Nasri proved his affinity and ability to come in from the touchline and create as he played a first-time ball into the path of RvP down the left. The Dutchman stood the ball up at the back-post but Ade couldn’t direct his header goalwards

Match Review – Arsenal 1 Real Madrid 0 – Emirates Cup

So following on from only our second defeat in sixty-odd games at The New Home of Football against Juventus, a more senior-looking Arsenal side banished Real Madrid with an effervescent performance that probably should have yielded more goals. A 1-0 wasn’t enough to retain the Emirates Cup as Martin Jol’s Hamburg took the spoils following a 3-0 victory over Juve, but any win over the giants of Madrid is noteworthy nonetheless.

After the previous day’s unfortunate defeat to the Italians, Le Boss – as expected – fielded a side that will be much more similar to the eleven that takes to the field against West Brom in a fortnight. I reckon that nine of this team will start (injuries permitting) in the curtain-raiser, with Kolo coming in for Big Phil and Cesc either for Denilson or Diaby (more on which later).

I guess the two talking points of the day were the central midfield and Adebayor issues. Who would partner Cesc come August 16th? And after Saturday’s mixed reaction, how would the Togonator ever win over the fans? Whilst the latter question was given a resounding answer, the former remains increasingly unanswerable.

Prior to the game I was keenly listening to the announcement of the lineups, especially the reaction received by a certain Mr. Bayor. I think “mixed” is an appropriate summation of it. On the other hand, young Jack Wilshere got an absolute monster ovation. The expectation on the young lad will continue to grow, but his late cameo showed that he is not fazed by it.

A fast start showed that the home team meant business. Within a minute the mercurial v.Persie spread the ball wide to Theo, who found Sagna on the overlap. Sagna’s chipped cross found fellow Frenchman Samir Nasri in the box, but his shot was blocked. The ball came down to our half of the pitch and Abou Diaby twisted, turned and outmuscled his way through the attention of two Madrid players before distributing the ball efficiently to begin another attack. My mum asked me who that was, I simply replied: “It’s Patrick Vieira”. Yet while that passage of play encapsulated all that was good about Diaby – and there were similar such moments throughout the 90 minutes – the lanky one did also have his fair share of ‘mares.

Ah yes, back to the pantomime villain-turned-hero. In the third minute he raced down the left wing and checked back to square the ball to a team-mate, very reminiscent of his idol Monsieur Henry. The recipient of the pass was Denilson, but his shot was scuffed. This was the first of many times that the young Brazilian arrived late into the final third, a promising trait. Adebayor was also heavily involved in the best move of the match five minutes later as he played a sublime double one-two with RvP before the Dutchman found Theo on the right, whose low and hard shot was gladly held by Jerzy Dudek. Although Ade/RvP is widely considered to be our best front pairing, I’ve never been convinced by their link-up play. Individually they are very good, but interplay between themselves has never been a strong point. For instance, the interplay between Ade/Eddie and Bendtner/RvP has been more promising. But in this instance, and with the addition of the added penetration that Walcott brings, the two seemed to have a more natural understanding which can only bode well for the forthcoming season. Fitness permitting, it is a front trio I would love to see more of and reminds me very much of the successful Anelka/Bergkamp/Overmars triumvirate that shot us to glory in 1998.

Halfway through the first period, the three were once again involved in a bright Arsenal move. Robin received the ball with his back to goal from a throw-in, turned and slid a ball in behind Real’s left-back. The pacy Theo latched onto it before sending the ball infield to Nasri, who played it first-time to Ade, who laid it back to the once-again late-arriving Denilson. This time his effort was much more controlled and looked to be heading for the bottom corner but Gabriel Heinze got in the way.

A quick word on Nasri: while he wasn’t outstanding, the biggest compliment I can pay him is that he looked like someone ingrained in our style of play. Sure there were no fireworks, but it was an efficient display as he combined well with Clichy and the front-men. He seems to like drifting infield and should become more prominent once he builds up an understanding with Cesc. With Theo bombing forward down the right and almost acting like a third striker, having a creator on the other flank provides much-needed balance.

