Lineup Update:

Almunia, Diaby, Fabregas, Gallas, Van Persie, Song, Djourou, Clichy, Arshavin, Bendtner, Eboue

Enjoy the match.

Tomorrow brings our final friendly match of the summer, away to Valencia. The Spanish club has fallen on hard financial times recently, but despite all the speculation, didn’t sell David Villa or David Silva, so still have a lot of firepower. Wenger has said he will be fielding a side that is as close as possible to the side which will line up against Everton next weekend, so this match will tell us who is in the club’s first-choice 11.

My guess is that we’ll line up in a 4-3-3 as we have been doing:

Almunia

Sagna-Gallas-Vermaelen-Clichy

Cesc-Song-Arshavin

Walcott-Bendtner-van Persie

It should be good preparation. It will give the players a good chance to play against a top-quality side on the road, in front of motivated fans (it is a celebration of Valencia’s 90th birthday), and doing that much running around in the heat will get the boys into game shape. To my knowledge, it’s not being televised here in the states, so everyone may have to watch an online stream of it.

Here’s what Wenger himself has to say about the match:

I imagine we’ll probably see many of the same players we saw yesterday, but don’t be surprised if some of the players who came on as late substitutes yesterday (Clichy, Cesc, Arshavin) start on the pitch and play most of the match today. We also didn’t see Vermaelan or Song yesterday, so they could be involved today. On the subject of Vermaelen, for those who care about such things, the official website is not listing a number for him and Wikipedia is showing him as wearing Kolo Toure’s vacated number 5 this season. If he plays it will be interesting to see what number is on his back.

Here’s my best guess at a lineup:

Almunia

Sagna-Vermaelen-Gallas-Clichy

Wilshere-Cesc-Song-Rosicky

Arshavin-Eduardo

UPDATE:Here’s the actual lineup:

Almunia

Eboue-Gallas-Silvestre-Clichy

Wilshere-Cesc-Song-Merida

Arshavin-Eduardo

But who knows, really. Hopefully we’ll put in another good showing, because despite some obvious rust and poor finishing (including a good chance wasted by my boy St. Nick), I thought we actually looked quite good yesterday. We dominated the match, controlling possession and moving the ball around quite well. Atletico is no pushover, either–this is a team we could face in the Champions League qualifier. Some specific thoughts:

1. First, how awful were the American announcers? They didn’t really seem to know what they were talking about, and the way they were going over the top to “correctly” pronounce everyone’s name was pretty excruciating. I’m all for trying to get it right, but Jack Wilshere, for example, is from Hertfordshire, not Senegal–therefore, his name is pronounced “Will-sure.” At one point they pronounced his name “Wheel-shay-ray.” When the clubs came out and they were talking about the lineups and announcing our backline, I got really excited because I thought we had signed someone new that I hadn’t heard about. Then I realized they were just over-pronouncing Traore and Djourou. On the plus side, if we’ve got announcers that blather on about nothing and have no clue what’s going on, maybe soccer really has finally arrived as a major American sport on par with baseball and football.

2. Wilshere. Hoo boy. I told Travis a week or so ago that I loved Wilshere for the future, but that I couldn’t see him playing any significant role for us this season. But if he plays like he plays yesterday, I don’t know how you can keep him out of first-team action. For all our complaining about how we need to bring in this player or that player, consider that we have Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott, Song, Nasri, and Cesc–six absolutely fantastic young midfielders, aged, respectively, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, and 22. Most other clubs, even some of Europe’s top clubs, would kill to have even one or two young midfielders of that kind of quality.

3. I think the idea of human cloning is a dangerous, unethical, immoral attempt by human beings to play God. But that being said, if I could clone Andrei Arshavin, . . . I would totally do that shit.

4. Forget what I said a couple of days ago about left-wing being wide open for who would play while Nasri is out. If Rosicky is healthy, the job’s his, and if he could somehow stay healthy, I’m not even sure Nasri gets the job when he comes back. He looked really good in 45 minutes yesterday.

5. Hopefully it’s just rust, but Clichy still looks like a different player than the guy who lit it up down the left for us in the 2007-2008 season. It was his first action this summer, but Clichy looked slow and tentative yesterday. In contrast to Traore, who showed good aggressiveness and great recovery speed. I know it’s heresy and you guys will jump all over me, but if Clichy doesn’t get back into game shape over the next couple of weeks, I think we might have a position battle on our hands.

