Archive for July 24th, 2011

Gervinho does a Bobby; Jenkinson does a Dixon

743 comments July 24th, 2011

FC K̦ln 1 Р2 Arsenal (Gervinho 7, 15, Jenkinson (og) 45)
Highlights | Arsene’s reaction

Arsenal defeated FC Köln in their latest friendly and will now embark on a training boot camp all the way until Wednesday, when they will return to prepare for the final stage of pre-season, headlined by the Emirates Cup and the return of one Thierry Henry.

I only caught the first-half in full, in which Arsene continued with his central midfield trio of Song, Ramsey and Wilshere.  Wilshere was masterful: if Cesc really does go in the next week or so, we’re lucky that we have a player of such extraordinary talent already within the ranks.

Gervinho began his Arsenal career in style, scoring twice in the opening 15 minutes.  Both goals were the result of great movement, darting inside from his starting position on the left.  Although he was withdrawn after half an hour with a minor knock to the knee, it was a very impressive cameo.  He demonstrated pace, intelligent movement, and smart finishing – qualities reminiscent of another winger Arsene signed from France: Robert Pires.  Obviously Gervinho is a comparatively raw player, but the addition of smart shooting and incisive running to our berth of attackers can be no bad thing.

After our fast start, Köln started to come back in to the game, and were given a helping hand by a quite stonking own goal from Carl Jenkinson.  His lobbed effort over Szczesny would’ve made any Lee Dixon highlight reel.  Only time will if he can earn comparisons with Dixon for stopping goals going in our goal as well as spectacularly and accidentally scoring them.  From what I’ve seen of Jenkinson he looks a good prospect: tall with a long stride and decent touch.  Peversely, in some respects his technical limitations are what excite me about him: it may be he’s more interested in ‘defending’ for defending’s sake than anything fancy.  Still, a huge step-up awaits him, and his signing has to be regarded as a bit of a punt.  Hopefully a more accurate one than the one which looped over Szcesny and in to our own net.

A word on Marouane Chamakh, whose pre-season form continues to be worrying at best.  He seems to be playing entirely bereft of confidence.  The obvious thing to say is that he “needs a goal” but at the moment he shoots with so little conviction that the only way I can foresee that happening is by some sort of miraculous accident.  Of he and Bendtner, I have more confidence in the Dane at the moment, so if he does depart I’d like to see us bring in another forward who can play through the middle.

From the highlights I’ve seen of the second half, Andrey Arshavin was the main threat, producing a series of impudent flicks and skipping runs inside from the left.  Perhaps the arrival of Gervinho, as well as the possible departure of one or two other high profile creative players, will unleash the Arshavin we all know is lurking beneath the pot belly and half-hearted jogs.

The only real downside to the day was a potentially serious injury to young Conor Henderson.  Henderson, a midfielder by trade, had replaced Kieran Gibbs at left-back.

The absence of Armand Traore from the squad leads me to wonder whether or not Arsene’s recent quotes about the necessity of finding a new defender referred to a left-back rather than a centre-half.  Arsene said:

“Certainly, we will have to find one more defender.  We [are] working on it.”

The recent bid for Phil Jagielka led everyone to assume he was referring to a centre-back, but Traore’s absence yesterday means he could equally have meant a full-back.  The certainty with which Arsene says we will “have to” find this defender is the sort of tone he only adopts when referring to an obvious hole in the squad – not an area where he already has four experienced players plus youngsters Bartley and Miquel and the versatile Song.

Of course, there is the possibility that Traore was simply injured, and I’m reading something in to nothing.

And ideally, of course, we’d add a left-back and a centre-back.  And a striker.  Let’s see.  Big week on the way.


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