Arsenal went down 1-0 to Monaco in the Emirates Cup this afternoon, and amazingly the world keeps on turning.
Arsene Wenger started a strong side with Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy starting with Arteta, Cazorla, and others all involved from the start.
I wasn’t really watching because I was having dinner, but Falcao rocked the Arsenal defence like Amadeus in a swinging Baroque nightclub, heading home from a free kick not long before half-time.
At the break, Giroud was withdrawn and Sanchez deployed down the middle and the Chilean showed some nice touches, firing a shot not far wide and hitting a free kick into the wall.
Monaco looked like a team further ahead in their pre-season preparations – Ligue 1 starts next week – so the Gunners struggled to make much of an attacking impact, but then this is what games like this are all about.
Late on, Chuba Akpom was taking down about 2 yards inside the box, but referee Martin Atkinson, after initially pointing to the spot, gave a free kick just outside the area on the advice of his linesman.
Ramsey’s effort was blocked but that doesn’t alter the fact that the linesman is a blind cunny.
Arsenal couldn’t find an equaliser and didn’t win the Emirates Cup, but it doesn’t really matter.
In the end, folks need to remember this just part of pre-season and at this point it’s more about fitness than performance.
Another hard week’s training ahead, the Community Shield, and then we can start to worry about the real football.
Need to iron out defending set pieces if we’re gonna be victorious next season – one of the last problems we haven’t addressed in this Arsenal team.
Other than that, some good attacking movement and unlucky not to get a draw that would have won the cup. Bit toothless in the final third, unlike yesterday… when we had Yaya Sanogo. Never thought I’d type that.
I’m not sure we would have conceded that on a normal basis, but 2 of the back four are brand new. It was telling that Debuchy and Chambers were running in the opposite direction to Koscielny and Monreal, who were playing offside. Koscielny, in fact, was appealing for offside even before turning around since he hadn’t realized that Chambers and Debuchy weren’t playing offside.
We may or may not be vulnerable to set pieces, but I don’t think this weekend is an indicator of that either way.
well said. a lot of ppl lose perspective so easily…
This debuchy, he played someone onside in the world cup too. I’m beginning to worry :/
Like i said last time
sanogo > giroud
giroud slows arsenals attack, he lacks sanogoals movement and anticipation upfront, certainly we became more of a threat when giroud was replaced! I hope we dont’t start him against the big sides when the season resumes. Coyg!!
On another note- that linesman is a cunt, penalty and the keeper should have seen red! Again giroud would never have been able to force the keeper into a tackle when he was clearly second best as in akpoms case, we are much more harder to stop when we play without giroud!
He is also not match fit, and when he is, his hold up play is brilliant. It’s not really such a big point to make after a game like today’s, when Sanogo and Akpom have had all summer to ramp up their desires to play and their fitness.
Next week community shield will give a better glimpse.
Look Giroud is playing first game. Sanogoals only hit his first goal yesterday! Stop with the Sonogoals rubbish please!!
Hm, seems quite a stretch to crow about Sanogo > Giroud from the result of two pre-season games. Let’s be realistic here: players like Sanogo and Campbell are extremely motivated to give 100% and show what they can do in order to win places in the squad and not be shuttled out on loan (again). Meanwhile, the more established players on the team approach the competition as the training exercise that it actually is. This phenomenon occurs in every sport’s preseason.
To be honest with you, i did not draw up my conclusion base on two pre -season friendlies but from the sanogo i saw vs liverpool in the fa cup last season, also against bayern in the ucl, wigan too in the fa cup and hull city, then giroud against man utd, chelsea and everton from last season! If you have been following my comments you will twig that i have been a SANOGO > GIROUD fan for some months now not just for two pre-season friendlies!
