NY win the Emirates Cup, Arsenal throw it away.

The second and last day of the Emirates Cup commenced today with PSG beating Boca Juniors 3-0. That result meant that the Arsenal-New York Red Bulls match would produce this year’s Emirates Cup winner, with a win giving Arsenal the trophy and anything else handing the Cup to New York.

Arsenal lined up with a more first team-y formation than yesterday, with Wojo between the sticks, TV5 and Koscielny in the center, Sagna and Gibbs on the flanks, Wilshere, Song and Ramsey in midfield, Rosicky in a pseudo-Cesc role, and Gervinho and van Persie up front. New York’s defense was quite poor, and therefore it was expected that we would dominate and create several goal-scoring chances. However, with barely 5 minutes gone, Jack Wilshere had to come off with an apparent ankle injury, and was replaced by Benik Afobe. Seeing as how we already have Henderson, Diaby, Theo, and Cesc *chuckles* injured, us fans feared the worst that our young gem could have suffered a potentially serious injury. Luckily, Wenger later said it’s just a slight ankle knock. Let’s hope so, and us at the Arsenal Offside will keep you updated with more news on the matter.

Ok, where were we? Oh yeah, the game. We, of course, dominated the proceedings in an otherwise slow and causal game, going on a run here or there, Ramsey taking a shot here or there, Gervinho having a shout for a penalty turned down, the usual stuff. We finally took the lead from none other than Robin van Persie, near the 42nd minute. Rosicky, who had been excellent all game long, sent a crossed free kick that found Van Persie, all by himself, to head past an onrushing Frank Rost. 1-0, We were playing well, New York looked like no threat, and it looked like the Emirates Cup would, once again, stay in London.

Come half-time, Gervinho almost made it 2-0 from another great Rosicky pass, but his shot was straight at Frank Rost. After that, the game settled into a lull, with Arsenal taking their giant share of possession and not doing much with it, except for a foraging Afobe run that ended in Van Persie almost getting a shot on goal, if it weren’t for Rafa Marquez sliding at the last minute. Shortly thereafter, cometh the usual substitutions, including Vela, Chamakh, Arshavin for Afobe (who had a very promising game), and young Kyle Bartley for Koscielny. On New York’s side, US wunderkid Juan Agudelo came on, as well as Wayne Rooney’s younger brother, John Rooney.

After several more minutes of nothing, the game was reaching into the final minutes, where, around the 84th minute, a rare New York attack led to a corner in their favor. Following the corner, the ball was passed to Henry who showed us all he still has it by passing a delightful through ball into the Arsenal box that Roy Miller ran, unopposed to, lashing a cross that was met by a panicked Bartley, who tapped it into his own net. 1-1, a result that would give unheralded New York the win.

After that, it was the usual “Arsenal frantically try to find a winner to match they should have won long before” routine. As expected, nothing else happened (although John Rooney didn’t exactly help his fledging reputation with rival teams by blocking a potential Bartley shot), and the game ended, to hand the Emirates Cup to the New York Red Bulls and send Arsenal back to a chorus of boos, all to a glorified friendly.

Now, there were some positives to take from this game. Rosicky was very good, as was Van Persie. Afobe was promising, and could probably push for a 4th/5th choice backup striker for this coming season, and at the very least a benchwarmer during our Carling Cup games. Gibbs was solid. Ramsey was dees as well, and I like his propensity to take long shots once in a while. But still, this, as well as yesterday’s match, was a match we were supposed and expected to win, and we failed on that count. While the doom and gloom shared by the booing fans at the Emirates today and on the Internet may be a little exaggerated, the point still remains that collectively, this team hasn’t improved much at all on most aspects of the game (though, we’ve yet to concede from a set piece!). The transfer is still open though, and hopefully the Mata and Jagielka deals go through to add some much needed depth and quality to our squad, but it’s clear there is still a mansion for improvement. Hopefully we get it sorted out before the 13th.

Anyways, congrats to New York and to Henry. Homey will post a really interesting (and really long) blog either later tonight or tomorrow, so watch out for that. Have a good Sunday!

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Category: Friendly, Match Review, Pre-Season