By Walter Broeckx
As exepcted Petr Cech made his first start for Arsenal at the Emirates against Wolfsburg. For the rest another 9 changes with only Özil keeping his place.
Starting team : Cech, Bellerin, Chambers, Gabriel, Monreal, Arteta, Cazorla, Reine-Adelaide, Ozil, Wilshere, Walcott.
Subs: Martinez, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Akpom, Coquelin, Hayden, Iwobi
Cech with a good interception on a low cross from De Bruyne in front of some players storming towards goal. Arsenal with a few good runs on the flank but the final ball not good enough in the opening minutes. Wolfsburg forcing a few corners in a row but nothing really dangerous came from them. But Wolfsburg certainly trying to impose themselves from the start with lots of possession. 0-0 after 15 minutes.
Again Wolfsburg with a few corners and one almost surprised Arsenal but the shot struck Monreal for another corner. Özil then with a great ball to Theo but the keeper blocked the effort in to a corner. Wolfsburg also being dangerous with another low cross that missed everyone. Wilshere releasing Walcott but he needed a bit too much time and a defender could come back on him.
Reine-Adelaide forcing a corner after some nice footwork. Walcott scoring after a great move but he was offside so the goal was rightfully cancelled. Cech being well awake stopping a shot from Bendtern. Klose from Wolfsburg getting a yellow for chopping Wilshere down when a promising attack was on.
Wolfsburg showing the usual force of German football, great technical skills and some impressive pressing all over the pitch. A good attack on the left a low cross from Monreal to Özil but his effort just went behind the far post. Wolfsburg certainly a stronger team than Lyon yesterday.
One change at half time with Akpom coming in for Özil who had already played one hour yesterday. Jack playing a little bit more from the left I had the impression.
A good start from Arsenal and Adelaide running more in the middle was my take on it. Arsenal with a good interception in midfield, nice rounding his opponent and running in to space. Walcott and Akpom made their runs and Adelaide picked out Walcott who took one touch and …. GOAL!!! with the outside of the boot steared it passed the goalkeeper. 1-0 to the Arsenal after 50 minutes.
Arteta with a bad ball giving De Bruyne a shooting chance but his shot went very wide. The Arsenal youngsters upfront working really hard to close down the Wolfsburg players. Adelaide, my God where did Wenger got this boy from (Lens.. I know…) with another great pass to Walcott but this time the keeper had read the situation and was out just in time to kick the ball away.
Wolfsburg with a counter finished with a shot but no real problem for Cech. A great attack from right to left from Arsenal finished with a curling shot hat went just wide. De Bruyne who had been impressive for Wolfsburg went off after that and Kruse came on for the Germans. Seconds later a real test for Cech when the nr. 23 had a fierce low shot but Cech stopped the effort at the expence of a corner. A great stop.
After 62 minutes Ramsey came on for Arteta and Adelaide (what a first match) went off and Oxlade-Chamberlain came on. Oxlade-Chamberlain immediately with a great run, fouled twice, advantage given, pass to Ramsey but his effort flew wide behind the post.
Wolfsburg not giving up and trying to get some attacking momentum going but only a few shots from distance as a result that went wide. Gabriel dominating the aerial duels in an impressive way. The Ox almost away again but he just couldn’t get past the last defender. Bellerin with a strong run to Akpom but the keeper could stop his low effort. Naldo then bringing down Akpom when he was just outside the penalty area at the cost of a yellow card. Santi with the free kick but the keeper could stop the effort.
With some 15 minutes to Theo went off and Giroud came on and Jack went off and Hayden came on. Akpom with a promising run but just couldn’t come to a shot but then won it back and the ball came to Hayden and the Wolfsburg keeper had to make a fine stop. Hayden then with a strong tackle. Bendnter came off for Wolfsburg and got a nice applause from the Emirates.
Arnold and Santi with some pushing and shoving and both getting cautioned after Arnold was a bit over aggressive int the challenge. Arnold then taking down Ramsey.. it looks like he has a bit of an attitude problem. Monreal got a yellow for a few attempted fouls in the last minute of normal time. Akpom with a possible counter with two teammates but he gave the ball to the only defender. And that was the last big chance of the match.
