Almunia
Eboue Gallas Silvestre Clichy
Song
Fabregas(c) Merida
Wilshere Eduardo Arshavin
I thought the two main stand-out players were Jack Wilshere and Eduardo. The performances of Wilshere have been talked about substantially already. Almost to the extent of actually overstating how good his performance was. Yes, it was absolutely amazing, but exaggerating the performance will not do well for Little Jack's progression. Eduardo was incredible yesterday. On numerous occasions pulling nutmegs out of the bag just because he could. Honorable mentions should also go to Fabregas, Arshavin (who in my opinion had his first good game of pre-season yesterday) and Merida (who popped up with a sublime assist).
Speaking of Merida, he is eager to learn his future. Whilst no doubts linger over his long term future, there are doubts concerning whether he'll go on loan next season, or conversely start playing with the first team. My initial feeling was to have him stay, as he proved so emphatically at the weekend that he is good enough to be in the first team on a semi-regular basis. However when I thought about it, I realised ahead of him in the central midfield pecking order are: Fabregas, Denilson, Song, Diaby, Rosicky, Nasri and Ramsey. That covers all but the worst injury crisis one could imagine. Perhaps sending him on loan to a lower premiership club with the option to recall him would be the best scenario.
In other loan news, Armand Traore has spoken of his desire to stay at Arsenal despite a season long loan spell at Birmingham being mooted and Scunthorpe want Lansbury on again. That wouldn't be a bad idea as Lansbury is now too old for the Youth Cup (he didn't play in the academy league anyway), and the reserves don't play often enough. As we know he had a very impressive loan spell there at the end of last season, and almost became a fans' favourite, thus I'm sure no one at Scunthorpe would object to Henri returning for another spell. Lansbury incidently played as England unfortunately lost to Ukraine in the Euro u19 championship final. Lansbury had been inspirational throughout the tournament as well as bagging 3 goals (including a right stonker against France).
Wenger has had a £5million bid for Chamakh turned down. That doesn't surprise me. After all the rumours concerning Chamakh having been bandied about for quite some time now, I can understand the Bordeaux management and board wanting more, especially for a player they consider to be integral to their defence of Ligue 1. However considering Chamakh has now just entered the final year of his contract, they can't really ask for that much more as Wenger would just laugh, say 'ok, we'll get him on a free next summer then', and put down the phone. There is no news on other transfer rumours (apart from the Vieira stuff which is still holding divided opinion as to whether it is actually true, or if Ian Wright just made it up). If Wenger is only going to spend one on person, I (along with all Gooners) would really rather prefer it to be on a defensive midfielder. Having said that, Song has been impressive pre-season, and Denilson's tackling and interceptions are excellent. Though his passing has really deteriorated.
Right, that's all for now. I'll be back when there's news.
'Til then Gooners.
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