Previgo you have to be shitting me…. I’m glad he has finally found his scoring form, but Sanogo was a complete liability against Wigan in the cup last season, and Arsenal improved markedly once Giroud was subbed on
I’m just revelling in the fact that there is some serious competition at the top of the line. Even Akpom looked dangerous, things just didn’t gel and not much luck or refereeing decisions went our way
You’re bang on. I think Giroud was always Wenger’s Plan B; Plan A being Podolski which didn’t work out in the end. Probably the reason why we went for Suarez last season, and bought Alexis now. However, Giroud makes the midfield play much better so it might be a better idea to start him against teams that sit deep against us. Down the middle, Alexis at home and Giroud away is probably a good rule of thumb.
Beg to differ. Giroud was in the starting XI pretty much straightaway after being signed (except for the first game maybe when he wasn’t quite fit). It’s probably true that Arsene at some point decided that Podolski wasn’t a lone center-forward, but he was signed as a forward rather than a “plan A” for Giroud to be back up to. It’s just that a lot of the media attention then was about us replacing van Persie.
bergkamps’ right
Wenger even started the season with Podolski in the middle during the debut season.
He quickly benched that idea after the season opener.
let’s not forget, it was a season very much like this one with the Euros so hardly any preparation before season starts.
I’m not seeing any valid comparison in your argument what-so-ever. Sanogo played against a $hit team yesterday and scored a bunch of goals. I think Torres could of scored goals against that team yesterday. Why? cause they were $hit. Want to pick up Torres now?
how many goals did sanogo score last year in those big games? those big games that we lost against top 4 rivals were team losses, not because Giroud < sanogo.
Potential? yes. Start ahead of Giroud? why? Cause he can dribble the ball a bit better when he's not tripping over his feet?
Could see from the first 10 minutes this was gonna be a tough test, they just looked sharper than us, so no surprsie in the end result. Have to say the first 10 was all I saw cos its a beaitiful day and there’s more to life than pre season!
Never felt so frustrated from a preseason match
I am suppose to be a lil bit down that we lost and that i got to see a sluggish giroud play for arsenal but i’m more sad about not seeing arsenal play again till saturday? How much i love this club i dont know! Calm down people its just preason and if your worried about the emirate cup and this loss then – werder bremen 3 vs 0 chelsea hope this puts a smile on your face and yes john terry was his usual cunt, stopping balls with his hands like he’s playing basketball! And we still have the… Read more »
I’m crushed.
Saw the linesman squinting there when the foul was made, or is he Asian?
Bad, bad, bad…. But a bit funnt too…….
sorry, he’s a shit linesman but what does that have to do with being Asian.
Do us all a favour and never post anything on this site again. We are a global family and if you feel that making fun of a race is funny then please don’t support this club.
Highly offensive, cow, highly offensive. Good way to get yourself permanently banned. Maybe you can do us all a favour and just ban yourself, save Blogs the trouble. Please never post here again.
Interesting game in the sense that we got to see where our weaknesses are.
I think we could use a serious upgrade in midfield on Arteta and Flamini.
Wilshere isn’t anywhere near starting form either.
thought Arteta had a good game to be honest. would still like a upgrade anyways though.
Agree. Imo the Arteta criticism is people just jumping on the bandwagon, he’s still by far one of our most consistent performers. By comparison Wilshere and Giroud had poor games.
Also how important is speed to our attack, we created nothing in the first half yet yesterday it was pure poetry.
Didn’t catch this game, so I’m obviously not referring to this in particular, but Arteta to me is only fit for starting against teams that aren’t looking to get into the CL. He just isn’t good enough any more. Against top sides, we do need to bring in a younger, tough tackling guy.
Normally I wouldn’t care about pre-season form, except when players seem to be continuing in-season form, and two of those are Wilshere and Cazorla.
Poor.
Whether it was personnel or pre-season, we were thoroughly owned by a more physical midfield.
I would say that Cazorla’s last instance of in seaosn form was scoring a cracking free kick when we needed it most, resulting in a trophy, but that”s a bit churlish as his form was patchy towards the end of last season.
As for Jack, some of those passes were phenomenal and he put himself about plenty too, a little weak at times but we all know how his confidence is at the moment, something is gonna click eventually and then we’ll see the player we remember from 3 yers ago.
