The hugely exciting Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey on for Nasri (who did well on his debut) and the much-maligned Eboue (who didn’t embarrass us despite starting out of position). These two subs injected a bit more bite into the team

Match Review – Stuttgart 1 – 3 The Arsenal

So after the ten-goal drubbing of Burger King XI on Monday, Arsenal’s “real” pre-season kicked off with a fine victory over Stuttgart at the newly-christened Mercedes-Benz Arena. And make no mistake, this Stuttgart outfit are no mugs. Indeed in 2007 they won the Bundesliga, which is no mean feat in a league dominated by the mighty Bayern Munich.

I barely managed to get home in time for kick-off so missed out on the apparent rumours on Arsenal TV that William Gallas would NOT be skippering the side out. Can anyone shed more light on how this rumour came about? Either way, Cap’n Willy (minus the mohawk) did assume the armband as he led out a much more senior side than we have seen thus far. There were starts for Djourou, Nasri, Robin and Ade. As I looked through the first XI I was confused as to how we would line up. My initial thoughts were that Sagna would slot in at centre-back and Eboue at right-back, leaving Djourou to anchor the midfield. So I was very surprised to see Eboue partnering Denilson in the middle of the park, as I’m sure many of you were. It’s a notion which I’ve read a couple of times in the comments section of Mean Lean’s MyVision and it is certainly a novel idea. And to be fair to the lad he didn’t do too badly either alongside Denilson, who slowly but surely is imposing himself on games more and more.

The home side lined up with our old mucker Jens in goal. Nice to see him exchanging hugs and high-fives with our lads in the tunnel. One person I was looking to seeing was Adebayor. After all the shenanigans this summer regarding a possible move away from the Grove, it now looks like he’ll stay. And after hearing the “Greedybayor” chants at Barnet, I am intrigued to see how the Gooner faithful will react. Hell, I wasn’t even sure how I myself would react to him. So early on when he picked up the ball near the left corner flag and tripped over, my reaction of: “TAKE THAT YOU GREEDY FUCKER” slightly shocked me. I reckon the massive well of goodwill he built up with fans over last season may take some replenishing.

The first chance of note came in the tenth minute as Ade slipped the ball through to Robin who had sprung the offside trap. Clean through with only Jens to beat, the goal was at his mercy, but instead of taking the rational option of sidefooting it past the Krazy Kraut, Robin decided to show a bit of cheek and chip the keeper. At little more elevation and he may have pulled it off, but Jens read his intentions well. I hope at 0-0 in a Premiership game Robin will be more clinical.

I can’t remember if Gallas and Djourou have ever played together at the back, and their unfamiliarity showed in the 20th minute as a slight Djourou slip saw the Romanian Marica run in behind to get on the end of a through ball. Chased by Gallas, he still managed to get a shot away but Almunia saved well at the near post. In general while there were no glaring individual errors by the back four, it still did not look solid as a unit, especially as we were taking a risk by playing a fairly high line.

The next great chance fell to Arsenal. Theo picked up the ball in midfield, played it forward to Robin and continued his run. The Dutchman cleverly laid it back to the onrushing Walcott, who showed quick feet to manufacture a rising shot that Jens did fantastically well to save from near point-blank range. It’s just like Jens to pull off a blinding save like that against his former club, you wouldn’t expect anything less of him. The replays showed that a square ball to Ade would have left the Togonator with a simple tap-in, but no-one could begrudge Theo a strike on goal.

Whilst Ade looked off the boil and was frequently caught offside, it was his strike partner who looked the brighter of the two. Following some very sharp showings at the Euros, the Dutchman looked in decent nick here as he dropped deep to good effect. One time he received the ball with his back to goal in the centre circle, shrugged off the attention of two Stuttgart players, turned and poked a ball through to Theo in the inside-left channel. However the young lad didn’t fancy taking it on his left-foot and the danger was averted. It was a feature of the first period to see Theo and Nasri roaming around. Nasri seems a very switched on player with an excellent touch and is not at all fazed in possession: he certainly has the makings of an archetypal 21st century Arsenal player. And he shoots too! Following a Stuttgart corner, a quick break saw Ade get on the end of a raking diagonal ball and knock it down to Nasri, whose half-volley skewed wide. Nonetheless it was a decent effort, and, more importantly, showed that he isn’t afraid to SHOOOOOOOOOOOT, unlike his predecessor Alex Hleb AKA Mr. Whippy, who would have probably kept possession, twisted and turned into a cul-de-sac, and then played the ball backwards to a defender, before jetting off to find a Flake to accompany his 99p ice-cream.

