Arsene Wenger says Arsenal’s trip to New York has been a great experience for his squad despite the fact the Gunners went down 1-0 to New York Red Bulls in the only game of their Stateside jaunt.
The club’s first trip to the USA in 25 years has been greeted fervently by expectant USA Gooners with the players, manager and assorted officials taking part in a raft of media and promotional activities across the Big Apple.
While the young squad couldn’t cap a memorable trip with a win – Bradley Wright-Phillips’ scrappy goal was enough to seal victory for a Thierry Henry led Red Bulls – the boss admitted he’s been impressed by the appetite for football…sorry soccer.
“For us it was a great experience, everybody enjoyed it and nobody wants to go home,” said post-game.
“It was a short trip but a very exciting one because New York is a special city. But what is even more special for us is how popular football is now.
“The values we stand for are shared here and everybody was very friendly and everybody respects what we try to do.
“One of the values we have to stand up for as well is when your opponent is better than us, we have to say ‘well done’ and today that was the case.”
With much of the build-up focused on Thierry Henry, the boss couldn’t escape without touching on the influence of his great protégé.
“I think it was a great afternoon for him. He played well and his team played well as well. You could see that everybody was focused and ready for a fight.
“If they can maintain that kind of commitment and solidarity they have shown today and if they keep Thierry Henry in this form, they have a good chance to come back into a strong position in the league.
“Thierry can be dangerous from everywhere and understands very quickly what he can take advantage from.
“He was sharp today in the one against one and you could see why he was a great player because when he played in midfield his passing was excellent. He has vision as well and you could see that he can play everywhere.”
Asked if he was worried about his side’s inability to score, the boss stressed that with only one recognised striker – Chuba Akpom – in his squad, it was always going to be a tall order.
“We had no Giroud, no Walcott, no Sanchez and no Podolski. Akpom did well but he’s a young boy and he has to learn a lot but he has potential.
“As long as you don’t score it’s not good but you can play with three No 9s and you don’t score sometimes. We were dominated physically in the first half, we came back into it in the last 10 minutes their keepers made a few saves and our combinations were better. We lacked a bit of pace without any centre forward.”
After the excitement of New York comes the hard work of an Alpine training camp during which the younger squad members should be joined by a few of the returning World Cup stars.
After that the countdown starts to the Emirates Cup and before you know it we’ll be playing City in the Community Shield and then Palace in our opener. This summer has gone very quiackly…
Spurs beat Chicago. Arsenal lost to New York.
I foresee a looooooooooooooong season ahead.
Obvious Troll is… obvious?
I actually see the logic here, so because we lost in a pre-season we’ll spank spurs 8-0, who will end up relegated and we have a looooooong wait to see them relegated – a whole year
almost too quiackly…..
That was a quiackly response!!
It certainly has gone very quickly. That’s what a few signings will do for you. Last summer was torture.
Really looking forward to Sanchez meeting his new team mates and settling in aswell.
A great world cup helped too.
Who will be signed next?
Please come back next year with a more complete squad and play more than 1 game in different cities. I guarantee you will see a more exponential rise in the number of US gooners especially after we win the league and become the Champions of Europe.
Then the boys can stay as long as they want here for the summer.
Douglas Costa being mentioned a lot? Know very little about him but would love a proper central striker to compete with Giroud
I thought Alexis Sanchez’s lack of commitment last night was disgusting. He coasted through the game, completely anonymous!
Wenger out
Coasted? Dude, he was “invisible” 😉
Interesting that When asked about only 1 striker being in the squad, Wenger referred to us not having Giroud, Walcott, Podolski or Sanchez. Does this mean he could be more open to using those players as the front man rather than just Giroud? Maybe as part of a front two? 🙂
I think Wenger just meant that players with goalscoring threats were leasing, regardless what position they play in. And I think playing 4-4-2 will create more problems with than it will solve. Where do u play Özil? Aside from Ox, who is a good wide midfielder in the squad, someone who is adapt both offensively and defensively on the flanks? Also, reducing the amount of central midfielders in the first XI isn’t playing according to the squad strength, is it?
Sadly he didn’t name Sanogo
Since he was naming the clubs best finishers I feel it was pretty obvious to leave out Sanogo, with him yet to score one goal for us and that.
In slightly unrelated news, the second run-out for our swanky new away kit wasn’t as successful as the first but it sure did look good huh? Can’t wait to see the home kit in action!!
AW “forgot” to mention the lack of Campbell and centre backs as well… Strange…
You have to wonder how much football value there was to this trip. Only one match and no complete squad to play with, doesn’t seem well planned. Sadly, because it seemed good otherwise.
Well obviously the world cup robbed NY of the full effects of arsenal. I think in world cup/euro years le boss should put his foot down and stop the first team from having big travel commitments. Just the ole high altitude alpine training camp. Then on non international summers by all means a couple weeks to promote the club playing a few exhibition games with more first teamers as a way to ease back into the preparations for the summers.
So yeah feel like the US gooners got a bit short changed. But what exceptional support!
Yeah, very quick summer break but very painful pre-season prep, still in convinced.
Don’t want to sound like Fatgooner here, but from a football perspective, this has been a terrible pre-season. For players that took part in the world cup, this is mitigated some what, but for players that needed a long hard preparation (looking at Diaby, Ramsey etc.) and the new signings, they have the Emirates Cup and that’s it. Maybe a few reserve matches, but nothing like the intensity they’d need to face a EPL season and get some “combination play” sorted.
