” It must be Sid.”
Wife : “How did you know ?”
Husband : ” He ‘s a scrap dealer !”
Size matters –
The nurse asked a patient to remove his clothing and put on a gown to be checked by the doctor.
“In..in front of you?” He mumbles, shy.
The nurse says: “Don’t worry, I’ve seen the naked human body before. The man said, “Not one like mine. You’d die laughing at my naked body.”
“Of course I won’t laugh!” said the Nurse to the patient, “I’m a professional. In over twenty years I’ve never laughed at a patient.”
“Okay then,” said the patient, and he proceeded to drop his trousers, revealing a huge male body with the smallest adult male organ the Nurse had ever seen in her life. In length and width it was almost identical to a AAA battery.
nurseUnable to control herself, the Nurse tried to stop a giggle, but it just came out.
And then she started laughing at the fact that she was laughing. Feeling very badly that she had laughed at the man’s private part, she composed herself as well as she could.
“I am so sorry,” she said, “I don’t know what came over me. On my honor as a Nurse and a lady, I promise that it won’t happen again. Now, tell me, what seems to be the problem?”
“It’s swollen,” Bob replied.
She ran out of the room.
Follow the manual, you cannot go wrong –
http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater/2015/07/06
Thanks for the write up Walter.
What a day to be there. I just hope today lives up to it because Mrs J and I will be there ourselves today.
I’m so excited, I woke up like a kid at Christmas this morning.
Simply cannot wait. 🙂
Excellent report Walter, and I, like many of us here on Untold was so impressed by the balance and flowing football this side seems to have. We didn’t play any lightweight side, Lyon maybe a young team but are a talented side who came face to face with a side that was simply superior in all departments!!
Lets see what happens in this afternoons game…I don’t expect the Germans to play so open with especially after seeing what happens to those who dare to take us on!
They may well put in a Chel$kie type of game and park a couple busses, which in my book will be welcome as it will get us in to what needs be doing next week too 😉
More and more seeing the words Ozil and sublime in the same sentence.
I have some semi AAA in my family, even they seem to be falling in love with Arsenal all over again.
Only pre season, and serious competition, as Wenger says, nothing is guaranteed but something big seems to be coming together, have an uncannily similar feeling last experienced around 2003 2004.
With the 6-0 bashing of the Lyonnais by the Gunners, we can be confident that Arsenal will this evening lift the Emirates Cup as they already have the points tally that are now far superior to those of VfL Wolfsburg, going by the Emirates point grading. And even despite those Arsenal points superiority, the Gunners will still beat Wolfsburg resounding by 4-0 hammering to lift the Emirates Cup in a grand style.
@ Jambug -July 26, 2015 at 8:30 am – Glad that you and the Mrs. will be there . Have you any plans to dress in something eyecatching or parading some Untold banners (eg. THE JAMBUGS ARE HERE !) with you ?
Go on get an old bedsheet and get to work ! Do tell us early so that we can be on the look out for you both.
Do mug for the camera , and please , please try to piss ‘them’ off !
Cheers !
What a shame that the Untold Banner wasn’t there at this game, because it would have been a fitting time to show it to the world. This is what football should be.
Match was another absolute treat.
I have no doubts now that if you could give us non-scum bag opponents, or a decent standard of refereeing we would be at the least very close to the title. I’d make us favourites in that case.
But we all know we will not get that.
More than ever before it seems a classic case of good vs evil. The team are growing together at a very impressive rate. Should injuries not intervene it looks a near certainty that Ozil, Ramsay, the Ox, Wilshere, Bellerin and Coquelin will significantly improve this year. What a prospect!.
While the other ,mostly older, key players, Debuchy, Kos, Giroud, Cazorla, Walcott, etc all look on course to have their best season’s for the club. That is, simply, a recipe for football like we have seen at the end of last year and the beginning of this. Irresistible, glorious successful football.
Like night follows day, it feels inexorable and inevitable that teams will respond to this through over aggression and foul play.
And i don’t know what happens then.
This football we are playing not only produces joy, for us, but seems to be powered by it. The joy of excellent footballers playing thrilling, inventive successful football, pushing themselves and their teammates all the while.
So that’s the joy, and the good. the evil comes when the natural tendency in football to try combat that with sheer hard work and physicality, including fouls, goes to unacceptable extremes. With the higher evil being the people who are supposedly unbiased, and in charge of delivering justice, not doing all they can to protect the footballing side and make sure the side trying to stop them by foul means doesn’t get away with it.
I don’t know what happens to the joy and vitality in the team once the serious fouls start flying and in the (high probability) event of it leading directly to injury; nor what impact the injustice of not having those things dealt with adequately by the officials has on the players.
It’s truly a fingers crossed job for me : can the refs be a little better than before, can sheer good luck protect our players from the worst of the challenges; can our football remain on the trajectory it is in the face of what will come its way, which is likely to include the loss of 1 or 2 players through rotten fouls?
Fingers crossed. And let’s enjoy one more week before you have to worry that in situation’s just like the one, which began with Ramsay’s great skill near his own box, for the Ox’s goal the opposition don’t try stop us at source with crude reckless. fouls.
I would not play Coquelin next week. It would devastate us to lose him at this point and, as the commentator ominously pointed out a few times yesterday, though his tackles are clean and excellent, they give ample opportunity for opponents to do him. And we’re playing a Mourinho team, and he surely knows all this too well.