Glorified Friendly

By: Tom | June 2nd, 2009

In my last post I debated the rights and wrongs of signing a non-English player, thereby going against the spirit, although not the rules, of my original Arsenal vision. Ultimately, I thought that as long as it didn’t affect my ability to reach my season-on-season targets in terms of numbers of English players fielded, I’d be OK with it. I left the final decision with you, however.

Miguel Veloso is in.

In the end, I couldn’t get Sporting Lisbon to go any lower than £19.25 million, so not only is he my first foreign purchase, he’s also the most expensive player in the club’s history (although that may be about to change, as I’m still on the trail of Ashley Young). I recouped that money, however, by shifting a few more fringe players. Alexandre Song and Philippe Senderos (remember him?) have gone to Newcastle for £5 million and £6.5 million respectively, while it was with a heavy heart that I saw Eduardo leave for Valencia for £11.25 million. He’d only been a bit part player last year, and there’s really no long-term future for him under this regime.

Pre-season friendlies went better than last season’s, and Mark Randall, a young English attacking midfielder, was particularly impressive, scoring five goals in three games. He doesn’t really have the stats to suggest he will ever amount to anything in the long-term, but I figure he’s at least earnt a chance to train with the first team this year and maybe pick-up a few more starts here and there.

Anyway, those friendly results consisted of 6-0 and 4-0 wins against Boreham Wood and Club Brugge, a 0-0 draw with Sheffield Wednesday, 3-0 wins against Barnet and my Thai feeder club, BEC, before finishing things off with an epic 4-4 draw against Getafe. In that one the youngsters had a bit of nightmare in the first half, going down 3-1. I brought on a couple of the big guns in the second half and we quickly came back and grabbed a 4-3 lead, only to concede a last minute equaliser.

With the friendlies out of the way it was time for the start of the season and the biggest glorified friendly of all – the Community Shield.

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Arsenal vs. Liverpool – Community Shield
9th August 2009
English starters: 6 – Foster, Lescott, Taylor, Jagielka, Walcott, Bullard

Goals – Torres (7), Keane (16), Van Persie (45), Gerrard (47), Fabregas (84)

Veloso hadn’t arrived by this point, so Jagielka kept his place as the holding midfielder and Lescott made his debut partnering Taylor at the back. Apart from that it was a similar line-up to the one that I’d put out last season. The formation remained the same as well, 4-2-3-1. I’ll discuss my formation in a bit more depth next time, and how best to adapt it to suit my players this year, but for now, it was business as usual.

Some shoddy defending all round allowed Torres to steal in and meet a cross early on, before Keane found himself with too much time to turn and pick his shot a little while afterwards.

It was a very open game, and finely poised at half time, as Van Persie got his reward for some persistent play, charging down a clearance, getting a lucky bounce and coolly slotting past Reina. We were back in the tie, but it didn’t last very long, as Gerrard walloped a wonderful free kick into the top corner from 35 yards soon after the break.

We did ensure the last few minutes were tight though. Fabregas drove his team on, meeting a headed clearance on the volley just outside the box, and sweeping the ball home.

It wasn’t enough in the end. But then, no one remembers who wins this thing.

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In the Champions League qualifying meanwhile, we’ve been drawn against Braga. Easy enough on paper, and definitely less of a headache than last year’s Atletico calamity, but I’m confused. We play them in what’s called the ‘Best Placed Third Qualifying Phase’. What the hell is that, and does it involve playing another knockout afterwards? I suppose we’ll find out.