Kills me to say it but Carzolas performance today did remind me of the one Nasri put up in the same compertition a week before we sold him.
Arteta and Flamini will always look poorer when they play together – it was clearly a decision by wenger in rating fitness over winning, when he put on flamini in order to give him some match time.
And when Matthieu out muscles the palace midfield in a few weeks you’ll be happy he made it
Well, since pre-season is 0% about winning and 100% about training and getting match practice/fitness, it’s not hard to see why he’d do it.
Martin Atkinson is a cunt…
For once I’d disagree.
He was happily going to give the penalty, but didn’t have a good view, so only changed his mind when the linesman told him it was outside. Short of asking for a replay (don’t get me started), he couldn’t have done much better.
If I was being cynical, I’d be looking at some of the odds on the Far Eastern betting markets instead (but we are not meant to talk about things like that).
Still, its typically Arsenal for us to be stitched up in our own tournament.
I tilt my hat to you!
Two MAJOR issues:
1. Sanago needs someone to remove the tag on his shorts.
2. Someone needs to add elastic to all the shorts.
And that is what pre-season is for.
Business as usual from the officials against Arsenal!
So 24 hours later we’re crap again. Doom!!
We got rob even when the season hvnt start yet. Hope not a sign of thing
Just about understood that!
Translation: We got robbed even though the season hasn’t started yet. Hope it’s not a sign of things to come.
I like the Rock Me Amadeus reference – much appreciated.
Will probably fly over some of our younger readers’ heads though.
Oh well shame no silverware but keep it in context – it’s just a friendly & a good run out for the new boys…Terry is still a cunt! Looking forward to seeing Ozil & Walcott link up with Sanchez!!
Negatives: the assistant ref
Giroud can be frustrating. Can do things no one else in the team can do, but can’t do simple things any other player can do.
Overall very sluggish, and struggled to build momentum.
Positives: Alexis looks class.
Debuchy looks like a good replacement for Sagna
Zelalem phwoaaar that kid has eyes in the back of his head.
Flamini hilarious tackle in the corner flag at the end.
Overall some glimpses of what we can do, but what with it being preseason struggled to ‘click’ consistently.
I reckon Giroud is definitely more suited to the Prem, would like to see more of him in league games, maybe less of him in the CL.
Worst referee in the league? Up for discussion (there are quite a few) but I hate him the most! He acts like he looks, the COCK!
Can’t be long until Real bids £60 mil for Zelalem
Martin Atkinson the giant eejit
I missed Campbell in this game. He really buzzed with a lot of energy yesterday. Seemed like one of those frustrating evenings where Arsenal concede from a set-piece and then simply fail to make the keeper work at the other end of the pitch although have a lot of possession. Doesn’t really matter at this stage since its pre-season. Alexis was quite outstanding with his touches. Can’t wait to see him play ahead of Özil!
Wilshere is crap. Lad needs to stop taking on the world.
Wenger out.
Jk.
Not jk about Wilshere though… Injuries aside, it looks like he’s believed the hype about himself. Stagnated. Nay, regressed.
Sigh.
I wonder how crap you rated ramsey once upon a time.
Jack needs to stop playing like his friends and family will be killed if he doesn’t run around like a wounded fly against a wasp!
Chill out Jack, you have the quality – stop over-trying!!!
I don’t reckon it has anything to do with believing the hype, although he has flown off the rails (smoking a cigarette, the idea!) it’s more to do with his time out of the game, and the state of flux our team was in at the time.
Maybe he’ll get it back, maybe he won’t. Shame if he doesn’t but Zelalem takes his place and we all move on. Sorted.
I really hope Wilshere doesn’t turn into this generation’s Joe Cole…
Bang on!!
Greedy Greedy Falco!
It was just a training game, so I won’t fuss about it.