• Rosicky played 45 minutes and looked solid in doing so. His health could be a major X factor to the season as he bagged a goal that was ruled out for being offside. Not debating the validity of the call, but the quality of the finish. It was top drawer, and if he’s on the pitch more than he’s not this season it is a huge boost to this club of mostly teenagers.
• Jack Wilshere is going to be a very, very good player. If you don’t think he is one already. Interesting to see what kind of a role he has this season. His passing and vision are remarkable for a 17-year-old.
• Two words: Andrey Arshavin. A full season of the short Russian attacker is something that should excite all Arsenal fans. His two goals were both top notch finishes, especially when you consider the fact that it’s preseason.
• Vito Mannone does not inspire confidence as a third-string goalie.
• Plenty of reason to worry about the defense. They were suspect at best.

Which brings us to our next piece of news — it is widely reported by a number of sources that Phillippe Senderos has been sold to Everton. Surely that prepares Everton to sell Lescott to Manchester City soon thereafter. While mainstream media reports are yet to catch on, Arseblog and Gunnerblog have both referenced it, and they’re a lot close to North London than I am.

What does this mean? First off, it’s no surprise that Senderos is off, but if Arsene fails to bring in anyone else, the club could be left in dire straights. And while Wenger seems keen to do so (at least by next week), it seems necessary to bring in at least the central midfielder that everyone seems to be talking about. Today’s game proves that the attacking options are plentiful — it’s the other end of the pitch that needs work, though it seems that within a week a new face could be brought in. His words after the game:

“I will be looking at all the options we have during the week, and then we close [pre-season]. I believe we have quite a strong squad now. If we can add one or two players, we will do it, but not more.”

I’m not sold on the rumored Viera move, but we’ll have to see what happens on that front. Marouane Chamakh continues to be linked to the club, but only if the price is right.

Oh, and I dropped in the highlights after the jump. Check it out before they get yanked off youtube.

We’re getting close to the season, and we’ve been through our primary preseason conditioning workouts in Austria, so what we see in these matches should be pretty meaningful. Nothing is set in stone, obviously, but the way Wenger lines up in these matches could very well be how the squad lines up two weeks from today when the season kicks off. Some of the big questions:

1. Who’s starting at striker? van Persie is a given, but he could very well be paired with Bendtner, Arshavin, or Eduardo.

2. Who’s pairing with Cesc in the center of the field? Song was playing very well alongside Cesc at the end of last season, but in the friendlies so far, Wenger has talked about using Song as a center back. I hope it’s Song starting, but we could also see Arshavin, Denilson, or Ramsey in the mix for a first-choice spot.

3. Who are our center backs? With Toure gone, it’s in flux. You’d have to think that it will probably be Gallas and Vermaelen, but Djourou, Song, Senderos, and Silvestre are also hanging around.

4. Who’s on the left? With Nasri out, we’re going to need someone to play on the left wing for at least the first month of the season. It could be Arshavin, Traore, Rosicky, Vela, or Denilson–I think it’s pretty wide open, and it will be interesting to watch and see if anyone can put in a couple of good performances in these matches and grab the spot until Nasri comes back.

Wenger announced that he will rest Theo Walcott for the Emirates Cup matches, so we could see Arshavin, Eboue, or Wilshere start on the right in these matches, but there’s no way Walcott’s first-team place is under review.

We play Atletico Madrid today, which will feature a return to North London for Jose Antonio Reyes. He might receive a mixed welcome from the fans–he was very good for us in his 2.5 seasons with the club, but ultimately requested out of the club because he was homesick. And then tomorrow we square off against Rangers. Given that they are, essentially, friendlies, and players aren’t up to game fitness yet, as well as the fact that we’re playing two games on back-to-back days, expect to see a lot of substitutions and reserve players get some action.

Still, though, it’s Arsenal at the Emirates, hopefully wearing red for the first time this season, playing against high-level competition. Games are on GolTV if you get it. Just 2 weeks until the season starts.

On the transfer front, Wenger has pointedly refused to rule out a move for Patrick Vieira, which seems to indicate that he is seriously exploring the possibility. I was kind of surprised that so many of the comments on the post which initially talked about a possible Vieira return were against the move–maybe I’m just sentimental, but if we don’t expect him to be much more than cover for our midfield, I think he’d be up to the task and would be a great influence on the rest of the club. However, I imagine that’s the sticking point–Vieira’s top priority at the moment seems to be actually being in the first-team somewhere so he can try to stay in the French international picture, and I doubt he’d be willing to come back to Arsenal just to be a backup and glorified mascot. Regardless, keep your ears open if you’re watching the game with the sound on–I wouldn’t be surprised if the Vieira song wasn’t sung prominently by the supporters.

