A hat trick by Chuba Akpom and a Jack Wilshere penalty helped Arsenal kick-off their pre-season campaign with a routine 4-0 victory against a Singapore Select XI.
In hot and humid conditions the Gunners mix-and-match starting lineup demonstrated a level of rustiness you’d expect after five weeks off but still dominated their toothless opponents from start to finish.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and teenager Alex Iwobi, both bright sparks in the first half, came close to breaking the deadlock before Akpom pounced in the box on the half hour mark to lash home a powerful low strike.
Unsurprisingly, fatigue took its toll on the pace of the game in the second half, however, Arsene Wenger will no doubt be pleased by the way his side kept pushing forward.
Jack Wilshere picked up where he left off at the end of the last campaign by converting a penalty after Matthew Debuchy tripped himself on 60 minutes before Akpom took the game by the scruff of the neck.
After substitute Jon Toral was felled by a rash challenge by Singapore keeper Izwan Mahbud on 76 minutes the England youth international calmly slotted home his spot kick. He then completed his hat trick three minutes later with a header from close range after good work by Hector Bellerin.
A host of subsitutions meant game time for 17-year-olds Dan Crowley and Chris Willock, while Gedion Zelalem also had a run out.
The victory sees Arsenal progress to Saturday’s final of the Asia Trophy where they’ll play Everton. The Toffees beat St-orc City 5-4 on penalties after a goalless draw earlier in the day.
Match stats (via @Orbinho)
Shots 21-5
Shots on target 8-1
Fouls 7-9
Duels Won 53%-47%
Pass Accuracy 93%-87%
Possession 54%-46%
No way! How fast is this man?!
The Hector Bellerin of Arsenal blogs
Arrgh, another bloody cup final to play in
no orcs though
Cup Final….and to win it!!
Who needs a striker Gooners?! Akpom hat trick ! Wooo
Pretty sad that despite how good some of these youngsters are, most won’t make it into the first team.
I agree. I’m sure some of them will get a fair chance, especially the English, so Crowley, Akpom and Iwobi should be OK, but I fear for Toral. I love him and can’t understand why Wenger doesn’t seem to. He wasn’t even going to include him until Adelaide dropped out. There’s also the problem that he’s a central attacking midfielder, hardly a position where we’re ever likely to be short.
Hey Miranda, are you MirandaC from The Guardian? Eerily similar tone.
Daniel Crowley and akpom should.
I can imagine Crowley being the next Wilshere with his style of play and chuba being a adabayor type of player
Minus Adebayor’s proficiency at cuntitude, let’s hope.
And ability to sign for sides which are a bit tottenham, literally and figuratively.
Shows how good our first team are.
not if its testament to how high the bar has been set to be in the first team squad. wilshere, walcott, jack, ox, bellerin – they were all like these lads and made it through.
You wont know until you try. Give Akpom a go wenger….
It’s actually quite heartbreaking..Alot of them won’t make it here..Despite being pretty good..I remember i was waxing lyrical about Jay Emmanuel Thomas a few years ago after he did this ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZixaQA5CGw
Then i spent last season watching him sporadically for bristol city.
As for the game i thought Iwobi despite some misses was a real handfull and showed some nice touches and momements of skill..Likewise with Akpom.
Not much to add everyone played well…These two in particular stood out for me.
Iwobi is at that stage most talented strikers get to where he just needs to start scoring.
Sanogo was at that stage a couple years ago, we bought him, and unfortunately he just hasn’t been able to do it.
It’s where a lot of strikers are made or broken.
He’s still young, he’s still got a season or two to really start putting the ball in the back of the net, but he’s got the rest it looks like.
Thank god we’re not playing Stoke
That was weird, for a second their I thought I’d been leaving comments in my sleep or something…. Had to do a double take on the name
COYG
Time for a name change? I suggest David Hillier Handled My Package
If we need proof of us making a title challenge this season, that must be it.
It was the Singapore XI, have a bit of perspective.
I hoped it was obvious that it was humorous. It was a Singapore XI, as you have noticed, so predicting a title challenge from that is outrageous.
Or ….
….IS IT?
Winning is a habit!…..dont care whether its against singapore XI, japanese X or Chelsea IX !
But not Magic Mike XXL because there has to be a line not to cross.
Yes, because playing against a team of 30 would just be too much.
