Going Dutch

By: Abby | August 11th, 2008

Oh, how many good puns involving the Dutch there were to use for this.

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.