Here’s the lineup:

Mannone

Eboue-Djourou-Toure-Traore

Wilshere-Ramsey-Song-Denilson

Bendtner-Eduardo

This will be our first glimpse of Eduardo this preseason, and it’ll be good to see him back in action. It’s also the last of our (well, should be, at least) “gimme” friendlies–games against minnows we should be able to win easily. The upcoming fixtures are against Hannover 96, Rangers, Atletico, and Valencia, so hopefully the boys are rounding into shape and getting ready to play some top-level competition.

UPDATE: 4-0, Gunners, after 45 minutes. Two goals each from Bendtner and Eduardo. Senderos, Gallas, Vermaelen, Sagna, Arshavin, and van Persie all enter the game at half-time. (First-half highlights here).

UPDATE: 5-0 final. van Persie adds a penalty in the second half. My streaming feed went out relatively early in the second half, so I didn’t see much past the 60th minute or so. Apparently I missed this, which is maybe the worst penalty kick I’ve ever seen. As for thoughts, it’s generally very hard to tell anything from a pre-season friendly against a team that is much lower in quality. But we certainly looked better than we did last week, which is something. The friendly on Wednesday against Hannover 96 should tell us a bit more.

Arsenal’s in the thick of lots of Dutch action of late- we successfully defended our Amsterdam Tournament crown, and Wednesday (already), we’re up against FC Twente for the Champions League qualifiers. And, coincidentally, I’m finally reading Brilliant Orange. I know, I know, I’m behind the times.

And since I’m behind the times, let’s discuss Amsterdam.

We started with a game against Ajax. Two-nil down by the half, the second half was turned around by, well, Emmanuel Adebayor. Doing what he has to keep doing to win back the fans, Adebayor scored two goals and set up another, giving us an eventual 3-2 win by the time the game was over.

A memorable comeback, to be sure, but not one without questions. There are still doubts about Kolo Toure, who can be held responsible for Ajax’s first goal, following his comeback from a bout of malaria. Cesc has so far played, well, that one game all pre-season, so it’s hard to say how match-fit he was, or is going to be when Twente rolls around. (Or West Brom, for that matter.) But, a win is a win.

Against Sevilla, a much-changed (as in, entirely changed) side held the Spaniards to a 1-1 draw. Ahead in the fourth minute from a great Carlos Vela goal, the young Mexican holding off the entire Sevilla defense before finishing cooly. Like most Arsenal fans, I’m excited to actually see him play- we could be in for a treat, and another example of Wenger’s skill at player-spotting. After that, though, it was mostly the Lukasz Fabianski show, the Polish goalkeeper with a string of brave saves keeping the Spaniards at bay. He was finally beaten, but only once, and Arsenal held on for the draw, which was enough to keep that pre-season trophy.

Which leaves us now, two days before the next Dutch opponent. Team news is interesting- Abou Diaby is, yet again, injured, which means that it’s likely to be a midfield of Denilson and Cesc. And Cesc may not be at his best.

Everyone knows that Arsenal needs new midfielders, but the boss is being tight-lipped about it. However, I doubt that Wenger doesn’t have something planned- he says not now, which would make sense. If we have to rely on Denilson, there’s no use in unsettling him two days before he has to play a potentially make-or-break game of his young career. And his actual quotes strike me more as typical Wenger knowing evasiveness- “I have money to spend. My target is always to spend the right money on the right player, therefore the timing on your buy is also important. I do not know yet if it will be the Swiss or somebody else.”.

The Swiss is Gokhan Inler, currently of Serie A club Udinese. His agent has claimed that there have been talks. He’s been at Udinese for a season, the Italians springing after a good time spent at FC Zurich in his native country. And he’s done well for them- voted second-best foreign player in the Serie A by Gazzetta dello Sport and having played the second-most amount of time in anyone on Udinese, behind only the goalkeeper. At 24, he’s young, but hardly a child. Also, he’s a defensive midfielder, which we need, and seems to be held in very high esteem from people who’ve actually followed Serie A (unlike me).

There’s also, perhaps, Xabi Alonso of Liverpool, a talented player with Champions League experience, creating a Spanish central midfield, which is hardly a bad thing. Or maybe it’s Miguel Veloso of Sporting Lisbon that we’re after. Hey, maybe it’s our turn to raid Barcelona and pick up Kolo’s little brother Yaya, who I’m still wondering why we never signed when we could have. There’s even continuing talk of nicking Gareth Barry from Liverpool, which would really just be hilarious at this point.

Whatever the case, it seems like we won’t be hearing of it until after Twente.

Sniff.

