Emirates Cup 2007 - Day 2

Arsenal 2 Hleb, van Persie
Inter Milan 1 Suazo

I wish this is just a dress rehearsal of what Arsenal fans could expect come May 2008. The Emirates Cup is perhaps nothing more than just a nothing silverware but the winning feeling certainly brought the expectations for the new season a notch higher.

Compared to yesterday's match against PSG, Arsenal certainly started the match with a more aggressive attitude, taking control in midfield with Cesc Fabregas doing much of the playmaking and Matthieu Flamini carrying out the role of the enforcer.

A glorious Sunday at The Emirates

Arsene Wenger obviously has a lot of trust on 17 year old Kieran Gibbs, who started on the left flank with Justin Hoyte providing the support from the back. Manu Eboue took his position on the opposite flank and new signing Bacary Sagna started for the second consecutive Emirates Cup match.

After playing the whole 90 minutes yesterday, Wenger opted to rest Nicklas Bendtner and started with just Robin van Persie as the out and out striker and Alex Hleb was given the license to roam.

Perhaps Wenger has more plan to use the attacking ability of Eboue, thus the decision to let Freddie Ljungberg go and sign the more solid Sagna as the right-back. His run on the right flank certainly put the Inter defence under pressure.

Van Persie tested Julio Cesar in the Inter goal early on while the youngster Gibbs set up Flamini with a glorious lay-off but the midfielder's powerful shot was pushed away by the Brazillian custodian.

The Emirates Cup, guarded by the Emirates Ladies

The Dutchman again tested Cesar when he attempted to score direct from a free-kick with the angle very much against him. It was goal bound but Cesar's footwork was good enough for him to reach the ball and pushed it away.

The Gunners continued to probe and just after the interval Fabregas released van Persie into the box and Inter newly signed defender Christian Chivu appeared to have pushed the Dutchman to the ground but referee Mark Halsey waved the penalty appeals away.

Arsenal looked set set to score but it was the Italians who broke the deadlock. In a rare foray into the Arsenal half, Cesar managed to sen a wonderful cross into the box. Despite skipper William Gallas's close attention, David Suazo connected well with the ball to beat Jens Lehmann despairing dive.

Eboue could have equalised immediately but after being set-up by van Persie his left foot shot just missed hitting the target. But Eboue did playe a role in the equaliser by releasing Sagna on the right.

A blurry image of Lukasz Fabianski as he collects his medal,
the only time I saw him during the Emirates Cup Tournament

His square ball across the box found Hleb who saw his goal bound shot saved wonderfully by Francessco Toldo. But the rebound found the Belarussian again who remained composed to send the ball just beyond Toldo's reach into the net.

Arsenal needed to score again to win the Emirates Cup. Hleb increasing influence saw him creating chances for Van Persie and Kolo Toure but both of them failed to convert those chances.

Bendtner came on for Gibbs who received standing ovation from the Emirates crowd. With just five minutes remaining Van Persie received a pass from Eboue inside the box. When it looked like he was setting up Bendtner with a square pass, he flicked the ball past the defender before beating Toldo with a superb shot into the roof of the net.

Afterward, Arsenal just played keep ball to run down the clock and in the end it was enough to see them through and delivered a juicy appetiser for the new season.

William Gallas held the Emirates Cup aloft, hopefully there will be more to come!

Emirates Cup 2007 - Day 1

Arsenal 2 Flamini Bendtner
PSG 1 Luyindula

It was my first live telecast of the Gunners in action for this pre-season. The expectations for the match were somewhat low, not because of the absence of Thierry Henry but due to the fact that it was still part of pre-season.

Manuel Almunia started in goal though I was hoping to see Lukasz Fabianski in live action for the first time. There were Bakary Sagna and Niklas Bendtner though.

The first half showed a few glimpses of the old Arsenal, quick passes around the flank with Gael Clichy the main protagonist. Cesc Fabregas tried a few through ball in the middle, though none of these attacks really threaten Mikael Landreau in the PSG goal.

Then, there were also a number of high balls pumped towards the opposition half in an apparent attempt to use Bendtner's height to our advantage. There were a few occassions that Arsenal resorted to this tactics last season but I think they would be used frequently as Arsene Wenger would try to bring more variety to his game-plan.

It seemed the tactic would work when Matthieu Flamini coming from midfield finished a chested down ball by the big Dane in the last minute of the first half to give Arsenal the lead going into the break.

A number of changes were introduced by Wenger at the break with Justin Hoyte, Manu Eboue, Alex Hleb, William Gallas and Armand Traore coming on for Sagna, Robin van Persie, Fabregas, Kolo Toure and Flamini.

Still, no Fabianski.

The second half saw Arsenal played with more purpose and created several openings but none of them really looked dangerous. Bendtner was presented with a golden chance when he was put through by a wonderful Abou Diaby pass.

It was a foregone conclusion with Henry but the youngster put too much slice on the ball as he attempted to find the far post.


