Tag Archives: Arsenal

3 Arsenal youngsters impress

Leave a reply

It has been a solid pre-season for Arsenal so far.

Unbeaten after draws against Atletico Madrid and Chelsea, with a nice 5-1 victory over PSG the meat in the sandwich – I am not counting penalties in a glorified pre-season game as defining the winners and loses.

Arsenal players are slowly adapting to Unai Emery’s way of playing. Things do not change over night so we can not expect us to press high and man mark without making mistakes.

Remember it took 12 months and £300m+ for Pep Guardiola to build a title winning team; and Jurgen Klopp is still getting the benefit of the doubt with fans and the press saying he is still growing Liverpool in is vision.

But Arsenal are different, we seem to have a higher level of scrutiny, and even during the game against Chelsea fans were moaning. Rome was not built in a day.

I try not to read too much into pre-season. I remember a few years back. Tottenham won every single game. They ended up finishing 5th.

There are 3 things, or 3 people really, that we can get a little excited about from pre-season. Three teenagers who have looked very comfortable in the Arsenal first team.

Mattéo Guendouzi

Frenchman Mattéo Guendouzi was a £7million signing this summer.

Just 19-years old, he has been the man of pre-season, looking very comfortable in the middle of the park. He is the type of player that “Diamond Eye” Sven Mislintat was bought in to find.

Whilst I do not expect him to be parachuted into the first team, his composure and ability will put pressure on Granit Xhaka if the Swiss man struggles.

Thos in the know from France rate him highly and you have to keep reminding yourself when he plays that he is still just 19.

Emile Smith Rowe

When it was announced that Arsenal were selling Jeff Reine-Adelaide, a lot of fans kicked up a bit of fuss, feeling that the young Frenchman was never really given a chance in an Arsenal shirt.

Whilst he never did quite break through, a huge reason for his departure was the form of Emile Smith Rowe.

The Englishman is 2 and a half years younger than his former team mate and has shown in pre-season why the club is backing him over the senior man.

Smith Rowe scored an excellent goal against Atletico Madrid, showing why some fans who know their stuff have labelled him as the best home grown talent since Jack Wilshere.

Not only did Smith Rowe move ahead of Reine-Adelaide, but he also moved ahead of fellow teenager Joe Willock.

Willock is perhaps the man in pre-season to have missed out on a chance.

Whilst Smith Rowe will now move forward to training regularly with the first team, getting League Cup and Europa League starts, and getting opportunities on the bench, Willock will return to the U23 team.

That is not to write Willock off, he turns just 19 in a week or so, but he has seen both Guendouzi and Smith Rowe move ahead of him in midfield.

Smith Rowe can be very please with his last months work.

Reiss Nelson

With all the hype surrounding Smith Rowe and Guendouzi, Reiss Nelson risked joining Willock as a forgotten man. But he reminded us in the closing moments against Chelsea he showed his ability.

Nelson feels like he has been around for a while now, but he is still just 18. With Arsenal lacking natural width and pace this season, Nelson could be a game changer off the bench.

He showed against Chelsea how important it is to have someone who can get round a full back, hit the by-line and put in a quality ball.

If Arsenal end up not signing Ousmane Dembele or Leon Bailey, it will be up to Nelson to be the man who provides the width and pace.

On his pre-season showing, he might not yet be as good as the aforementioned players, but he is ready to step up.

Like last season, the Europa League could be the place to go to watch some of our talented younger players.

Guendouzi, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Ainsley Maitlan-Niles and Konstantinos Mavropanos will make up the spin of a talented young team.

Keenos

 

Ivan Gazidis gone…what now for Arsenal?

2 Replies

Talk on social media is that Ivan Gazidis has decided to take AC Milan up on their job offer in Italy.

So with Gazidis seemingly out the door at Arsenal, what does this mean for the club who recently got rid of their manager for 21 years.

Were it 12 months ago, I would be extremely worried as Gazidis leaving would have empowered Wenger further. But in the last year, the Frenchman has gone, replaced by Unai Emery, and the power shared out with the appointment of Raul Sanllehi.

My theory on the plan is a simple one.

Arsenal will not replace Ivan Gazidis as CEO. We will no longer have one man overseeing the entire operation of the club.

As Head of Football Relations, Sanllehi will have full reign to look after the footballing side of the club. From first team to youth, to transfers and contracts, he will head the team. With the likes of Emery, Sven Mislintat and Hugh Fussey reporting to him.

For the other side of the club – the business and commercial side which Gazidis over saw – we will bring in a big hitter. A Head of Commercial Revenue.

It will be there role to oversee the underperforming commercial department. To bring in new revenue to the club. To oversee the finances of the club.

With the families links to Sports in America, do not be surprised if this is a big NFL hitter.

Knitting it all together will be Josh Kroenke who has taken a much more “hands on” roll at Arsenal in recent months.

As vice-Chairman, he will oversee the monthly board meetings which will become a lot more than the whiskey and cigar club that they are now. It will be up to him to ensure that all sides of the club are working as one with a common goal. Making Arsenal successful.