The Singapore XI in this tournament is technically not the national team, but a selection of the domestic league’s players.
Most of them are national team players, but then again, most of them have been fasting without during the day for the last month. The water breaks probably presented the first fluids they had in 12 hours.
I attended the match, and it wasn’t as skewed as the scoreline suggested.
Did you enjoy going?
It’s the first time I watched Arsenal ‘live’, so yes!
Good news, I’m glad it was worth it.
Akpom could do a job for a pl club on loan. The guy definitely has some potential. A loan spell at a pl club would be great for him.
Disagree, keep him, at least until January. Liked him every time I’ve seen him, and he’s older than Anelka was when he helped us win the double.. Him, Welbeck, Giroud and Theo is a good stirker roster, particularly given Welbeck and Walcott are likely to make more than a few appearances on the wings.
Presumably it depends on whether we pull someone out of the hat in the striker department. If so he’ll move on, if not he’ll probably stay till at least January.
Why would we play in the same tournament as stoke? If i was in charge at Arsenal I’d have demanded that those orcs are thrown out of the tournament if they want Arsenal to join. Glad we don’t have to play them, but why would you risk playing more games against these tw*ts than absolutely necessary and risk some injuries in preseason?
And who want’s to see that crap team anyway? Does someone think they have a single supporter in Singapore?
As much as I resent Stoke and cretins that make up their support, their style of play today is a far cry from the Pulis years. They still have some cloggers to be sure, but nothing like it was.
They used to be Uruk hai….Now they are like those little orcs
Gotta love when Singapore subbed on a Cech-esque guy with number 10 with a minutes to go.
Who was the keeper please? Couldn’t watch the game
Martinez started I think.
Martinez
Martinez started – not sure if he played the full 90mins but Szchzney was on the bench, so no- Cech didn’t play any part in the game.
Martinez played first half, replaced by Szczesny for second.
Szczesny was great. Came around to sign autographs for all of us. Top Lad
Bugger that, I was on the $100+ tickets and no where near the players. Couldn’t get me an autograph.
Cech Dropped – #toohotforhats
Only 4-0 against Singapore? #WengerOut #GetSchneiderlin
Amazing amount of humourless people on here. Isn’t this very obviously a joke?
This has happened for a few days now… I think there must be a lot of Singaporese / other Asian fans on here at the moment who aren’t quite down with English sarcasm?
Australian Sarcasm* haha 😛
Let the sarcasm Ashes begin.
I, representing England, have higher net thumbs up (see higher) than down than the Australian entry currently.
So the sarcasm Ashes look to be heading the same way as the cricket Ashes…
Wow, lots of ‘Stralian thumbs down for me.
Come to my rescue England fans!
My English sarcastic post is some way back up the page. Neck and neck on net thumbs at the moment…
Australia in the lead by a long way. Look like they are going to win.
Straya.
Haha, Watson is gone now. We might have a chance at the ashes after all
Indians will create a new ashes series and win it :p
Indians are masters of sarcasm then?
akpom should have scored another one .. poor performance 😛
Sanogo is a tough act to follow
He did! Twice!!
best thing is that we avoid stoke city now
The new kit looks better wet.
I was going to comment….lol….new kit doesn’t take to sweat very well…kind of looks like they just came out of the mines….
The new Arsenal away jersey looks like the kind of fetching tank top Richard O’Sullivan would’ve worn in a 1970s sitcom
Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if these comments get downvoted by those who consider criticism of our kits are a slight on the club itself, but I have to agree… the new away kit seems to turn a delightful shade of baby-crap brown when wet. Not a good look imo!
Chuba is my brother,a thorough Biafran not a youth whatever
chuba is a gunner
It was great seeing Gunner live for the first time. Chuba was great. Can’t wait to see them in the final. #COYG
I agree, but I was more interested in seeing minutes for Dan and Geddy.
great work chuba. now we are definitely not getting a striker. i like the look of evertons James McCarthy. i have been following him since his wigan days and he looks a solid player, could provide good competition for coquilen.both 24 and he is relatively cheaper than schniederlin. what do you guys think?
That’s what people think.
Mccarthy ll definitely improve us. A ball playing battler. I always liked him but would everton sell??? I doubt it.
Zelalem needs work.
