The boot was on the other foot when Aaron Ramsey lifted his head and made eye contact with Theo Walcott in what was possibly our first meaningful attack. It was surreal moment for me when watching it live, almost as if I had drifted into Aaron Ramsey’s mind. I had spotted Walcott leaning towards the blind side of Clichy and as soon as I thought ‘go on Aaron, slip it through’ the Welshman threaded through a perfectly weighted pass cutting through a number of City players for Walcott to latch onto. Theo’s improvement in recent season’s is such that when he finds himself in these positions I now expect a goal and I am surprised when the ball does not hit the back of the net, like in our final Emirates cup game. Yup you know the one with that wonderful pass from guess who? Aaron

Friendly or not, I enjoyed the hell out of yesterday’s game. A pre season game a week before the season started against a team that have spent almost £100m this summer on top of the insane amounts of cash that they have invested into their squad could have backfired if Arsenal suffered defeat. Confidence could have been dented before the real football kicks in.

We have to have a bit of perspective, this was a friendly even if it was as close to a competitive setting as you are likely to get in pre season. If Arsenal lost the game then many, including myself would not ring the alarm bells just yet.

However, it would be foolhardy to totally dismiss the performance collectively and individually so close to the season opener.

Starting Line Up

Team Approach

When Ivan Gazidis spoke recently about the clubs newly found wealth what he also mentioned but has been almost universally ignored is that the coaching team will be looking at internal team improvement or something along those lines, I cannot find the exact quote now but I know he said it.

I had wondered how we would start the season given our finish to last season with our emergency pragmatic approach. This was back on show yesterday as Manchester City dominated the ball in the early exchanges, forcing us back and defending as a team.

When we did get on the ball, we drove at City on the break rather than go toe to toe with Manchester City from the off. I don’t know if this was forced on us or whether this was the game plan from the start. This may well be down to the fact we were missing our best possession based players in Santi Cazorla (bench) and Tomas Rosicky (injury) from the starting eleven.

You can see a cohesion in our defending now, just like the end of last season. There is a method to our not so madness these days. There is a maturity to our game plan that we haven’t always had in the past. It reminds me of days gone by where we would have all the possession against Chelsea or Manchester United and watch our naive but talented players get picked off at will. How many times did we end up dominating the ball but lose the game convincingly. I am not sure we will see that with this new Arsenal team.

Ramsey & Walcott on the rise

The boot was on the other foot when Aaron Ramsey lifted his head and made eye contact with Theo Walcott in what was possibly our first meaningful attack. It was a surreal moment for me when watching it live, almost as if I had drifted into Aaron Ramsey’s mind. I had spotted Walcott leaning towards the blind side of Clichy and as soon as I thought ‘go on Aaron, slip it through’ the Welshman threaded through a perfectly weighted pass cutting through a number of City players for Walcott to latch onto. Theo’s improvement in recent season’s is such that when he finds himself in these positions I now expect a goal and I am surprised when the ball does not hit the back of the net, like in our final Emirates cup game against Galatasaray when he chipped wide. Yup you know the one with that wonderful pass from guess who? Aaron Ramsey.

Aaron Ramsey has been head and shoulders our best player in pre season and that is no surprise given his huge leap during our final run in of last season. It may all be a little premature but at this moment in time he looks like a young man enjoying his football rather than a youngster learning his trade.

He looks like he is absolutely sure of himself on the pitch where as when he first came back he was learning to trust himself again. As things stand, regardless of who comes in, Aaron Ramsey has to be first choice going into the season. His ability to cover ground is amazing and his ball winning abilities are hugely underrated I feel.

Theo Walcott has looked sharp all pre season and what is exciting is that he seems to have (without wanting to jinx it) shaken off any inconsistencies in his game. We know he is not the most naturally gifted player but he is making less mistakes in his passing, not running into blind alleys in the way he used to. Basically his game understanding has improved dramatically. His chipped finish over Joe Hart was top quality and long may that continue into the new season.

Wilshere & Chamberlain need to follow suit

Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain seem to be suffering from the same problems. Both players are trying to do a little too much rather than picking their moments like Tomas Rosicky does. You can see why the Ox has been learning his trade on the flanks. Not just because of his pace but because he tends to dribble first and pass second. That cannot really be the option when playing in central positions. Chamberlain needs to simplify his game the way that Ramsey did when he replaced Arteta for a spell last season.

Wilshere has the excuse of his previous injury but even so, you feel that he needs to find his position whether that be box to box or number 10. Either position looks blocked at present and he will have to improve to replace those ahead of him. Both players have more than enough time and quality to get where they want to be but at this stage I’d be surprised to see either start the season unless injuries set in.

Why did Lukas Podolski start

Arsene will have an eye on the Aston Villa game, hoping to get team patterns working, partnerships clicked into gear etc. So why start with Lukas Podolski over Oliver Giroud as the centre forward? I didn’t think anything of it at first and maybe it is nothing, maybe a simple rotation of his team but perhaps Arsene wants to get his players away from the longer ball to Giroud option. Maybe the side is being redirected another way. We all know about our interest in Luis Suarez and Arsene has said that he has a back up in mind also. if that is the case then there is little point in playing to the strengths of one player who is the complete opposite to how you want to approach the season.

That is just a theory and time will tell I guess.

Wasting Lukas

I’ve gone on about this subject ever since the loveable German signed for us. Lukas Podolski as centre forward is like Laurent Koscielny standing at the half way line hands on hips watching the opposition attack our goal. It is like Theo Walcott dropping into Mikel Arteta’s position to receive the ball off the back four. I’m no tactical genius so can someone explain to me why Lukas Podolski seems allergic to moving off the shoulder of his marker and finding spaces in the penalty area when we have the ball instead of being sucked towards it every time. He has the best shot in the squad and is one of the best finishers at the club yet it seems rare to find him in scoring positions. Instead he is hanging around as a make shift attacking full back or as a number 10. If he had the gift of movement then I’d doubt we would need another forward. If he was making the same darting off the ball runs as Theo Walcott then it would give our midfield some lovely options, at the moment the only real threat off the ball is Theo.

The goals

Ramsey’s second half goal was well deserved. Rounding Hart with ease and slotting in from a tight angle to make it 2-0. Giroud got the third and yet another pre season goal. A nice finish it was too. Deftly lobbing Hart from the edge of the box after a long Walcott pass. Giroud could have scored the fourth but the referees assistant flagged for offside. Negredo beat Koscielny to a through ball and scored City’s goal to make it 3-1. He had missed a few chances during the game and could have scored more.

Does Perez please?

It is difficult to judge Colombian trialist Sebastian Perez, at least not defensively. He looked very comfortable on the ball, the exact type of deep midfielder that suits our system when we have the ball. Shifts into spaces to receive passes and plays the simple pass to recycle the ball. However we did not get to see much of his defensive work when City had the ball and by then the many changes had disrupted the game. We may see more if he has been handed game time, we shall see.

Conclusion

All in all, very encouraging display. Our team shape is still in place and many players are developing nicely. We were without our ball players yet found ways of scoring when needed. We may have a small group of first team players but they all look ready to contribute to the season ahead and in a positive way. Adding a forward of top quality with great off the ball movement would lift us up another level. There has been talk of Gustavo being added to the squad and that would also add quality and depth.

Let us get those key pieces into the squad and continue this start into the season.