Final score Arsenal – Wolfsburg : 1-0.
Arsenal won the match against a good Wolfsburg team that will start their season next week just like Arsenal so a good way to know where we stand.
Arsenal won the Emirates cup with 13 points and with 7 goals scored and 0 conceded. Winning the Emirates cup is nice but not the main objective of the season. But the second time we play for a trophy this season and second time we won.
We have seen some amazing youngsters stepping up like Iwobi, Adelaide and Akpom who we knew before of course. We have seen that the older legs ar ready. And the team can play free flowing when allowed but also can dig and work hard when needed like against Wolfsburg.
Next week is of course a very big test with the Community Shield. But the team seems ready to battle for every match.
I like untold. very realistic in their reporting.
With Santi smiling so much, it was unusual to read about im getting caught up in handbags with Arnold. Just the one incident, or had this been going on for a while? What happened?
—
Earlier in play, it looked (read to me?) to me like Gabriel went through a Wolfsburg player, because a Wolfsburg player had gone through one of our players. Is that what happened?
Nice win fellas.
Lots of good reports about Adelaide. So, surfing the news I run across an article about Arsenal U15 playing Barcelona U15. Arsenal player scores from halfway. Trae Coyle.
http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/soccer-news/watch-14-year-old-arsenal-6143208
Where is Rosicky in this Arsenal formula? And it’s like Szczesny gatecrashed the match. I thought he was already taking selfies in Rome.
That Adelaide boy is brilliant at just 17. Plays comfortably on the flanks as well as in the middle. He will set the capital 1 cup ablaze if not the EPL. I’m sure he will feature at some point in CL too.
The excitement is building already. Onward upward to Wembley for CS against the packed bus and their driver.
Next the bus stop 🙂
An excellent result for a tough match. Wolfsburg tried to close us down and then attack quickly – fortunately we were able to contain them.
De Bruyne had some nice touches, but I am not sure he would start for us & his reported price tag of £50m seems very high.
@Gord – Wolfsburg seemed to become more physical as the match went on, I didn’t notice any previous major Arnold & Cazorla problems – but what seemed to happen was that Arnold tried to tackle Cazorla, failed to win the ball & then tried to stop Cazorla with a combination of pulls and attempted trips – too much for Cazorla not to retaliate.
I think Wolfsburg were becoming frustrated at that stage.
But – it did not spoil a very successful competition, the enjoyment of some brilliant play by Arsenal, seeing our stars on the Emirates turf again and the emergence/development of a number of very promising young guns.
Oh – and yet another trophy! 🙂
We have seen some great goals this weekend. We have also seen one of the cheekiest.
Santi shooting the ball along the ground and as the wall went up to stop it going over their heads the ball going under their feet and into goal.
Brilliant. Straight out of a black and white comedy or for UKites Only Fools and Horses.
Who but ‘The Smiley Man’ would think to do that?
One major delight i had with the just concluded Emirates Cup is the assurance of a confident back four.
Gibbs – Koscielny – Mertz – Debuchy
or
Monreal – Chambers – Gabby – Belerin.
These two sets of back four I believe can suffice for the whole season and win trophies.
On to the car park next sunday. Hopefully, we’ll be able to push some parked buses off the road.
Thanks BJT.
Yesterday I likened Santi’s free kick to the reverse of a panenka. And perhaps Santi was “forced” to do that, in that Alexis will be back soon, he won the cup with a panenka. Santi and Alexis both have a lot of chutzpah.
A player marking Santi, if not very disciplined, will end up being carded as the fluidity of Santi’s moves can be ‘annoyingly provoking’. He plays like he owns the ball with taunt-like movements and passes. I would hold and kick him too 😉
Gideone, please don’t two foot him like the pundits advised.
HITC has a short article about David Ospina, which nominally talks about an interview that I believe Ospina had last Friday in Colombia. The HITC article has a link to the article, which is in Spanish. I believe Ospina is back in London tomorrow, so local stories about him should start popping up. But it sounds like he is okay to compete with Cech (and Martinez, who collected more clean sheets in pre-season than Cech did). But if you need news about Ooooooooooooooospina, there you go. If you want to find it directly, I think the medja organization is Colombia.AS.