He can give me a hand move next week… I need to disassemble the beds…
Akpom is like a new signing
Petr Cech came on as a sub for the Singapore XI as a midfielder
quit this biafra bullshit…… chuba is a Nigerian…. simple and short! by the way, I do Hope he plays a part a part in our title quest this season.. ..I’ve always loved his cameos….. more pls!
Suba Chuba.
Dan Crowley looked the business to me – great technique, simple quick passing, always looking for the ball…
Just looks like an Arsenal player.
Would love to see him get a decent loan for a season now.
FOOOOOOOOTTTTTBBBBBBBAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know, mate, I know…… it’s been absent from our lives for far too long.
So glad for Chuba scoring his hat trick! It was also great seeing Jack, Hector and Jon Toral up close. Hoping Ox can really shine this season!
On a side note, I am grateful to whoever suggested Singapore for Arsenal’s pre-season venue. COYG!
It’s pre-season and a Singapore select (no disrespect) but Akpom has been showing real hunger over last two seasons.
He’s strong and quick and if application is right, could add as a striker/option this season.
I saw the whole match and, bar Akpom, that was shite. I get that we’re doing it to improve our fanbase in Asia, but from a footballing perspective it’s completely useless. Playing some make shift team that would struggle to challenge Arseblog’s five-a-side team just doesn’t make any sense. I don’t blame Singapore either; they worked hard and managed close to 50% ball possession, but the team was assembled less than a week ago and only the ‘keeper is considered something of a talent. We’re only two and a half weeks away from facing Chelsea in the Community Shield, so… Read more »
Look at the 9 players that didn’t play today…
You completely misunderstand me. I’m not saying we were shite, given the occasion, I’m saying the whole thing was shite. It’s useless. It’s about as meaningful as Mike Tyson meeting Stephen Hawking in the ring, or Hawking meeting Tyson for a debate about astrophysics. It’s a total waste of time for everyone involved. Even the audience gains nothing from this: Most of our biggest stars weren’t even in the squad, and the few stars we had on the pitch were jogging around because the opposition simply couldn’t threaten us in any way. It was nice to see that Akpom still… Read more »
It’s money spinning and promotion, vital to the club’s long term interests. It’s also a chance for people to see the youngsters play, and it’s not as if everyone’s stopped training. Upping the ante as you suggest would effectively be like beginning the season a month earlier, and Arsenal play too many games this season as it is.
Plus, who really cares about the community shield?
See the youngsters play? They play every week during the season! No one is ever interested in watching. I’m one of the few people who actually watch the reserves from time to time, so I know what I’m talking about. As for starting a month early – we’re 17 days away from the Community Shield, which is the start of the season. That’s a very short month! And while the “trophy” of the Community Shield is hardly the biggest prize in the world, it is still a full blown match against Chelsea and Mourinho and I, for one, would love… Read more »
As well as money spinning, it is about training in extreme climates. Previously it has been high altitude, more recently, high humidity.
Was it raining poo? or is the away shirts changing colours a new tactic for the coming seasons to confuse everyone?
I think it was actually sweat. The shirts were so soaked already from the start it looked like they were quite a bit more brown than they actually are.
The new away shirt is unfortunately a bit tottenham, and it becomes more and more tottenham the longer a match goes on.
Good win today arsenal fc
I’m very surprised with the thinking being professed here esp. from MTZ and also in comments from others on other blog posts. Going to Singapore (and other such activities) generates a lot of value for everyone involved: (a) Free PR – Which our sponsors are willing to pay more for – this is actually one of the biggest things that attracts sponsors to the club – as it helps them to spread their brand along with the Arsenal team to new destinations. Next time we are talking about making that big signing, I hope we remember that these activities, while… Read more »
It’s about money, plain and simple. Wenger’s said so on many occasions: He used to simply go to a training camp in Austria, and that’s the way he likes it. He would have kept on doing that if not for the economic aspect, which is why I pointed out numerous times I was referring to the footballing point of view. It just doesn’t help us prepare for the season, and we’re about to face Chelsea in the first match. Whether or not we win that match is the difference between a flying start or another “Wenger can’t beat Mourinho” shitstorm.… Read more »
The last 3 games we’ve played, we scored 4 goals (league, cup and trophy). A good trend to set.
I watched it in spanish and the commentator kept calling Jack Wilshere Tom Cleverley.