Anyway, I’m sure you can find a nice match review somewhere else, since I’d just be plagiarizing off of them anyway until I see the game myself, which may not be for a bit because I have to watch Project Runway tonight. In brief: Arsenal went 1 down after the half, thanks to Yıldıray Baştürk, but then Carlos Vela, Nicklas Bendtner, and youngster Jack Wilshire- quickly becoming the star of pre-season- all scored for a final score of 1-3. Samir Nasri also made his first appearance, William Gallas was still captain, and Gaël Clichy was awesome. They wore the new away shirt, which I’m considering getting with Clichy 22 on the back.

Again, you can’t take too much from pre-season games, but Stuttgart are a much harder proposition than the Burgenland XI. And up against stronger, international-quality opposition, the young stars still put goals in. While it’s still early, it seems that Vela is the real deal, this could possibly be Bendtner’s year, and in Wilshire we might have what Arsenal fans have been claiming will be coming from the Academy- English talent that can play the Arsenal way. (But let’s not overhype the boy- he’s not even 17.)

Here’s some highlights- including a bit of Jens getting spooked by some pyrotechnics. I <3 you, Jens, good luck back home.

But Jens isn’t the only ex-Arsenal I’m thinking about today. Former Arsenal trainee David Bentley made his move to rivals Spurs today, which normally wouldn’t get a mention here, except that we’ll apparently be getting quite a windfall from it. The Sun should be taken with a grain of salt as always, but apparently, when we let him go to Blackburn in the first place, Arsene insisted on a huge sell-on clause- shrewdly noting that any English player who can kick a ball to his teammate will sell for massive amounts of money. The Sun is reporting that we’re getting £7 million for him, which is probably on the high end, but still. I’m going to say something I got used to saying over at the Hertha blog- thanks for the random money, Spurs!

It isn’t all exes. As rumored, we’ve signed midfielder Amaury Bischoff. He’s twenty-one years old, born in France but has decided to play for Portugal, and was most recently with Bundesliga side Werder Bremen. I follow the Bundesliga and like Bremen, but I have no idea who he is or what he’s like. But I trust Wenger- he’s the one with scouts, not me.

With these very early Arsenal friendlies, too, it’s a weird collection of players- youth-teamers about to make the step up to the Carling Cup squad, new players who’ve never worked with the rest of the team before, old players still out of sorts from summer vacation. It was that sort of team that took the field against Szombathelyi Haladas (according to the Arsenal website, the champions of the Hungarian second division), and the result was a 1-1 draw.

I was at work, so unfortunately, I was unable to watch and see what actually took place. According to trusted sources, new signing Francis Coquelin, who came in in the second half, impressed (did you know we signed someone named Frances Coquelin? Well, we did), as did the combination of Nicklas Bedtner and Theo Walcott. That was also the combination that led to the goal- check out Bentdner’s fantastic control:

Having not seen the game (hopefully, I will, in the name of blogging and such), I can’t really say much more about it.

In among all the transfer rumors of the day came a worrying report from the Sun. I’ve yet to see it confirmed anywhere else, and we all know how reliable the Sun is, but they’re saying that Kolo Toure has contracted malaria on a trip home. It’s worrying, as malaria is often fatal, but it can be treated and Kolo is, I’m sure, getting excellent medical care. If this is true, get well soon and well.

Speaking of get well soon, when I got home today Fox Soccer Channel was showing a re-run of the Everton game from December- aka the game that, thanks to Eduardo, we won 4-1 despite not particularly deserving to win at all. It reminded me of how much I miss the forward. According to recent reports, there’s been a bit of a setback in his recovery, meaning that he’ll be back in September. Frankly, considering I didn’t think I’d be seeing him again until the new year, if ever, September seems remarkable. I hope he’s not rushing himself back too soon, but that he’s pushing so hard after such a serious injury shows a lot of spirit.

Oh, and PSG, in their quest to sign every aging French player in Europe (they’ve already got Giuly, Makelele, and perhaps Thuram if health issues permit (although as a big fan of Thuram, I hope that he makes the right decision if they don’t)), are apparently interested in William Gallas. But when even Sky Sports thinks it’s unlikely, it’s really a bit unlikely, isn’t it?

Manuel Almunia (GK)
Nacer Barazite
Nicklas Bendtner
Gael Clichy
Denilson
James Dunne
Rui Fonte
Gavin Hoyte
Justin Hoyte
Henri Lansbury
Vito Mannone (GK)
Havard Nordtveit
Abu Ogogo
Aaron Ramsey
Mark Randall
Paul Rodgers
Bacary Sagna
Jay Simpson
Rene Steer
Wojciech Szczesny(GK)
Armand Traore
Carlos Vela
Theo Walcott
Jack Wilshere

Some familiar names, some ones that I’ve never heard of. I actually forgot that Denilson was on the team.

No transfer news to report. Best of luck to Gilberto, the ultimate nice guy and professional.