The Barry-Alonso-Benitez-Wenger-O’Neill roundabout continues to go round and round. Wenger must have targeted Alonso from last season as he said he will be making a move for a Premier League player who has experience

Yesterdays game was enjoyable, Real Madrid and Juventus showed us what we saw in the Euro’s this year. Attacking creative Spanish and dull negative Italians. Why be so unadventurous in friendly matches?

Anyway we saw a stronger looking line up from the start against Real than we did against Juve. I think it tells you a lot about how we are looking to start the season. The only real question mark is who will partner Cesc in the middle. Both Denilson and Diaby both played pretty well in the center of the park. Infact Denilson has played very well since Barnet where he did not have his match sharpness.

I read this on a forum yesterday but it is so true. Adebayor will have to work again from the beginning and that will benefit Arsenal. We witnessed the Adebayor from the beginning of 2007/08. Full of running, full of work and energy. He was coming complacent towards the end of the season, beginning to ‘do an Henry’ and throw his hands up when he didn’t receive the pass. But hopefully we will not see this behaviour for a little while now. His match sharpness isn’t quite there yet but you can see how much he gives the team.

Like I said a few days ago, booing is just counter productive, it does not help the team. Some supporters just enjoying booing and love negativity.

Nasri looks like he is still missing that little extra. His ideas, technique are all there but that extra bit to complete him will come with fitness, adaptation and match sharpness. I love the idea of Nasri and Walcott on the wings. They will provide goals that was missing from Hleb and Eboue. The will provide at least as many assists also.

Adebayor’s penalty was pretty damn good wasn’t it? I am a little confused about how good he is at putting the ball away from the spot but sometimes he finds it hard from closer in.

Squid Boy has written another fine match report so click the line to read it

The Barry-Alonso-Benitez-Wenger-O’Neill roundabout continues to go round and round. Wenger must have targeted Alonso from last season as he said he will be making a move for a Premier League player who has experience and will cost more than he would pay normally. If money was no object to these clubs then Barry would already be a Liverpool player and Alonso would have played yesterday but teams are trying to get the best price they possibly can.

Squid boy made an excellent point in his match review about Wenger not needed an out and out defensive midfield player and that is why perhaps he wants Alonso to rotate with Cesc. If not then we could well see Diaby in that same role.

According to the Guardian Liverpool want around £18 million for Alonso which is not going to happen from our pockets, I think they are pretending that they are dealing with Chelsea. We are not going to pay that sort of money. But the longer it goes on for the more likely the price will drop down.

Arsene’s comments were interesting. I was interested in two things that he said.

On Theo Walcott…
“He is ahead of where he was last year. I hope Theo is more regular in the team this year. No 14 is a big number to inherit but I have confidence in him of course, but it is down to performances. I feel his first touch is much better, he moves the ball quicker and his penetration and final ball is better. There is goal-scoring potential in him and hopefully one day we will get that out of him. For now he is not a link player between the midfield and the strikers, like Robin [van Persie] can be, and he is maybe, at the moment, a fraction short physically to play as a real target man because there you get bombarded in the air. He can play wide right and wide left as well.”

I was very impressed with Theo on the ball. He looks much more confident on the ball. Technically he has improved from the start of last year. Wenger is right about his first touch, his awareness also looks better. Theo Walcott will be a starter and hopefully he will improve throughout the season.

On Jack Wilshere…
“You wouldn’t want to put any limitations on his participation in the season because he is only 16. At that age you can improve. He looked strong enough and not fazed by the big games. The quality is there. I don’t look too much at his age, more at what he is doing on the pitch, and right now what he is doing is good.”

You wouldn’t want to put any limitations on his participation in the season. Is Wenger hinting at first team appearances this season? We know he is good enough, but we know that he cannot be exposed to everything. We do not want to put pressure on him and let him develop by himself but the kid is not helping that by turning out almost faultless performances whenever he steps onto the pitch whether it is against Barnet, Burgenland, Juventus or Real Madrid.

This situation reminds me of when Guily was Barcelona’s right winger and there was a little kid called Messi on the bench who came on for 10 minutes in most matches, the next season he couldn’t be held back anymore. Look at Messi today. I am not saying that Jack Wilshere is Messi what I am saying is that it will be hard for Wenger to hold him back.

Have a good day. Drop your view in the comments.

Until tomorrow.

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