Hmmm… no mention of Sanogo.
“Sanogo didn’t come because he had a little thigh problem and we didn’t want to take a gamble.”
I want to like Campbell I just get the sense that if he plays this year and plays well he will discard us (does he not only have a year left on his deal?) and chase a bigger deal elsewhere. Not to a bigger club per se but he strikes me as someone who has a sense of entitlement
Aye, I think it might just be the circumstances around his signing but he does have a confidence that seems to verge oin the Bentdner, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt but I wouldn’t go buying Campbell shirts any time soon…
Just checked, what I meant was after this year. So he’d “prove himself” then not renew if we liked what we saw.
Hope I’m wrong anyways
anybode knows where the training camp is going to be? somewhere in austria i guess, but are there more details available?
Can we do the Campbell~Balotelli swap asap.. If such an offer exist? We need to beat City, we also must win the League!
My first game and it was amazing. I envy all you guys in London….there was a moment where we almost had the Norwich city Wilshere type goal…that moment was worth me driving 600 miles and drenching in the rain before the match and going back 600 miles more
Pavan, where did you drive from?
Auburn Hills, Michigan! Detroit Suburbs! Totally Worth It!
Sounds so much more interesting than driving to the Emirates from Whetstone
Steve Bruce said he spoke to the club about a month ago, and we didn’t rule out the possibility of Jenkinson being available for a loan. Interesting. A season of regular footbal at a PL club like Hull could do him wonders. Then again, having two completely new RBs in Debuchy and Chambers might notbe such a good idea. Let’s see what the boss does.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11670/9395382/transfer-news-west-ham-swansea-sunderland-and-hull-eye-arsenal-defender-carl-jenkinson
Jenko played well on Saturday and was actually on his own a bit with Zelalem drifting inside and out of the match (sorry, but he was noticibly poor).
I have trouble believing we’d let him go, considering chambers can supposedly play on the left as well and Monreal wanting more consistent playing time.
I really do not understand
A team that lost 6-0 to Chelsea, 5-1 to liverpool,6-3 to man city and 3-0 to everton, We have a good back 4 and a decent GK. so whats the problem with our defense? Yes we all know, A defensive midfield(er)
Sanchez transfer is cool but Y the heavens do we need a second right back, Callum for 16 million since we have Jenkinson. A DM and a striker is more important right now
The 6-3 was a crazy game so leaving that aside, what is the common factor in the other hammerings? Lack of Walcott/any kind of pace upfront. We could have had Makélélé at his peak and still been thumped. Sanchez is the best signing we could have made for those sort of games. With him and/or Walcott in the side, we can dictate where on the pitch the midfield battle will be fought, with just Giroud they can play a high line against us and swamp our midfield, forcing us to play a high line against their runners.
@sido
Arsenal are going to be in Bad Waltersdorf in Styria from July 28-31
If you’re in the area, the training times will be displayed here tomorrow:
http://www.badwaltersdorf.com/de/aktivitaeten/freizeit-sport/fussball/
(maybe use Google translate if you don’t know German)
I am sure Boss’ long term plan is to play chambers centrally. But i am not sure how long we can drag this discussion. I mean let him sign first
A waste of time & energy this trip,lots of exposure (& £££) for Puma.
End of story.
Nice to see Thierry mugging our ‘defence’ off a few times though,happy memories…
If chambers is going to play C.B then let him be reserve C.B and keep jenks 4 reserve R.B. Reserve meaning 1st choice in domestic cups.
Pavan, I live in A2–should’ve hitched a ride with you!
Oh! I did my post-graduation there! I didn’t really plan the trip that well, was last minute! I could sure use some company next year!
I think Wenger has a Sanogo in his plan and rightly so. If you look at how he groomed Henry from Monaco and his debut at arsenal there is a similarity with Sanogo. Yes at the moment he is a 3 legged donkey. No I’mnot saying he will be as good as Henry but there is definitely a potential there. Mind you, the boy has already scored two goals wrongly disallowed.
Still very thin with Cback. Not sure I like the idea of relying on Calum Chambers to rotate through Meterscielny. he is just 19 and barely features for Southampton. He will need time to adapt to the middle plus we could do with more height on account of our short midfield, when dealing with set pieces. Can’t see the logic of sending jenkinson out for Chambers. As mentioned, Chambers does not feature regularly either and Jenkinson has more exposure to our backs at this point. With Debuchy to adapt, makes no sense to add another player foreign to our back… Read more »
@santori I think we dispelled the rumour that Chambers had barely featured for Southampton as bullshit – he played something like 20 games, mostly for 90 mins. However you do have a point in that I’m pretty sure he played all those games at full-back, so asking him to play centre-back for a side that should be challenging for the title would probably be a bad idea. For me the ideal solution is that we bring in a CDM who can also play as centre-back. Not just because it means we get an adaptable player, but also because if you… Read more »
Here’s a novel idea. How about we spend the money that we have plenty of in the bank on a proper defensive midfielder and if verm goes we buy another centre back and keep the Corp as cover for debauchy and Chambers as cover for all in defence.
Why make do when we have the funds to buy what we need.
Agree with Santori, another forward would be great as cover or another option to giroud