A-Project Column
The Arsenal
Pre-season Review Part 1
As the new Barclays Premier League season starts less than 48 hours later, Premier League clubs are actively preparing for the season to avoid from a poor start. Pre-season is often seen as the most crucial part of a team's preparation and an important analyser of a team's potential performance in a season.
However, there has been a growing trend that English clubs are using pre-season not only as a team preparation period, but also as a money-making opportunity and hence, there are pre-season friendly matches in parts of the world where football is considered to be "commercially" very attractive.
For the Arsenal fans, the main question now is that how well have Arsene Wenger prepared the team during pre-season? Have he done enough to toughen up and insert additional edge to the team he has built? The Arsenal Press will take a look back at the Arsenal's pre-season for season 2010/11 in the next 24 hours.
Arsenal's Pre-season "Master Plan"
During the Wenger era, the Arsenal always have a fixed pattern of pre-season games. The traditional pre-season opener is usually played against Barnet as it is a well-known fact that the Arsenal Reserve team uses Barnet's homeground at the Underhill for their Reserve matches.
Next, Wenger will pick a team of roughly 25 to 30 players with a mixture of the Arsenal first team and some of the Arsenal Reserve players who have impressed him during the early stages of pre-season. The team Wenger picks will then head to the annual pre-season camp in Austria where all the players involved will be drills and tough training sessions, normally one in the morning and the other one in the afternoon. Within the approximately 9-to-10-day session, two or three matches against Austrian and/or other teams will be played to assess the progress of the player's pre-season preparation.
After the pre-season camp in Austria is officially completed, the Emirates Cup will be the first challenge for the Arsenal players. As the tournament usually involves big clubs, it is often seen as an early indication of how the team will shape up in the new season. In the two day event, Wenger can also take a serious look at how deep his squad depth is as he decides on whether there is sufficient quantity and quality in his squad before the new season.
Pre-season at the Arsenal usually ends with one or two odd games being played roughly one week before the new season officially begins.
Next, Wenger will pick a team of roughly 25 to 30 players with a mixture of the Arsenal first team and some of the Arsenal Reserve players who have impressed him during the early stages of pre-season. The team Wenger picks will then head to the annual pre-season camp in Austria where all the players involved will be drills and tough training sessions, normally one in the morning and the other one in the afternoon. Within the approximately 9-to-10-day session, two or three matches against Austrian and/or other teams will be played to assess the progress of the player's pre-season preparation.
After the pre-season camp in Austria is officially completed, the Emirates Cup will be the first challenge for the Arsenal players. As the tournament usually involves big clubs, it is often seen as an early indication of how the team will shape up in the new season. In the two day event, Wenger can also take a serious look at how deep his squad depth is as he decides on whether there is sufficient quantity and quality in his squad before the new season.
Pre-season at the Arsenal usually ends with one or two odd games being played roughly one week before the new season officially begins.
Arsenal's Pre-season in 2011
Just like the "Master Plan" above, the Arsenal started their pre-season with the game against Barnet at the Underhill. Then, the chosen Arsenal players travelled to Austria in their pre-season game. In between the training camp, the Arsenal played SK Sturm Graz and SC Neusiedl 1919. After completing the training camp in Austria, the Arsenal hosted the Emirates Cup by facing AC Milan on the first day, followed Celtic on the final day of the tournament. The last pre-season game saw Arsenal taking on Legia Warsaw in Poland as the Polish club's opening match at their new stadium.
The Arsenal Press have compiled my own short assessment of each game with their respective results shown as well.
Barnet 0-4 Arsenal
Wenger started a team with a heavy mixture of youth and first team players, featuring appearances by the two new Arsenal signings, Koscielny (from Lorient) and Chamakh (from Bordeaux). Simpson was surprisingly included as he spearheaded the team as the main centre forward. The attacking play was eye-pleasing at times as Arsenal carved out a handful of chances in the first half, thanks to Frimpong's hardworking mentality as he closed down opponents quickly and intelligently. Nordtveit was a notable mention as he performed quite well in an unfamiliar position of right back. The new signings though managed to show glimpses of their strengths as Arsenal ended their first pre-season game with a good victory.
SK Sturm Graz 0-3 Arsenal
The departure of Eduardo da Silva (to Shakhtar Donetsk) early that day did not affect the team's pre-season progress in Austria. Still without our key players who have featured in the World Cup, it presented another chance for some of the chosen Arsenal Reserve team players to shine and impress the manager.
Nasri was the main start of the game as he played in the Fabregas role with ease while dictating play from the middle of the park. The overall team performance expectedly dropped a little as the tough pre-season training has begun to creep in a little. Nevertheless, it was a great work out for the players as they achieved a pretty good result.
SC Neusiedl 1919 0-4 Arsenal (A)
The same group of players, with the inclusion of a few players who have featured in the World Cup, was once again picked to play. SC Neusiedl played a very tight game as the Arsenal found it difficult to break their opponent down for 28 minutes until Walcott opened the scoring.
From time to time, the Arsenal defence was shaky due to insufficient defensive aid from the midfield three. Heavy legs and lethargy had hit the team as their performance dropped even further in the second half. One notable fact is that Chamakh opened his Arsenal goal account by scoring a penalty.
