No blog posts for a while, I was away on holiday and my 3 mobile broadband refused to find a signal so no way of updating the blog whilst away. Quite a bit has happened this week.
We will start though with this weekend, The Emirates Cup. A 2-1 victory over Athletico Madrid yesterday, both goals late from Arshavin, set up the chance to clinch the trophy today against Rangers. Some changes from yesterday’s line-up saw some experience blended with some younger players who we only saw glimpses of last season. One of these was Jack Wilshere, a player who made an impact (quite literally) as a substitute in this competition last season looks to have come on in leaps and bounds in the last 12 months. Some nice build up play saw Wilshere open the scoring inside of 2 minutes. On 10 minutes Eduardo cooly slotted home and the game was all but dead given the pace with which Arsenal started. Early in the second half we saw Rangers improve somewhat but a third goal, taken well by Wilshere again, sealed the game and the trophy. I hope this is not the only piece of silver that Cesc gets to lift this season.
Wilshere was man of the match in both games and is showing real promise, Aaron Ramsey too, hopefully we will see both of these players used in the Premier League this season. They both have a lot of potential, Wilshere also has an end product which is something that other youngsters we have seen have lacked. Two young players who add depth to the squad and will hopefully be used as the season progresses.
So Kolo Toure is no more an Arsenal player. His transfer request finally came to fruition and he completed a move to Man City giving us around £16million in the process. I can’t complain that he felt the need to move on at this stage of his career, but my main concern is the centre of defence. He is a player who has experience, something which even the player himself says Arsenal lack, we need to keep some of the older heads in the squad. 6 central defenders would be enough leading us into the new season, but Arseblogger posted yesterday to say Senderos has signed for Everton and given the quality of Arseblog I am not one to doubt him. So we now go into the season with 5 central defenders, but then consider this. Vermaelen sat out this weekend following a knock against Hannover, so now its 4. Today William Gallas looks to have hurt his hamstring early in the first half, his head went down soon after that and he did not move easily and was replaced at half time, so now 3 centrebacks. Sylvester, Djourou and Song, but even then Song started as a holding midfielder today. Central defence is a real worry for me and I hope Arséne does bring another centre back in along with a central holding midfield player.
On the subject of which….. Arsenal legend Patrick Vieria is rumoured to want to re-join Arsenal. I am all for this. Yes he is not the player he was a few years back for us. But consider what he will bring to the dressing room, a level head, a proven winner, someone ALL the young players can learn from. But also coming off the bench as a substitue, would he have let us concede 2 goals to Sp*rs late in a game? I think not. Go on Arséne, you know you want to.