However, the home side increased their lead further in a way alien to the more recent Arsenal fans (those older ones would certainly cast their mind back to the George Graham era) . A Denilson corner was attacked by Bendtner and the big Dane beat the goalkeeper to the ball. He reacted quickest to the loose ball and tapped it in. Arsenal 2-0.

Then moments later, Arsenal defence switched off and allowed a PSG player to sneak in on the left and the low cross was duly turned past Almunia by Peguy Leyindula to reduce the deficit.

Hleb displayed his silky skills today, often took a number of players before delivering the killer pass, though most of the time he was out-numbered by the opponents. However, one of his runs produced a penalty for Arsenal when he was tripped inside the box.

Bendtner took the responsiblity but his kick was saved by one of France most reliable spot-kick stopper. In the end Arsenal managed to hold on for the win and five points from the win and the two goals scored.

I was hoping for Bendtner to be able to polish up his game and settle in quickly for the coming season as he would be an asset to Arsene's Army.

Also I am hoping to see Fabianski in action at some stage against Inter Milan in the next match.

Ljungberg is Gone

Perhaps it was not a big surprise.

Freddie has been a shadow of his former great self for the past two seasons with injuries playing a major part in leaving him to just a squad player at the Emirates. The Swede he used to score a respectable number of goals during his prime at Arsenal struggled to find the net with the same frequency that has been expected of him.

Though I still have high regards for him, perhaps Arsene Wenger knows that he already got the returns from the £3million he paid for when he signed the midfielder from Halmstads in 1998.

Best of luck with the Hammers, Freddie. But please do not come and score against us, as they often do in the past...

Welcome Note

Welcome to a blog by an Arsenal fan living in the East Coast of the Peninsular Malaysia, far far away from the Emirates Stadium where the team he supports regards it as home.

His earliest memory of the Gunners was from the 1979 FA Cup Final when Arsenal defeated Manchester United in the five minutes final at the old Wembley Stadium. However, he was a bit blurred how he came about watching that match.

Thanks to his brother, he grew up with English football being the main staple through the football magazine SHOOT!.


Even though supporting Arsenal during that time casted him away from most of his football friends who were more captivated with the success of the Red side from Merseyside, his loyalty to the Gunners remained steadfast.

With no internet and limited coverage on the news about foreign football, he had to rely on newspapers, which meant getting the results on Monday for matches played on Saturday in England.

Then when TV started to carry out live matches his life became a bit happier especially when his beloved Arsenal was playing.

There were little success for Arsenal during his school years with the Littlewood Cup victory over Liverpool in 1987 the only notable achievement. However, during his tertiary years the word success became a bit more familiar.

He would be sitting for his economics paper in the morning but still stayed up the whole night to catch the 1988-89 season title decider match between Arsenal and Liverpool at Anfield. It was certainly a match worth staying up for with goals from Alan 'Smudgers' Smith and Michael Thomas grabbing the title from the favourites who needed just to draw the match.

Then a few more success in the League and Cup competitions certainly made him even prouder to be a Gooner.

Always the positive thinker, he received the news about the appointment of the then unknown Arsene Wenger with optimism and was duly rewarded when Arsenal finished a great comeback, over-hauling a ten point gap between them and Manchester United to win the 1997-98 Premiership title.

However, being a Gooner there would always a fair share of heartbreaks with the 2-1 defeat against the Red Devils in the 1998-99 FA Cup semi-final replay really got to him.

The way Ryan Giggs ran past Lee Dixon and Tony Adams before blasting the ball past David Seaman certainly convinced him an unseen hand was presence during the match. When Dennis Bergkamp missed his penalty this entrenched this belief further into his mind.

But winning the title at the Theatre of Dreams in 2001 certainly went a long way to heal the wound. Being unbeaten away from home for the whole season turned out to be a prelude to something that has never been done in the Premiership before, going the whole season without losing a league match in winning the 2003-04 Premiership title.

He saw the unbeaten run came to an end, ironically at the Theatre of Dreams when Sol Campbell managed to induce a hurricane through his tackle that brought Wayne Rooney to the ground.

Then the Russian came into the picture, certainly brought nothing but ill-feeling and more blues to this Gooner who saw the purchase of players just to prevent them from playing for the rivals.

Not winning any title and cup certainly hurt but he certainly enjoyed watching the skillful Gunners strut their stuff at the brand new Emirates Stadium. Though there were many occasions when he wished that there was somebody who would just score ugly goals week in week when another final product from a beautiful build-up went astray.

He would treat losing Thierry Henry to Barcelona the same way he did when the news of Patrick Vieira transfer to Juventus came through that someone would come in and do the job for Arsenal, though in different ways but still get the job done at the end of the day.

So, with Arsenal in Austria for their pre-season programme this Gooner would also go into his pre-season programme to build up his stamina for the next ten months or so... though it may take a while but come 12 August he would be ripe and ready... bring it on!