He will still leave the day to day running of the club to Sanhelli and the new Head of Commercial Revenue, but they will both report to him and he will have the final day on any difficult decisions.

I think we will also see David O’Leary officially join the Arsenal board. The Arsenal legend has been seen in the directors box at nearly every game last season.

Just as Gazidis was showing us what he could do, he is gone.

Keenos

Unai Emery’s unbeaten start at Arsenal continues

Leave a reply

With a little over a week to go before the start of the 2018/19 Premier League season, Arsenal face a good test against Chelsea – the side they face 2nd game up in two weeks time.

Arsenal put out the stronger XI, with just Bern Leno, Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey missing. Chelsea were without the likes of Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, N’Golo Kante, Willian and Olivier Giroud.

Arsenal went 1-0 down to a 5th minute corner.

Unai Emery has changed defensive systems – from zonal to man marking. Both systems have their relative strengths and weaknesses, and yesterday we saw the weakness with man marking.

Emile Smith Rowe was a late replacement for Aaron Ramsey – who withdrew 5 minutes before kick off. Antonio Rudiger was “his man”.

Having been told he was playing just a couple minutes before kick off, 18-year old Smith Rowe would have simply been told to pick up Ramsey’s man – Rudiger. Chelsea exposed the miss match as the German’s greater experience, height and strength saw him easily lose the young defender before an excellent header into the bottom corner.

Having grown up at Arsenal – where the same system & tactics is used up and the youth teams – I would be surprised if Smith Rowe has ever had to man mark someone. Should Emery have shuffled who is picking up who when Ramsey hobbled off? Perhaps. But he literally had a couple of minutes between the injury and the players heading back out into the pitch to start the game.

You can not expect Unai Emery to change things defensively overnight, and the side will have to keep working on man marking.

The defence was a concern, as Chelsea continually exposed Arsenal’s high line with the excellent Callum Hudson-Odoi finding a lot of space behind Hector Bellerin. Hudson-Odoi set for a brilliant career on loan at Norwich, Hull City and Vitesse.

The performances of both Bellerin and Saed Kolasinac is a worry.

Yes, it was only pre-season, but both look poor defensively, with Chelsea getting a lot of joy in behind them. If Arsenal are going to play with Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan as the inside-widemen, Bellerin and Kolasinac will not get too much cover. Both need to improve and quickly.

It was the high line that Chelsea exploited time and again – something many teams have exploited in the last few years.

To play a high line you need a keep comfortable standing on the edge of the box, acting as a sweeper. Petr Cech is not comfortable there, preferring to stick to his line. That then creates too much for someone like Cesc Fabregas to play the ball in and Hudson-Odoi to run on to.

Arsenal went into half time 1-0 down. It should have been two had Alvaro Morata not had his penalty saved by Cech. It could have been 3 or with the clean cut chances Chelsea had.

Chelsea just looked sharper. Their passing neater, winning every 50/50, quicker to every second ball.

Arsenal did not look at full pace, they lack both physical and mental sharpness. Has Emery’s tough regime caught up on the players? I expect us to taper the sessions off as the season approaches.

Another factor is jet lag.

It has to be remember Arsenal have just spent a week in Singapore. They would have only landed back in the UK on Sunday afternoon, trained on Monday before flying out to Dublin on Tuesday. It would have been draining and looked like it took its toll mentally.

In the second half Arsenal did look sharper. They looked more settled at the back and created chances going forward, and we well deserved the last minute equaliser by Alexandre Lacazette. The Frenchman showing his natural goal scoring instincts being in the right place for a tap in.

Some excellent penalties saw Arsenal “win” the game.

Despite it being a fairly average pre-season showing, there were some solid performances. Most notably from Matteo Guendouzi who continued his fine form. It is incredible to think he is still just 19.

Despite being at fault for the corner, Emile Smith Rowe also had a good game. He didn’t look out of place, created some chances and was busy. The Europa League will be an exciting competition for him next year.

It is a concern that Aaron Ramsey went off injured again.

The Welshman has played over 30 league games just once in 5 years; and last year appeared in just 22 games. It is his injuries that is probably stopping the club giving him exactly what he wants.

As he looks to start the new season injured again, what will that mean for his future, his new contract?

Kolasinac leaving the ground on crutches is also a concern.

He had his injury problems at Schalke and they have continued at Arsenal. In Nacho Monreal, we have a top left back ready to step in, but at 32 years old and with 1 year left on his contract, this season will probably be the Spaniards last. A new left back will probably be on a scrap of paper in Sven Mislintat’s handbag.

Bellerin is also a concern, and you have to wonder how many chances he will be given before Emery takes him out for the experienced Stephan Lichtsteiner.

Overall the International Championship Cup has provided some tough tests for Arsenal as we faced Atlético Madrid, PSG and Chelsea.

Unbeaten so far, it is off to Stockholm next to face Lazio on Saturday. After which it will be straight back to England for a weeks training in British Summer Time before the first game of the season against Manchester City on Sunday.

In between Lazio and Manchester City we have the small matter of the transfer window closing.

I am off to Suffolk for a long weekend so will probably miss the game v Lazio, so see you on the other side.

Keenos