I am looking forward to Gervinho and Walcott having the movement, link up and artistry of Robin Van Persie. Marouane Chamakh is still out of sync right now and looks a shadow of the man that came in and hit the ground running last season. He gave the ball away frequently in the time he was on the pitch and did not cause the defenders any problems at all. Hopefully it is still pre season rust with him

We’ve got Gervinho.. We’ve got Gervinho..We’ve got Gervinho..We’ve got Gervinho!!

His transfer to Arsenal was the (latest) worst kept secret until he finally appeared on Arsenal.com, paper work seemly the obstacle. Well he finally got all that sorted in time for his first pre season game in Germany against FC Cologne.

I have been intrigued to know where Gervinho would start. I got my answer at 2.30pm on Saturday. Gervinho started on the left of a front three alongside Chamakh and Walcott. Could that be Arsene Wenger’s strike force in the Champions League qualifier, that is very possible.

It didn’t take Gervinho very long to show the Arsenal fans what he is all about. His starting position was from the left but he certainly does not intend on hugging the touchline. He made a great diagonal run from left to center and Jack Wilshere found his run with a clipped left foot pass into his stride. Gervinho’s early finish was very clinical and very pleasing.

While the club are open to letting go of Cesc Fabregas this year, I wonder if in a round about way, Gervinho is Cesc’s replacement. While Samir Nasri is an extremely gifted player, he lacks directness in attack and perhaps Nasri dropping back into the play making position will allow the team to be quicker and more direct going forward. Assuming that Nasri also stays at the club.

Gervinho proved it was no fluke when Wilshere’s crossfield daisy cutter was allowed to get through to Theo Walcott following poor defending by the opposition left back, Walcott raced into the box and squared the ball into the area where there is often no Arsenal player taking up a position but this time Gervinho had found himself in the right place at the right time to turn the ball into the net from close range via a collision with the goalkeeper.

Last season felt like a season where everyone wanted to run to the ball. Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, Cesc Fabregas, Andrey Arshavin all wanted their fair share of ball manipulation but even if Gervinho does not reach the technical levels of some of those names, he will be invaluable to this team if he can continue to get into goalscoring positions throughout the season.

I am looking forward to Gervinho and Walcott having the movement, link up and artistry of Robin Van Persie alongside them. Marouane Chamakh is still out of sync right now and looks a shadow of the man that came in and hit the ground running last season. He gave the ball away frequently in the time he was on the pitch and did not cause the defenders any problems at all. Hopefully it is still pre season rust with him and he will get back to his best before the season starts. I certainly hope so because right now he is no threat to Van Persie’s place in the team.

While Gervinho would understandably grab the headlines, he was not the man of the first half, that award goes to Jack Wilshere who was head and shoulders above his team mates. We are slowly seeing that 15 year old swagger that he had when he was dominating his age group back then. With Cesc Fabregas not involved, he is taking up extra attacking responsibility and I am enjoying that. His drop of the shoulder and turn of direction whilst running with the ball will open up plenty of space for our attacking wide players over the course of the season.

He may not yet be able to pick out the range of passes that Cesc can consistently, I have no doubt that he will be dominating midfield’s in his own way over the next few years if he can steer clear of major injury.

Defensively our strategy was very risky at times. Our high line appeared very high, with especially Gibbs being caught too high up the pitch. He gave us a good outlet when we had the ball but when we lost it, Gibbs often struggled to reach the play when Cologne counter attacked.

It is why someone like Brede Hangeland would be an awful signing for us and would get exposed for a lack of space and mobility time and time again.

Our off the ball work has been something that I have been watching keenly since the pre season started. Our pressing of the opposition when we lose the ball in attacking areas. Jack Wilshere spoke post match about how the team have been working hard on winning the ball back high up the pitch and I could tell that from our Asia trip.

It is different to the Barcelona method of pressing. Instead of pushing right up the field and boxing the opposition outside of their penalty area, our attackers drop back to join our midfield and our defensive line pushes up the field leaving a compact area of space to apply intense pressing. This way the team do not have to expend a lot of energy pressing over the whole pitch.

The team of Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey have been doing it much better than the team of Samir Nasri, Robin Van Persie and Andrey Arshavin so far this pre season although I thought it was less effective yesterday than it was in Asia.

I am hoping the team can perfect it and can use it over the course of the whole season. If we do then I imagine that with our pacey forwards, we will see many counter attacking goals from the team in 3 or 4 passes with Walcott or Gervinho slotting away the chances.

My concern with the system is balls being played into the channels of the full backs, especially if they are pushing so high up the pitch.

Theo Walcott has been speaking of his desire to play as a central striker but I really do not see what would really change given the amount of rotation in the front line when we have control of possession. Chamakh often moved out of his central role into wide areas while Theo and Gervinho took turns to take up the strikers role.

Gervinho was taken off after half an hour, it was his first game of the pre season and he took a minor knock according to Arsene Wenger. It is a shame he couldn’t stick around to claim a hat trick but with movement like his, I am sure he will get other opportunities. His overall link up play isn’t perfect, his weight of pass wasn’t always right but hopefully that will improve with time.

Ryo Miyaichi came on and gave the team something different from Gervinho. He didn’t make as many central runs but his carrying of the ball was quality. One run and timed pass found Theo Walcott darting into the box from the left but Theo’s cross to Chamakh was badly over hit. Ryo only managed to gain 15 minutes but in that time he once again showed he had the quality to play for us.

Carl Jenkinson continues to look steady and he had a good game. His own goal was a freak of nature and would have been a goal of the season contender at the other end of the pitch but he shouldn’t get down about it. Much better to get it out of the way in a pre season game rather than at Old Trafford.

Team B came out for the second half, well apart from Kieran Gibbs who may have been
kept on to correct his defensive positioning. I thought it interesting that Armand Traore was not involved as he had been in Asia. Is Arsene going back on his earlier statement that he didn’t need a left back or was that a message to clubs who were putting high price tags on their players?

Samir Nasri continued in his favoured central attacking role, Tomas Rosicky playing as the second central midfielder and Carlos Vela continuing on the right of a front three. The rest of the side was players playing in their normal positions.

Defensively the team continued to have problems on the break, in fact we got caught more often in the second half and we were pretty lucky not to concede another goal.

Tomas Rosicky looked sharp and much closer to his best. I like the role given to him at this stage of his career. He may not have the decisive thrust to play as an attacking wide player or the killer passes to play in Cesc’s role but he is a very intelligent player who keeps the ball well, makes space for himself and drives into spaces with the ball.

I hope to see more of him in this position during the upcoming season when the likes of Jack Wilshere and perhaps Aaron Ramsey need rotating.

Andrey Arshavin is not yet at his sharpest but he looks trimmer and fitter than much of last season which is a great sign. I would have loved to have seen a little of Arshavin playing behind Van Persie during this pre season.

The game yesterday also taught me that Emmanuel Frimpong is more mobile and a better ball carrier than I thought he was. I had a picture of Frimpong being a sitter who only tackled and played the ball simple but he ran with the ball well. His passing still needs work. He tried a few passes in between the lines that were intercepted, he also hit a few longer passes astray.

All in all it was a good run out, a much more intense game than previous pre season games so far. Our defending against the counter attack needs to sharpen up but we are more than capable of that given our defensive record in open play last season.

Wilshere, Gervinho, Miyaichi, Rosicky and Jenkinson were all impressive and that is good but the injury to Conor Henderson who was given a chance to impress at left back suffered a bad knee injury, hopefully it will not be as bad as Frimpong’s last season.

I have my box tickets for the Emirates cup so I am looking forward to watching Wenger’s strongest side merged together.