Arsenal Win Emirates Cup; Wilshere, Frimpong to Stay; Wenger Confirms “Not Close” to Signing Anyone

By: Martin | August 2nd, 2010

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. I was so shocked by Almunia somehow lifting a trophy without fumbling and dropping it that I was semi-catatonic and unable to write for the rest of the day. Several stories to mention:

– First game highlights:

– Second game highlights:

– We won the Emirates Cup again. Yay?

– My thoughts on the actual friendlies themselves:

Frimpong and Wilshere Continue to Look Good Frimpong was definitely much better on Saturday than Sunday, but you’ve got to cut him some slack, really, since he played almost the entirety of both games, and understandably started to look a bit tired late on Sunday. As I’ve said previously, the young man clearly has the mentality to be a very good holding midfielder. He goes after the ball with a ferocity and aggression that really can’t be taught, and he’s not afraid to get a little physical and chippy, which is something we’ve really been missing since Vieira left (although Song provides a bit of that as well). He also seems very comfortable receiving and distributing the ball from deep, and with a couple of exceptions, was pretty safe and steady passing the ball. I’m not so sure he’s not a better option in that role than Denilson right now, but he’s surely done enough to eclipse Craig Eastmond on the depth chart. If Frimpong has a good year, that could very well spell the end of Denilson’s Arsenal career. His name is also very fun to say. Frimpong. Frim-pong.

And Wilshere continues to impress as well. Had a couple of good shots yesterday, including an absolutely stunning volley off the crossbar. He’s definitely grown up in the past year, too. Part of that is just physically maturing another year, but I think the Bolton loan spell did him good. I also love that, although he’s a small player who will rely on his skill and technique to be successful, he’s not afraid of a tackle at all, either. He’s going to be a good one. I’m also glad he got that penalty called on him yesterday — hopefully that’ll be a good lesson about trying to be a little too clever in his own box.

– Chamakh is really going to be a fan favorite. Works hard, is unselfish, goes up for balls in the air, and already seems to have struck up a good chemistry with Arshavin, kind of a traditional big-little strike partnership. His finish on the goal on Saturday was deceptively difficult as well. Bendtner’s injury renders this a bit moot for a while, but at the time being, I think I’d put him in our strongest XI.

– Nasri continues to shine in preseason. I really do think this could be his breakout season. To the extent he’s been a disappointment in his Arsenal career so far (something I’m not sure I would disagree with, but we did splash out quite a bit of cash for him), I think it’s down to bad luck and Wenger mismanaging him as much as anything. In his first season, he played on the left-wing in a 4-4-2, where he played pretty well, until he was bizarrely moved to the holding midfield role at the end of the season. Then last season we went to the 4-3-3, and he was deployed at various times on both the right and left wing-forward position, before being pulled back into the middle of the pitch toward the end of the season. Then, of course, there was also the broken leg in preseason last year, which really kept him from fully getting back into match shape until December. Now he looks fit and ready to star — the question is whether he’s in our first-choice XI. The midfield will certainly include Song and Fabgregas when healthy. Will the other midfielder be Diaby or Nasri? Ultimately it probably doesn’t matter much, since it’s pretty unlikely, given recent history, that Diaby, Cesc, and Nasri will all be healthy for a sustained period of time. And if they are, we’ll need to rotate anyway. Anyway, hope I’m write — Samir is very likeable and fun to root for, I’d love it if he turned into a star.

– Theo is still Theo. His assist on the first goal yesterday was brilliant . . . but I’m pretty sure he was actually trying to shoot. His pace still gives teams problems, but he still usually just runs to the touchline and sprays the ball all over the place. But give him some credit, he did look more willing to cut in and take men on yesterday, which is at least encouraging.

– Koscielny is not bad. Not bad at all. Still probably lacks the strength to really deal with the physicality of the some of the Premiership strikers. But he’s acknowledged that he needs to get stronger, so hopefully that’s something that can be fixed. His intellect and technique is very, very good though — good positioning, and his timing in going in for tackles seems to be pretty flawless. I think he definitely starts the season as first-choice over Djourou, who didn’t really impress me much in those games.

– Rosicky is on the margins of this team. I’m not sure where he fits in. He’ll play, of course, because we always have so many injury problems that if he stays healthy he’ll get a chance. But honestly, among the attacking midfielders, where does he fit into the group of Fabregas/Diaby/Nasri/Ramsey/Wilshere/Denilson? If he’s not at the bottom, I think he hast to be pretty close. And if he’s a forward-wing, where does he fit into the group of Arshavin/van Persie/Bendtner/Walcott/Vela? I’m not sure he’s very high on that list, either. Unless he really gets things turned around and starts showing some of his pre-injury form (which seems unlikely, since he’s one of the oldest members of the squad at 29), I think he’s nothing more than a squad player who can come on as a sub and spell the regulars for domestic cups at this point.

– Clichy should watch his back. Kieran Gibbs is gaining on him. I thought Clichy looked pretty good, but Gibbs looks fit and motivated, and will push his way into the lineup a bit this season, I think. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Wenger go to a system at left-back similar to what he employed at right-back last season, where Eboue and Sagna seemed to alternate starts at times. I’ll go ahead and make a bold prediction — if Gibbs stays healthy this season, he’ll make 15-20 starts in all competitions. Traore is nowhere close to those two, and his only real future in top-flight football lies as a true left-winger, which Arsenal don’t use. His time at the club is pretty limited, I think.