Apo 😉 . Arsenal are looking good. Will miss the charity shield as i’ll be flying back to uk. Looking forward to the first home game.
Guys, guys, dont get to excited. According to the so called pundits and talk shit, we have no flipping chance in hell to win anything. We havent purchased those 4 players everyone’s speaking about. We have a manager who is a stubborn old man who wouldn’t change? We have to spend spend spend!!!! Forget the kids. The say Manure have a better chance than us. Having seen the games over the weekend we were superb. The only worry I have is other managers having seen us play will start to purchase a few more buses.
Brickfields Gunners
July 26, 2015 at 10:04 am
@ 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 ?
Thanks mate. I wore no such attire, preferring to remain anonymously secreted away right next to the tunnel. What a view. Close enough to see the sweat, but high enough for a great view. Fantastic.
Not as impressive overall as Saturday but none-the-less a decent performance, especially in the second half, and of course no goals concede and we won the thing !
Personally I think the biggest thing to take from the 2 days is the emergence of genuine young talent. On show, and impressing we had:
Akpom
Iwobi
Hayden
and best of all for me
Reine-Adelaide.
Only 17 ! What a potential that lad has.
And we didn’t even see:
Zelalem
Crowley
Toral
Wilcock
Bielek
Gnabry
And of course on loan,
Maitland-Niles
Jenkinson.
The future looks good.
That leaves the present, and that doesn’t look too bad either.
Great performances, but especially for me the was the OX. He looks really really determined to fight his way into the starting 11. Great to see, and he may well of earned his place on what I saw.
Bring on the bus.
NB: Excuse me for not backing anything up with statistics. Apparently that makes me an obnoxious hatemonger. Oh well, you cant please all the people all of the time. 🙂
@Jambug
I am very pleased you and Mrs J enjoyed the occasion. I had hoped to make the Emirates Cup this year, unfortunately a series of family illnesses prevented any such consideration. But, with everyone improving, I did manage to watch both matches on the box. Hopefully next year…..
You are right about the range of emerging talent on display – most of whom looked nearly ready to step up – I imagine we may see more of them in some of the cup matches.
Looks like AW has not only (quietly) built a very fine team just now, but as you point out, has gone a long way to preparing the next team!
bjtgooner
Pleased to here the patients are picking up. Here’s to next year. Personally I’m very dependant on my shift rota. I just have to keep my fingers crossed.
As you say:
“Looks like AW has not only (quietly) built a very fine team just now, but as you point out, has gone a long way to preparing the next team!”
Alas, as Gouresh points out at 8:54am, not everyone is convinced !
Despite the recent evidence to the contrary with Spurs, Liverpool and United, that just ‘throwing money at it’ isn’t always the solution, that lot can never see anything past the teams that just ‘throw money at it’ !
They do it every pre season. Laughable.
This is the type of crap you get from the geniuses at TalkShit. From a couple of years ago.
“The money Tottenham would receive from the sale of Gareth Bale could see them buy players to finally push above Arsenal, back into the Champions League and mount a serious title challenge.
Meanwhile, it has even been suggested that a cash-rich Tottenham could rub Arsenal’s nose in it by snapping up Luis Suarez from Liverpool, in what would be a sensational signing. Bale for Suarez, Modric, Coentrao and Soldado, perhaps? Certainly food for thought.”
This is there proposed line up:
Lloris
Vertonghen
Churiches
Coentrado
Paulinho
Saldado
Modric
Saurez
Saldado
Lennon
Laughable doesn’t even begin to describe them. Honestly, can you ever take anything seriously that nest of Vipers has to say?
Read more at http://talksport.com/magazine/features/130731/modric-soldado-suarez-spurs-xi-and-without-gareth-bale-202756#3yKv8VuG1Z0te1xq.99
And this from last year:
“Neil Warnock believes Liverpool will successfully reinvest the expected £80m they receive for Luis Suarez – unlike Tottenham who frittered away the mega-money they gained by selling Gareth Bale.
Spurs secured a world record fee from Real Madrid for the Welshman last summer and went on a spending spree, taking Nacer Chadli, Paulinho, Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen, among others, to White Hart Lane.