From time to time, the Arsenal defence was shaky due to insufficient defensive aid from the midfield three. Heavy legs and lethargy had hit the team as their performance dropped even further in the second half. One notable fact is that Chamakh opened his Arsenal goal account by scoring a penalty.
Emirates Cup 2010 - Arsenal 1-1 AC Milan (H)
Koscielny started the game and impressed the home crowd with a number of notable interceptions, marking and well-timed tackles while Chamakh scored his first goal at the Emirates Stadium, with the help of Arshavin's brilliance, since joining the Arsenal. Former Arsenal midfielder Flamini though was overly eager to impress with him diving into tackles most of the time.
The much maligned Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski was given another chance to redeem himself in front of the home supporters but failed to do so when he allowed Pato to score a glancing header in the last 15 minutes of the game. In truth, the Arsenal did not manage to sustain their good performance as the team crumbled defensively in the last 20 minutes, allowing AC Milan to attack at ease during that period. Interestingly though, the Arsenal had two clear chances to regain their lead but both chances were squandered by Randall.
Emirates Cup 2010 - Arsenal 3-2 Celtic (H)
The Battle of Britain saw some changes in the starting line-up for the Arsenal and Celtic due to their respective Day 1 involvement in the Emirates Cup. Some of the players who have featured in Day 1, started the game with the view of being substituted in the 2nd half. Our Mexican, Vela opened the scoring in just 3 minutes being played, potentially paving the way to a rout against Celtic. Heavy legs again hit some of the Arsenal players as misplaced passes were everywhere, but the Arsenal still managed to control the game in large periods. Sagna stunned the crowd with a left-footed piledriver into the bottom corner of the net.
In the 2nd half, Nasri replaced Rosicky and was reinstated as the Arsenal's current main playmaker in the 2nd half (in the absence of captain Fabregas) as Arsenal increased their tempo in attack. Arsenal managed to add another goal to their lead in the 51st minute but was unable to increase it even further after that. As the last 20 minute period came, a flurry of substitutions has once again disrupted Arsenal's flow and defending as a unit, allowing two goals to be conceded and a number of potential killer blows to be inflicted on the Arsenal but fortuntely, Arsenal had Almunia to thank for with his heroic performance in goal.
At the end of the day, the Arsenal lifted the Emirates Cup trophy but the main talking point revolved around the Arsenal defence which has yet to be fully addressed by Wenger.
In the 2nd half, Nasri replaced Rosicky and was reinstated as the Arsenal's current main playmaker in the 2nd half (in the absence of captain Fabregas) as Arsenal increased their tempo in attack. Arsenal managed to add another goal to their lead in the 51st minute but was unable to increase it even further after that. As the last 20 minute period came, a flurry of substitutions has once again disrupted Arsenal's flow and defending as a unit, allowing two goals to be conceded and a number of potential killer blows to be inflicted on the Arsenal but fortuntely, Arsenal had Almunia to thank for with his heroic performance in goal.
At the end of the day, the Arsenal lifted the Emirates Cup trophy but the main talking point revolved around the Arsenal defence which has yet to be fully addressed by Wenger.
Legia Warsaw 5-6 Arsenal (A)
One week after the Emirates Cup, the Arsenal headed to Warsaw with the invitation of Legia Warsaw to play in their opening match in their new stadium. Wenger picked his usual 4-3-3 formation against their opponents, but Legia Warsaw employed tactics which the Arsenal wouldn't cope well with all the time. The Polish club players closed down the Arsenal players heavily and quickly, destroying the Arsenal play and hence, the visitors were pegged back most of the time. Added to the narrow formation used by the Arsenal, it was inevitable that Fabianski, the starting goalkeeper, had to endure a torrid time by conceding 3 goals with only one goal (scored by Chamakh) in the first half alone.
At this point, it was the old Arsenal all over again but Wenger made some substitutions and several changes to the system during half time as he introduced Eboue and Gibbs on the right and left wings respectively to change from a 4-3-3 to a formation more similar to 4-4-1-1 with width. It certainly proved to have worked in the Arsenal's favour as Eboue managed to equalise for the team with two goals. Gibbs then added an interesting well-taken goal seconds after Eboue's second. During the last 10 minutes, the Arsenal managed to extend their lead with Emannuel-Thomas' well-taken goal and Nasri's freekick. However, the Gunners' defensive frailties were still evident as the Arsenal were sliced open on a number of occasions and conceded another goal during the dying minutes of the game.
What's next?
In the next instalment of the A-Project: The Arsenal Pre-season Review on The Arsenal Press, we will focus on the Arsenal's summer signings to date and the strength and weaknesses of the team ahead of the big clash against Liverpool this weekend. Till then, feel free to follow us at
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ReplyDeleteyou have the same scores for the milan game as the celtic game...might wanna fix that
ReplyDelete@Aniruddh: Thank you very much. It's still very new for me actually, but I believe with the readers' support, I guess The Arsenal Press will grow.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: Thank you for informing me. I've changed it. I hope the article is ok for you. :)