– JET isn’t ready. He’s certainly got the strength already, and at times in the friendlies over the last few weeks, he’s done some things that make you go “ooooooh.” But he’s just not consistent enough and doesn’t have the technique or the decision-making to really do it enough to contribute to the first-team this year. I don’t think he’ll go out on season-long loan, but he’ll be a starter in the Carling Cup, and a substitute in the FA Cup, and then possibly look to go out on loan for the rest of the season come January. I’m not sure if he’ll formally get promoted to the first-team or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised either way.

– Sagna scored! Seriously that was pretty awesome. It was a pretty wicked shot, too. It’s so fun to watch guys that never score celebrate, and how cool was it that Eboue, the guy who battles Sagna for playing time, was the first guy who jumped off the bench to celebrate with Sagna? Nice moment.

– Arshavin continues to simultaneously delight/frustrate. I mentioned this in the comments section the other day, but Arshavin is pretty reliably good for 3-4 brilliant moments a game which create scoring chances. The rest of the game, he might as well not even be out there. He doesn’t track back, he doesn’t chase the opposition defenders when they have the ball, he moves very, very poorly without the ball unless he sees it will lead to an immediate scoring opportunity. All in all, he looks like he just couldn’t be bothered. It’s maddening. But then he does something like his inch-perfect through ball for Chamakh’s goal on Saturday. Is it worth it? Probably. Would it be a lot better if Arshavin put forth a little effort? Most definitely.

– The goalkeeping situation is still very much up in the air. Really. With Wenger not close to bringing in a new keeper, it looks like it will either be Almunia or Flaps donning the fugly zebra striped shirt for Arsenal on August 15. Which is terrifying. Wenger still says its wide open. Both guys actually played pretty well this weekend. My gut reaction is that Wenger is leaning towards Flaps, just because I get the sense Wenger has been trying to hand the # 1 shirt for Flaps for about a year. Buckle your seat belts. Also, at this point, Mannone has got to see that he doesn’t really have much of a future at the club. Despite impressing when called into first-team action last season, Wenger clearly views him as third-string behind Almunia and Flaps, and even though Vito’s just 22, he’s clearly behind Szczesny on the “goalkeeper of the future” list. Chances of Vito ever really being Arsenal’s # 1 on a sustained basis are effectively nil, and if I were him, I think I’d really be thinking about trying to go out on loan and try to establish myself somewhere that would give me that chance.

– Whither Nordveit? After being hugely impressive in the two Austrian friendlies, Nordveit (who was healthy as far as I know) stayed on the bench for both Emirates Cup matches, which was a bit confusing. I still think he has an inside track on a first-team place, but it’s a bit weird to me that he didn’t at least get a run out.

– As far as the results go… well, it was vintage Arsenal, and not necessarily in a good way. We were by far the better team in both matches, but conspired to throw away a win in the first game, and nearly threw away another one (but for a missed penalty, we could very well have choked away a 3-0 lead). At times we looked very, very good, but there really was some shockingly bad defender. Maybe part of it was down to fatigue yesterday, but to put this in perspective, Celtic are in the midst of a two-leg Champions League qualifier, so those were Celtic’s reserves out there. Absolutely no reason that match should have been as close as it was.

– In his press conference on Saturday, Wenger was pretty clear that he didn’t really have any interest in loaning out either Wilshere or Frimpong. I think they both stay, and expect Frimpong to make the first-team. If Song and Denilson are both healthy come the end of January, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Frimpong go out to a Championship side for the rest of the season. But I think and hope we’ve seen the last of Wilshere in any shirt other than Arsenal’s for quite some time. He will be like Jesus, but with a football.

– He also said he’s not close to signing anyone at the moment. When pressed more specifically, he said he’s still looking, but will not reveal any names, because that would allow the other club to jack the price up 50%. I’m not sure about that, but this is nothing new from Wenger, he’s never conducted transfer business through the window. He did say that Frimpong and Wilshere’s play has convinced him he didn’t need to buy a midfielder. I don’t for a second think he was ever thinking about buying a midfielder, but hopefully that will be a confidence boost to the two young men. We still need a defender and a goalkeeper. Badly.

– Wenger also came out and said that Cesc is the only person who can end this speculation, and that he expects Cesc to commit to the club when he shows up for team picture day on Thursday. He’s right. Cesc wants to leave, but he’s got to see that it’s not going to happen this summer, and it will be in everyone’s best interests for him to say all the right things this week and get ready to try to win something with Arsenal this season.

– Wenger has confirmed that Cesc and van Persie will not play in Saturday’s friendly against Legia Warsaw. No surprise there, since they will be returning to the team on Thursday, and Wenger has previously said that those two may not even be able to play against Liverpool in the season opener. The status of Denilson, Song, and Diaby is still up in the air for that one as well. But if there’s any question, obviously the prudent course of action is to err on the side of caution.

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