You weren’t watching because of dinner?
frustrated and disappointed. mainly by martin atkinson that cunt.. whole match decisions are biased against arsenal. forget about the pk claim.. that asian lineman. imagine if wilshere nv did that reckless tackle.. that fk wouldnt even be given which led to that falcao goal. but overall i feel the flop of the game is cazorla, he looks uninterested. he seems aged and slower. was caught with the ball a couple of times and failed to chase back. maybe its just a friendly.. but see how sanchez and miquel fought back. and, the midfield trio of arteta wilshere ramsey is totally… Read more »
Look….it doesn’t matter that we lost, so your disappointment with the ref is irrelevant especially as he was un-sited and took the lino’s advice.
Has Santi become old overnight?
So much over reaction going on here!
COYG!
And what damn difference does it make if the lino was Asian? Are you racist?
Very very positive, we have many options for attack formations now!
It’s just the defensive positions that we lack personnel..!
Glad to see no one overreacting at all….
But that was a penalty, so the ref was shit as usual.
Well that was a bit shit. Good luck AW finding a best 11 with all the options up front and how can anyone compare sanogo with adeythewhore, he is more like Nwankwo. Oh the hatrick v chavski was sublime…. kanuuuuuu!!
And in other news Chelsea 0-3 Bremen. The specialist will cry for a new team tomorrow.
Well all I’ve heard for weeks is Sanchez this and Sanchez that……..
Never mind the fuckin pen, where were the goals?
hahahahahhaha!
Is Giroud still being offered an extension? This guy should not be anywhere near the first team. He should be sold!!!!
I’m distraught at the result and apoplectic at the officiating.. Aye right
It seems to me that the Community Shield is not considered that big of a competition in England. Looks like it’s being treated more like a friendly than anything. Could anyone tell me why that is? Is it not a match of tradition? Where I’m from (Romania, yes I know), it’s a pretty big deal to win the Super Cup.
It’s more about being able to start the season on a good footing, getting a win over (usually) a team you’ll be fighting for trophies with over the following season is more important than a shiny shield. Usually decent games but it’s not something you really count, unless you’re Liver-‘five trophies in a year’-pool.
Letting in a goal from Falcao is hardly a disaster. He’s probably the best out and out striker in the world, but he’s been somewhat “forgotten” because he was injured a lot last season. As for our attack, we just need some time to sort it all out.
All in all, I don’t think this is anything to worry about. Let’s just focus on City next weekend.
Debuchy fitted in like a hand in a glove… chambers was very good too…. while I understand that its just pre season, giroud was awful ….. I know on this forum we have a lot of support for giroud but he really needs to up his game…. had a nice layoff for wilshire but he is a striker n needs to get us goals…. also if we are to employ this counterattacking style effectively not sure whether he has the game for that…. can be a very good Plan B with a direct threat though. … also monreal was disapponting….… Read more »
With all the focus on getting a RB at the start of the season, am I the only one who feels we are ignoring the need for a good defensive backup down the left?
thought Monreal was alright today? Gibbs starting when fit of course.
Ox was amazing today and in a very good squad I would be surprised if he is not a first choice. Shame for me Chuba was not on for long as he definitely can make the grade. Let him stay and fight Sanogo for place on bench. Does not matter the result as much as what we have learned and surely a priority will be the purchase of CD and DM we all are crying out for. For me Santi should of been pulling the strings more centrally but Zelalem looked quite assuring when introduced. Girroud will once more prove… Read more »
It might do Wilshere a world of good to play at the back in the Arteta role a bit and get back to doing the basics, much like Ramsey did the season before last. Now Ramsey’s a proper No. 8, but we might end up finding out that Wilshere’s best role is a little deeper, the Pirlo role. Jack doesn’t have the pace to go past players diagonally by the flanks when he’s being marked, but can burst down the center when he’s not being marked as closely. And he’s certainly got the vision to play that role. If that… Read more »
If he doesn’t get back to basics pretty quickly we may just find that Jacks best position is on the bench, as he doesn’t have the discipline for Artetas role and with tackles like the one today he wouldn’t be on the pitch for long anyway.