On the half-hour, Nasri proved his affinity and ability to come in from the touchline and create as he played a first-time ball into the path of RvP down the left. The Dutchman stood the ball up at the back-post but Ade couldn’t direct his header goalwards and it sailed wide. During his second-half appearance against Juve on Saturday I felt that he was desperate to get a goal to affirm his commitment to the cause, and here against Real he was doubly desperate. Ade has never been one to shy away after a miss or two, and I was certain that if we continued to probe down the left and penetrate down the right, his moment would come.

That’s not to say it was all one-way traffic. Madrid may have taken 30 minutes to rise to the occasion, but when they did they looked fairly dangerous. The first sign of danger came when Garcia unleashed a piledriver from all of 35-yards that Manuel was glad to see fly wide. Robinho was also getting more involved and there was a lovely moment where he and Theo were tussling for the ball. So often outmuscled by man larger than them, the two relished in coming face-to-face with an opponent of similar stature. Their brief physical contest down our right flank ended in a respectable score draw. Theo then strutted his stuff down the business end of the pitch as he exchanged passes with the ever-clever RvP before taking on Heinze and sending his shot over the bar. The two combined yet again on 37 minutes as Robin fed Theo inside our own half and the youngster embarked on yet another Anfield-esque slalom. He found Ade on the right who cross found Denilson (again!) arriving late, his sidefoot volley this time palmed away by Dudek. The resultant corner was met by Ade with a looping header that forced the former Liverpool keeper to tip the ball over the bar.

So the recurring theme for the first 40 minutes was Ade getting into threatening positions, Robin linking the play well, Theo looking lively down the right and Denilson showing a happy knack for arriving late at the edge of the box to get a shot away. But in the remaining five minutes we could very easily have given a penalty away. A Guti through ball caught the defence napping as Raul sprung the offside trap (Ade – take note) and rounded Almunia before going down. Admittedly the contact was barely minimum, but in a game that matters a diving cunt like Rooney would have no qualms in tumbling like a sack of spuds to claim a spot-kick. It would have been ironic had we conceded a penalty and Real had scored from it – much like against Juventus we would have been caught cold by a barely deserved goal despite bossing the game.

The introduction of more villains in the form of Robben and Ruud van Nistelrooy led to another round of resounding boos from the Emirates faithful. But the boos would soon turn to piss-taking cheers as Ruud had a goal disallowed. The second period largely began in the same vein as the first – with Arsenal on the front foot. Robin seemingly had enough of the pussyfooting around as he cracked a low left-footed drive from 25-yards that fizzed wide. And the man himself then won a penalty as he looked to control a Denilson cross but was clattered by Michel Salgado. The aptly named Mark Clattenburg has no hesitation in point to the spot, but the question remained as to who would take the pen. Although Robin is first choice, the fact that he won the penalty and got sledgehammered in the process saw Ade step up. The big man dispatched the kick with a great deal of confidence and no little expertise as he stroked it into the top corner. It was unsavable. The next bit of intrigue: how would he celebrate? I personally would’ve preferred a more ‘begging for forgiveness’ kind of pose as the badge-kissing was horribly nauseating. But what the hell, the fans were cheering and the only way Ade can repay the supporters is in the hard currency of goals. I wonder how those present would have reacted had he missed?

Denilson (yes, him again!) then got forward to have another crack at goal from distance, this time into the hands of a diving Dudek. Unfortunately, the next real incident of the game was a less positive one as Wesley Sneijder – a half-time substitute and one of the absolute stars of Euro 2008 – was caught by Abou Diaby as the Frenchman won man and ball. Diaby can be absolved of all blame as this was no studs-up x-rated horror tackle, instead the follow through of his challenge catching Sneijder and causing a very unsightly twisting of the knee that is suspected to be a cruciate ligament injury. Diaby himself knows the perils of a horror injury and I’m sure he wouldn’t have wanted that. Get well soon Wesley.

Diaby then showed the lackadaisical side of his game as he was caught in possession on the halfway line. In the first-half where he twisted and turned out of trouble, this time he twisted and turned into trouble. This is nothing to do with a technical deficiency in his game, but a decision-making one. He needs to know when to twist and turn, and when to lay a simple ball back. When he is good he is very good, but when he is bad he is a liability. The frustrating thing is his ability to verge from the sublime to the ridiculous within the same passage of play. There is no doubt that more game time will help him iron out his flaws – but can we afford to give him that kind of leeway when every game is a must-win in today’s Premier League? But I digress, his error eventually seeing van Horseface having a shot blocked by Gael from a very ominous position inside our box.

