Quick thoughts on Day 1 of Emirates Cup
1 comment August 1st, 2010
Arsenal 1 – 1 Milan (Chamakh 36, Pato 77)
When I say quick, I do mean quick, as I’m off bright and early to go and play in a football tournament. Here we go:
- Koscielny had his best game of pre-season. He looked tidy on the ball, and very neat when it came to winning it back. However, I still have concerns about his physique and capacity to deal with some of the Premier League’s more powerful forwards.
- I said on twitter that Marouane Chamakh looked like the tastiest thing to come out of Morocco since couscous. I was wrong – couscous isn’t all that tasty. Chamakh put in a great shift in his first Emirates start, running the channels effectively, linking the play, and finishing calmly for our goal. He’s more mobile than Bendtner – he has the movement and enthusiasm of Emmanuel Adebayor’s early Arsenal days, only with a less erratic touch.
- Jack Wilshere was guilty of trying too hard, but still had some good moments. He was deployed a little deep for my liking, alongside Emmanuel Frimpong, with Samir Nasri further ahead.
- Lukasz Fabianski played the 90 minutes in goal – Almunia will play today. Fabianski did most things well, including a lovely piece of anticipation followed by a perfectly-executed sidestep to foil an onrushing attacker. We lacked organisation on set pieces though, and eventually conceded from that route.
It was a little bit more low key than the Emirates Cup games usually are. It felt much more like a conventional friendly, which makes it hard to analyse effectively.
In many respects the most interesting part of the day was Arsene’s press conference, which revealed the following:
- He feels Cesc Fabregas must make a statement to put an end to the Barcelona stories
- Manuel Almunia will start today
- Frimpong and Wilshere are both likely to stay and be part of the squad
Arsenal v Celtic is at 4.20pm today. Come on you Gunners!