I’m not sure Jack has the discipline and positional awareness required to play in the Arteta role. Too many rash tackles, runs forward at the wrong time (and failure to get back) and often seems totally unaware of what’s going on behind him. And I’m not sure he would take directions from Per and Kos…
My major concern is Mikel Arteta! No way would we thrive in those big games with Arteta as our DM.
That DM can’t come soon enough!
He was hardly an issue today though. It’s not as if Monaco were bombarding us – they scored on a set piece and didn’t trouble us too much beyond that.
Give him a little longer to get back, the older the legs the harder it is to get them up to speed after a break, I would imagine.He might be alright this season, but we definitely need one next summer if we don’t get one this time around imo.
Flamini might be a better bet against teams that will look to use more pace and powerful running for this season though.
Reading some boring criticisms of Girroud and wonder if some people have forgotten his great contribution last season and also have not taken into account this was his first game after the world cup. Why we have to trash a good player is frustrating to me. The same cynics had pop at the Welsh Jesus and probably at Jack.
Bonaroca:- I ,think that the first half of match against Monaco was poor, but when the younger players came in one could have seen the difference. At the end of the day Arsenal could be said to have been denied a penalty because that well known referee changed his decision because of the Japanese Linesman’s flag, who should have gone to check his eyesight before taking up such an appointment.
“I am sure he would not changed his mind in a Premier league”
My view is:
We used to lose our best players to the bigger teams because we had a huge mortgage to pay!
We now don’t lose players we don’t want to lose, apart from Sagna.
We replaced the number two French RB with the number one!
We have two feeder clubs in Barcelona and Real Madrid!
So what about the Emirates Cup!
We are going to proper push for the title!
COYG keep positive!!!
I’m not quite sure what to make of this game. But this much is obvious, after what appears like a runout of the first team bar a couple of players, it won’t be premature to conclude that this Arsenal team is not ready and still very much deep in preseason form with one week to playing the Community Shield. And did that slacker referee just connived with the help of the linesman to rob Arsenal? Shame, if only the team had played better…
just saw the last 30 minutes, was not at a dinner but in the park with the kid…much more intense in term of concentration. what i saw was pretty worrying.lack of pace, no movement up front and the team looked jaded.the defense is just ..well if it’s the same next week-end against shitty it may end in another demolition( saw shitty against olympiakos and pool they are much more ready than us) … then media frenzy and (arsenal blah blah…) anyway this month’s important game will be the CL qualifier. may be we won’t be able to sign khedira or… Read more »
Apparently the 10th commandment says “thou shalt not covet”, or something along those lines…
Nuts to that! I’m coveting Monaco’s DMs full out: Kondogbia and Bakayoko made Arteta and Flamini look weaksauce.
Should have got a yellow early In the game, which then could have had a big effect on the way he played……but yes, was somewhat Viera-esque.
Yes atkinson made sure we didnt get the penalty but the team clearly missed the pace and hunger. But you have to consider that there was what 5-6 subs and that effects the team flow.
But god i hate atkinson. Just pure shit. I will bet that if this was a Premier league match he would have given the penalty to the opposing team without even blinking.
Damn hillbilly.
I wonder if we may be better off not having all three of Wilshere, Cazorla, and Arteta on the pitch against certain opposition. I think our attack may have been a bit more incisive with Ox starting on the left. If we had someone on the left wing getting past the defender and whipping in crosses, maybe Alexis, Giroud, and Ramsey would be able to make runs into the box to capitalize
Mehmirates cup
Sanchez + Chamberlain = AlOxis
Just beating the media to it as those two looked like a phenomenal pairing
Arteta played ok today but still way to slow. Sad to see Monreal run from the attacking half, passes him, who was already midway in the defensive half and gets to the player just wide of the 18yd box.
Where is Diaby!!!!!!!
Leave Giroud alone!!!!
Stop comparing him to sanogo who just had one good game against an out of form benfica. I sincerely doubt if he would have made much impact against this Monaco side
Nevertheless I still wish for another striker and a DM. But I am neither in the pockets of Arsenal or mind of Arsene.
I just pray for a good season