The signings didn’t gel though and a lacklustre season saw the north London club finish sixth in the table, 10 points behind rivals Arsenal in fourth place.
Liverpool are expected to receive a similar fee for Suarez, who looks set to join La Liga giants Barcelona, and have already landed Southampton pair Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana, along with Bayer Leverkusen star Emre Can.
And Warnock insists Brendan Rodgers is building a superb squad, ahead of their attack on the Premier League and Champions League trophies.
“Liverpool are signing some good players,” he told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast show. “Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana know it all.”
Read more at http://talksport.com/football/liverpool-will-not-copy-tottenhams-mistakes-rodgers-backed-spend-suarez-money-wisely#BZkDDyvJrspsICmi.99
What can you say?
The entire media is full of complete idiots. It seems talkShite have more than there fair share.
I said laughable. I think you can safely add embarrassing to that.
The pundits/experts have as much credibility as a panel of eskimos advising Arabs how to cope with life in the Sahara Desert.
All the following from ONE page of TalkShite last year.
-Arsenal will miss out on top four, Liverpool’s marquee arrival and Man United’s new kits
By talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) | Friday, December 26, 2014
Read more at http://talksport.com/football/arsenal-will-miss-out-top-four-liverpools-marquee-arrival-and-man-uniteds-new-kits#4p73qx4lu1yfBGMS.99
-MOST POPULAR INTERVIEW: Arsenal will miss out on top four spot next season – Owen tells talkSPORT
If social media reactions are anything to go by, then Michael Owen frequently gets the raw end from football fans, but it looks as though his thoughts on Arsenal’s season could turn out to be true. The former Liverpool striker told talkSPORT in July the Gunners would miss out on the top four, despite signing a raft of new players, commenting that the club remain ‘a step behind’ their Premier League rivals.
Listen to the interview here: http://talksport.com/football/exclusive-arsenal-will-miss-out-top-four-spot-next-season-claims-owen-140715101854
But it seems the betting guys aren’t quite so dumb
“Dave Stevens joins the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast to round up the latest sporting odds.
The Coral spokesperson claims Liverpool, rather than Arsenal, are more likely to miss out on the top four next season, following Michael Owen’s comments about the Gunners.”
Oh well Michael, perhaps you shouldn’t let your bias get in the way quite so much?
Read more at http://talksport.com/coral/coral-daily-download-liverpool-more-likely-miss-top-four-arsenal-claims-stevens-140716102034#SHqD2GlVcd1wmmMi.99
It wasn’t much better over at Southampton either, as club legend Mick Channon appeared on talkSPORT to slam Calum Chambers’ decision to leave Saints for Arsenal. Channon accused the defender of lacking ambition.
Read more at http://talksport.com/football/arsenal-will-miss-out-top-four-liverpools-marquee-arrival-and-man-uniteds-new-kits#4p73qx4lu1yfBGMS.99
They sure don’t like us over there.
You lot think its afternoon, but it is only 7:30 or so in the morning.
In any event, while the first team put on a show (in the rain), the ladies were also busy. New article on the Arsenal website saying that Emma Byrne was the one who earned the 3 points over Notts County. But, I looked at the standings at the BBC a few minutes ago, and they don’t include any of Sunday’s results. Then I looked at the Arsenal website, and it is the same. Hop over to the WSL home page, and they are up to date.
Arsenal’s win put them level on points with Sunderland, and 1 point behind on goal difference. Chelsea in 3rd place going into their game on Sunday, lost to ManCity. Man City still has a game in hand.
There is a bit of a logjam developing at the top.
Sunderland – 9 7 18
-Arsenal – – 9 6 18
-Chelsea – – 9 5 17
NottsCty – – 9 4 14
-ManCity – – 8 4 14
It should be a 14 game season, so teams have 5 games remaining (except ManCity with 6).
Mick
Your example really isn’t that good. 🙂
The Arctic is a desert (little precipitation). It does occasionally snow in the Sahara. And as near as I can tell, most Arctic First Nations people don’t like to be referred to as Eskimo (some do).
Gord
It was meant as a light hearted analogy and I am sure most people got the gist of it.
The arctic may be a desert but I would guess it is usually bloody cold whereas the Sahara is bloody hot.