Emmanuel Frimpong didn’t show any signs of tiredness at the whistle as it took the powerful midfielder all of 13 seconds to flatten a Celtic player, steal the ball and start an Arsenal attack

Match Review – Arsenal 3 Celtic 2 – Emirates Cup

Now who says we cannot win trophies. The Emirates cup stays at home with the Gunners after a roller coaster clash between the two sides who had plenty of bad blood between them last season.

Earlier in the afternoon AC Milan and Lyon could only manage another draw, that draw meant that a victory of any proportion would see Arsenal claim the trophy for the third time in four years.

I was more than a little surprised with Arsene’s starting line up, more so due to the minutes played by the players in the Saturday game. Players like Jack Wilshere and Tomas Vermaelen had played a full 90 minutes against Milan and the likes of Frimpong only had 20 minutes rest at the end of the game.

Emmanuel Frimpong didn’t show any signs of tiredness at the whistle as it took the powerful midfielder all of 13 seconds to flatten a Celtic player, steal the ball and start an Arsenal attack. Jack Wilshere started brighter than he did 24 hours previous. It was Jack’s body swerve past a Celtic player and then outside of the foot pass that freed Theo Walcott on the edge of the penalty box. Walcott played a low ball across to Carlos Vela who had made the run from his left wing into the penalty area, Vela slid in to meet the fizzed ball from Walcott and the ball trickled in for 1-0.

I thought young Emmanuel Frimpong was once again superb in the middle of midfield, his same strengths and weaknesses were on show again. Fantastic at winning the ball back but also played a few sloppy passes which Celtic were able to intercept. When he does get his passing right, he actually plays some good zipped passes in between gaps and into the feet of the Arsenal attack.

I would love to see his statistics at reserve team level for both his distribution and his tackles won and lost. So far Frimpong is winning the race between Eastmond and Coquelin to force his way into this Arsenal team. At his age I doubt it but I wonder if Frimpong will be used from the bench in games that we are winning to close out matches. We may have to wait a little longer before that is the case.

Theo Walcott looked very threatening throughout the game, his ball technique looked more assured than in recent times. He looked better at beating players when on the run. His off the ball movement is excellent and that is what gets him into so many good positions. What he does with the ball is another matter and a matter that he will be and needs to continue working on.

Walcott’s final ball let him down today over the course of 90 minutes, yet he still managed two assists out of our three goals. We are still waiting for the complete package with Theo yet it is easy to forget that he is still 21 years of age. At 20 Zinedine Zidane had just left his first club Cannes to move to Bordeaux. Bordeaux were not signing the best player in the world, they were buying a talented kid who had flaws and brilliance.

I am not comparing the two players, far from it. I am trying to show that the best players in the world are hardly ever the best in the world at 21. Interesting to see Theo adding another string to his bow, bending in a direct free kick that was tipped over the bar. Perhaps a few of those have been flashing in during training sessions.

Jack Wilshere’s technique on his flying volley that crashed against the crossbar was fantastic, the perfect body shape to keep the ball down yet generate so much power. Those who don’t play the game may not appreciate how difficult a skill that is. Perhaps the corner routine had been something worked on in training because Rosicky’s corner was deliberately swung back for the waiting Wilshere and Walcott behind him.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas did not make the impact that he would have wanted, but his link up play was still pretty good. Apparently he was ill the day before, so was not able to show his true ability.

Bacary Sagna swung back his ol’swinger and fired a low drive under the goalkeeper via a deflection right on half time. He celebrated as if he had scored the winner in a cup final, it clearly meant a lot to him.

Chamakh replaced JET at half time, along with Samir Nasri for Tomas Rosicky. Like the first half, it didn’t take the Gunners long to cut Celtic up. Nasri slid in Theo Walcott who drove inside his man and laid the ball off to Nasri to fire in past Dominic Cervi for 3-0. The team were coasting at that point or at least, should have been .

On the hour mark Wenger made three changes, two of those being defensive reshuffling. This could be a reason for the defensive collapse. Well that and tired legs.

The first Celtic goal was very lucky, a massive deflection found its way into the path of Daryl Murphy who swiped in past Almunia from close range. The turning point wasn’t actually the Celtic first goal it all started with Jack Wilshere trying to dance round his man in his own penalty area, getting it wrong and then pulling him back. Georgios Samaras for some reason tried to put the ball into the top corner and got it horribly wrong.

Almunia kept the Celtic score down with a string of breath taking stops. Sung-Yueng grabbed another late goal, I must admit that Wigan of last season kept knocking on my head during parts towards the end. We have heard it before, but we should have killed the game off way before Celtic started to get any sort of sniff of the game.

Arsene does not have much time to eradicate the defensive lapses, as the season is around the corner. On the whole our defensive displays have been positive. It could be down to the fact that the players cannot last the full 90 minutes after pushing themselves physically whilst in Austria. It may not be a coincidence that the team have looked suspect in the last 15 minutes of each game.

Hopefully this is the case and worrying Gooners are just worrying.

The Gunners held out in the end and the mini celebrations began. This years Emirates cup could be about the rise of Frimpong, the platform for Wilshere and the beginning of successful Arsenal careers for both Chamakh and Koscielny.

One more friendly to go and then to the real deal.

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