Moving away from the defence for a moment, a few of the selections were interesting. Carlos Vela for me is not a right sided player. He is what I call a straight lined player who is too predictable to play in wide positions. Players like Samir Nasri and Ryo Miyaichi can go either side, can shift their weight onto one foot and then push off onto the other side. I do not see Vela as a wide player, suits the central

Arsenal’s second pre season match of season 2011/12 will certainly not live long in the memory. We could only manage a 1-1 draw with Chinese outfit Hangzhou Greentown and it could have been worse if the home side had been a little sharper in front of goal during the first half especially.

As I mentioned after the first friendly, it seems as if Arsene is already working towards our Champions League qualifier, by keeping together most of the team that are likely to play that match. It makes perfect sense as partnerships have to be re-established, the chemistry has to be rediscovered.

Whilst the first half performance was a negative, the good news is that only Bacary Sagna is a definite starter in our very important qualifier, possibly Arshavin but given that he ended the season behind Walcott, you could be forgiven for thinking the same will happen come August.

Defensively we were caught out continuously with threaded passes and balls down the side of our back four.

Johan Djourou was caught out early by a reverse pass that saw an opposition player slip past him and get a shot on goal to which Mannone was first to.

If the first error was the fault of Djourou, the second chance for the opposition must fall directly at the feet of Armand Traore who was playing three attackers onside.

The forward’s shot curled against the base of the post and cleared away to safety.

Traore has always been very good going forward and played as a left winger whilst on loan at Portsmouth a few years ago but his positional sense will have to improve considerably if he wants to fight his way into our starting eleven on a permanent basis.

Although the defenders were not all in sync during the first half, they were not helped by the rest of the team. Playing such a high line requires pressing from the rest of the team to deny the opposition time and space to make accurate forward passes. This simply did not happen in the first half so the midfielders and defenders were able to loft forward passes at will.

The goal was coming and it was no surprise that it came from a set piece. Looking at many of our goals conceded last season, it was hardly ever about size and often about marking. It was the same again yesterday. For some strange reason we let go of all the opposition players and none of them were followed by our markers.

Mannone parried the ball out to a player to hit the rebound into the net. A familiar feeling and a poor goal to concede but I wouldn’t get too despondent about it just yet. The team are in their second game of pre season and would have been more than likely only working on fitness before they flew out to Asia.

If on the 6th August against Benfica we are still watching the same errors from set pieces then you have the green light to go mental and I will most probably join you.

Another thing to point out from a defensive point of view was that three of the back four are likely to start the season on the Arsenal substitutes bench as well as the goalkeeper.

Moving away from the defence for a moment, a few of the selections were interesting. Carlos Vela for me is not a right sided player. He is what I call a straight lined player who is too predictable to play in wide positions. Players like Samir Nasri and Ryo Miyaichi can go either side, can shift their weight onto one foot and then push off onto the other side. They can go both sides, drag the ball away from defenders and are generally more unpredictable. I do not see Vela as that type of wide player. He suits the central position where his off the ball movement can allow him the chance to receive through passes in the box. However he was able to rotate with Van Persie and that worked quite well.

Tomas Rosicky was deployed in the Wilshere position for the first time which is an interesting position for him. He no longer has the goals to play behind the striker but I would like to see him play more often in the double pivot position with Alex Song when others are not available or are in need of rest.

Rosicky did not have a very good game and to be fair neither did his team mates but I hope it is not the last chance he gets in that position during pre season.

Samir Nasri was given the position behind the striker yet again and whilst he was on the ball more than most Arsenal players he did not provide many decisive passes and that for me is the reason why Nasri is not the man to replace Cesc, if he needs replacing.

Arshavin had been fairly quiet during the game but he provided a wonderful chipped pass to Van Persie on the stroke of half time, Van Persie’s side foot was blocked by the keeper but Vela who had moved into the central position bundled the ball over the line.

Arsene Wenger changed the whole team for the second half. I wondered if perhaps he would have kept Sagna and Arshavin on for the first twenty minutes or so but the 45 minutes were enough. Ryo Miyaichi and Carl Jenkinson were given another chance to impress.

The second half team looked much stronger and better balanced. The work rate and pressing had improved while our combination passing had quickened.

While the defending looked more than suspect in the first half, I was very impressed and excited about the potential partnership of Vermaelen and Koscielny at the heart of the defence. Both players are quick and aggressive. Both fantastic on one on one’s and they both compliment the high line very well.

Kieran Gibbs gave us an indication of what he will be providing for Arsenal this season. Offensively he is often like having an extra winger in the team. On a few occasions he dropped his shoulder and beat his man and had the presence of mind to find the cut back. Gibbs also had a shot well saved by the keeper following good work from Ryo Miyaichi.

Ramsey and Chamakh tested the keeper who came in for the second half but it was Theo Walcott who was left frustrated by the man in between the sticks. Theo who is an excellent finisher met his match yesterday as the keeper pulled off a string of top draw saves to deny him.

I thought Jack Wilshere was our best player in the second half along with Koscielny. Wilshere seems to have a greater attacking responsibility without Cesc in the side. Wilshere drove into spaces and slipped in Walcott on a number of occasions, he linked up with his attacking players and interchanged with Ramsey very well. Another step up would be frightening.

Jenkinson had a decent game but often couldn’t get past his man in the final third but he looks more than capable of that which is a great sign. I am interested to see what he is like in the air from defensive situations, at the price we paid for him, he looks an absolute steal.

Ryo looks very talented and very skilful but you can see that he still needs to progress and work on his decision making. I don’t think that is too far away and I
don’t necessarily think that he needs to go on loan to get that, the more he plays the better he will be. He currently is nowhere near what he can become. He is still a match winner though and almost won the game late on when he shuffled and shimmed his way inside and curled a shot to the far corner which was palmed away by the keeper.

Conclusion

While much of the post match talk will be about our poor defending in the first half, I do not think that is the full story. The team were much better defensively with a team that was much closer to our first team. Our opponents are currently in the middle of their season so are much fitter and sharper than we are which is normal. The squad have plenty of games and time to fine tune their game.

I love the energy and fight of the young core we had in the second half. Wilshere, Ramsey, Gibbs, Walcott, Ryo, Koscielny and Vermaelen all put in the graft when we didn’t have the ball and hopefully this will be a standard procedure from all the squad when the season starts.

We were not at our free flowing best but another 45 minutes under the players belts will do them the world of good.

The players have returned to London, they can all mix in with Gervinho and work on the tactical side of the game as well as our defensive short coming from set plays.

I await the game in Germany against FC Cologne with interest.