Immediately down the other end, Ade took on and beat the entire Madrid back-four in a fantastic run that had all the grace and power of Henry’s against Spurs in 2002-03. Although he adjusted his feet quickly enough to get a shot away, his radar was slightly off as his shot brushed past Dudek’s far post. But it was an enthralling run nonetheless that further endeared him to the crowd; had the ball gone nestled in the bottom corner then the roof would have been raised. Shock horror, there were even strains of a few Adebayor chants breaking out.

As is the norm in friendlies, we had to contend with the usual plethora of substitutions. Most of the time this breaks up the rhythm of the game, but here the replacements slipped unnoticed into the tempo of the game. Amongst the subs was Rambo, who won the ball and released fellow newcomer Wilshere down the left. With the Madrid defender closing in, young Jack simply nicked the ball forward and evaded the challenge before sending a sumptuous ball to the back post that Bendtner could neither square nor score from as his cross-shot was deflected behind for a corner. Jack’s exact movement in getting the ball past the defender in that instance was eerily similar as to how Theo did it in Milan last season: a quick poke followed by an electric burst of pace.

As the clock ticked away, the possibility of sharing the trophy with Hamburg dwindled. A 3-0 would have seen that occur, but we really needed a second before the 80th minute to allow us enough time to push on and grab a third. Real looked mildly threatening at the end but were no great shakes as we picked up the win, which was a pretty impressive one in all honesty with good individual performance and departmental ones. The defence looked comfortable as a whole and were never really under the cosh. Whether this is due to supreme defending or a lack of spark from the Madrid front-men is another matter. The fact is that we kept a clean sheet, and that’s all you can ask for.

I liked the balance of the midfield. Two central players that alternated when to sit and when to push on combined with the creativity and of Nasri on the left and Theo on the right seemed to meld well as a whole. I’m pretty sure that three of this midfield will be starting against West Brom in the first game of the season. Without Rosicky, Nasri is the obvious option on the left. And unless West Brom sign Cristiano Ronaldo to play left-wing, Walcott should keep Eboue out of the side. But the make-up of the central pairing is up in the air. Cesc, of course, will start. But who lines up alongside him is the question. For the sake of it, let’s assume no new signings are made. Do you start Denilson, who has played every pre-season game so far and has progressively got better? Or do you plump for Diaby, who is more erratic but potentially more inspirational? I guess it boils down to what you prefer: Denilson’s middling consistency, or Diaby’s potential to be Patrick Vieira one moment and Carlton Palmer the next? An interesting choice to make, with both options having their pros and cons.

Up-front, Robin showed us how we missed him so much last year. While Eddie and Ade were doing the bizzo in terms of goals, we lacked that bit of devil and guile without the Dutchman. Not only can he score goals out of nothing, but he can create them too. In his two outings thus far I can remember four separate occasions where has created a chance for Theo. It is a combination I am desperate to see more of: I think it can be very fruitful.

And of course, the hero/villain of the hour, the man who gets my vote for Top Gun of the day. Him and Robin looked like they were on the same wavelength during this game, moreso than I can ever imagine before, so that is an undoubted bonus. After the summer of shameless public flirting with Milan and Barca, it was always going to take a lot to win back the hearts and minds of Gooners. I consider myself to be fairly forgiving type of person, but even I was critical of him last week against Stuttgart based on his greed and disrespect of the Club. While his substitute appearance against Juve was about gauging crowd reaction, this one was about beginning his path to redemption. As I watched Ade harry and hustle Dudek early during the first-half, I could see that the hunger was back: the hunger to prove to us fans that he is one of us. Some people believed that his ego was over-inflating towards the back-end of last season, and they may have been right. But getting booed on Saturday would have been a chastening experience for the man, one that de-ego’d him and made him see that we – the fans – would not simply welcome him back with open arms, that he had to earn it. And his performance against Madrid here was the first step to doing that. Whilst we may not hear his popular chant en masse for a while yet, and even the cheers could still be muted, I think the booing may be at a minimum now. If he wants his name to be sung, he has to earn it. And that can only be a good thing for Arsenal Football Club.