The first-half ended and it was certainly no walk in the park like Monday evening. Le Boss had mentioned before that some of the boys from the Euros and the African’s would probably only get half a game, and he was true to his word as the in-form Bendtner and Vela came on to replace Ade and Robin up-front, while Fabianski replaced Almunia in goal. Stuttgart themselves had also made a host of changes, and just as I was reminiscing about how Yildiray Basturk once broke Manc hearts in a Champions League semi, the Turk went and scored against us. Ghosting in between the midfield and defence, he shimmied before sending a low shot through Gallas’ legs and past the flailing Fabianski. Neither Willy nor Fabianski can be held to fault for the goal. Instead the blame must lie at the door of the midfield who failed to track his run. Although I guess without a natural defensive midfielder in the side that someone with nous of Basturk was bound to capitalise eventually.

No sooner had the home fans upped their noise level that we brought it crashing back down with a three-goal salvo in twenty minutes. The equaliser came when Bendtner dropped into the whole and prodded the ball through for Vela. Having narrowly evaded the offside trap, the young Mexican rounded Jens before slamming the ball home off the underside of the bar from a tight angle with his weaker right-foot. An excellent goal, and Arsene’s claim that Vela is similar to Eduardo is looking stronger day-by-day.

The two then linked up again as they exchange passes and Vela chipped a ball over the flat Stuttgart defence for the Dane to run on to. He prodded the ball ahead of the defender before outmuscling him and then calmly steering the ball past the oncoming Jens. Mean Lean mentioned on Tuesday how the Dane could well be the second best finisher at the Club, and this goal did his credentials no harm.

By this time the crowd had been silenced and Le Boss decided to freshen things up with a few more changes, the most notable ones being the hugely exciting Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey on for Nasri (who did well on his debut) and the much-maligned Eboue (who didn’t embarrass us despite starting out of position). These two subs injected a bit more bite into the team, and it was the younger of the duo that got the clinching goal with twenty minutes remaining. Some fantastic work on the left side of the box by Gael Clichy was followed by a floated cross to the back post, where young Jack was waiting. The little nipper calmly controlled the ball on his chest before lashing home a low left-footed volley. The form trio of Bendtner, Vela and Wilshere had a hand in all ten goals on Monday and had scored three here against a strong Stuttgart side. The boy Jack is pushing very hard for a spot in the matchday squad now: I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him on the bench for the first Premiership game against West Brom.

After his heroics in creating the third goal, Gael nearly opened his account in the red and white of Arsenal. He wriggled free in the Stuttgart box and unleashed a shot but it went narrowly wide. The day his goal comes, the world shall rejoice. And by the way, doesn’t the new away kit look superb? During the second period I remarked how Arsenal should always have a yellow and blue away strip – not only does it look better than any white or blue outfits we have recently had, but the colours are ingrained in Arsenal history: think of Charlie George in 1971, Anfield ’89, the 1998 and 2002 Double teams, the Invincibles of 2004 and Madrid in 2006.

There was still time left for Arsenal to look shaky at the back from a corner as the ball eventually fell to a Stuttgart player six-yards out but his meek shot was saved by Fabianski, who looked assured and alert during his stint (apart from when he rushed to clear the ball but his header was tame – a clear case of Jens-itis).

So all in all a hugely impressive win against difficult opponents on their own patch. Stuttgart had already played an Intertoto Cup game and were probably more ahead in their match fitness than us. And lest we forget that this was their big night as their stadium was being renamed so they would’ve wanted to avoid defeat at all costs. Picture this: can you imagine an upstart young German team coming to the first game of the newly renamed Nike Arena in ten years time? If you were a Gooner wouldn’t you want to mark the occasion with a victory, rather than a defeat against a bunch of kids? Exactly.

While we could deduce very little from the battering of Burgenland, this victory over the Germans shows that we are shaping up very well for the beginning of the season. I’m torn as to who I should choose as Top Gun, but I’m gonna plump for Carlos Vela. Not only did he score one and make one, he looked dangerous whenever he was on the ball. But it wasn’t so much a game of outstanding individual performances; instead it was a collective performance full of possession and, in the second-half, penetration.

So what we can infer from this victory? Well right now our second string is far sharper than the first-teamers. This is natural of course because the youngsters have had a run of games under their belt whilst the internationals have just come back into the side. This is not a worry at all, and hopefully the upcoming Emirates Cup and Amsterdam games against high quality opposition will accelerate the senior players’ ascent to sharpness. It does however pose the question: with two games in two days against Juve and Real coming up, how will Wenger play it? While he field the youngsters in one game and leave the seniors for the other? Or will he mix and match? I personally would love to see Arsene mix it up a bit and giving us the chance to see the likes of Ramsey alongside Cesc on one day and Wilshere with Robin on the other day. What do you folks think?