And with that, I’m gone. It’s been a thrill. Bye!
Jack Wilshere says:
We feel we made a big step last year. We had a great second half of the season, and mentally, we felt in the big games we survived. Something changed. And this season we’re excited, and we’re confident we can do something.
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Theo Walcott says:
We found it difficult to break them down. We had to be patient, but in the end we got a nice successful 1-0. The young players play with a free spirit. The club is fantastic to nurture those young talents. They fit in, they’re Arsenal players, and they showed some good stuff today.
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Arsenal win the Emirates Cup! Curiously, they’ve won the FA Cup, an actual, competitive competition, which 736 teams (or so) enter every year, twice since they last won their own four-team pre-season shindig. None of that matters now – the Emirates Cup is coming home!
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Final score: Arsenal 1-0 Wolfsburg
90+2 mins: And it’s all over!
90+1 mins: We’re having a single minute of stoppage time.
90 mins: Arsenal have a three-on-one break, and mess it up! Akpom has the ball, with two team-mates to his right, but he carries the ball a bit too far and then passes behind everyone in red, straight to a Wolfsburg player. Whoops.
88 mins: … which leads to another long-range shot, Schurrle blasting high and wide.
87 mins: Caligiuri is found in the penalty area and jinks to the byline, but Bellerin stays focused and deflects the cross behind for a corner.
84 mins: Arsenal keep the ball for a while, passing down the right, back into their own half, and across midfield. Eventually Arnold pulls Cazorla’s shirt, the Spaniard aims a high kick in his direction (missing), Arnold puts his forehead in Cazorla’s face, and it all threatens to get a little bit feisty. Both are booked.
81 mins: One Rodríguez (Ricardo) has long hair tied in a bun, short-sleeved shirt and tattoos. The other Rodríguez (Francisco) has short hair, a long-sleeved shirt and possible under-shirt tattoos that I can’t see because of those sleeves.
80 mins: The new Rodríguez is the brother of the other Rodríguez.
79 mins: A double substitution for Wolfsburg. Nicklas Bendtner comes off, with another Rodríguez replacing him, while Guilavogui’s also off, and Seguin on.
79 mins: It’s not just the Germans who are chancing their arm from distance – Hayden’s dipping 30-yarder is tipped round the post by a flying Benaglio.
78 mins: It’s been a game of two halves, this, with the centre of Arsenal’s defence pretty resolute throughout, but the home side much more dynamic in attack since half-time.
77 mins: Another long-range effort from Wolfsburg, but Cech isn’t much tempted by Guilavogui’s low squirmer.
75 mins: Arsenal bring off their goalscorer, as Giroud replaces Walcott.
74 mins: Cazorla takes the shot, which goes straight to where the keeper was standing. Clearly the Spaniard was hoping that Benaglio would have expected a chip over the wall and gone the other way, but he didn’t.
73 mins: Naldo is booked for tripping Akpom from behind – it looked a bit accidental – and Arsenal have a tasty free-kick.
72 mins: Bellerin toe-pokes the ball to Akpom, who slightly mishits his shot into the ground, and Benaglio saves.
71 mins: Arnold comes on for Träsch, who’s been rubbish. Ho ho!
70 mins: Bendtner gives the ball to Oxlade-Chamberlain, who screams down the pitch, a 60-yard downfield sprint, before eventually being dispossessed on the edge of the area.
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70 mins: They haven’t completely given up on crossing – Schurrle just crossed. It was headed clear.
68 mins: Another long-range effort from Wolfsburg, who appear to have given up on crossing the ball now, but this time Caligiuri’s 30-yarder flies high.
66 mins: Oxlade-Chamberlain shows the there’s more than one great double-barrelled young winger at Arsenal, and he does a brilliantly speedy-yet-tricksy run down the right before pulling back to Ramsey, whose chipped cross-or-perhaps-a-shot goes high.
63 mins: More substitutions. Aaron Ramsey comes on for Arteta, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replaces Reine-Adelaide. Remember the name.
62 mins: Another shot from Wolfsburg, and another save from Cech! Guilavogui has the shot, and it’s flying low and hard into the corner until Cech gets his hand in the way! Then Naldo heads the corner wide!
61 mins: De Bruyne’s off, and Max Kruse is on.
61 mins: Akpom passes to Walcott, just outside the penalty area, to the left of goal, but his first-time attempted curler-into-the-far-corner misses the target.
60 mins: Shot on target from Wolfsburg! For all their possession, especially in the first half, Cech has been extremely underemployed, but here Rodríguez gives him something to do with a 30-yarder. Straightforward save, but at least it’s something.
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58 mins: More excellence from Reine-Adelaide, playing more centrally this half, who picks up the ball midway through his own half, carries it forward and then plays in Walcott again, but Benaglio races out of his area to clear!
56 mins: Down the other end De Bruyne has a very good shooting chance from 25 yards, but skews the shot well wide.
55 mins: He may be only 17, and freshly arrived, but if Reine-Adelaide doesn’t see plenty of first-team action I’d be surprised. He’s very tall, looks lovely on the ball, can beat a man, can pick a pass. Excellent signing.
53 mins: Great chance for Wolfsburg! Kind of! Rodriguez’s free-kick finds two green-clad players running clear of the Arsenal defence, but a) the header goes over the bar, and b) they were both offside.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Wolfsburg (Walcott, 50 mins)
Lovely goal! Reine-Adelaide picks up the ball in the penalty area, skips over a challenge, carries the ball forward, lets Akpom make a dummy run and then plays Walcott in, and his finish is assured.
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48 mins: One thing we haven’t seen Reine-Adelaide do is cross the ball. I assume he’s able to do it, but he just had a good chance to show us and chose to a backward pass instead.
Peeeeeeeeeep!
46 mins: Wolfsburg get the second half under way.
The players are back on. Özil’s day is done, though – Akpom has replaced him. And Caligiuri replaces Vieirinha for Wolfsburg.
Also, I feel that Arsène Wenger is not wrong about Jeff Reine-Adelaide. Boy’s got skills.
Half time: Arsenal 0-0 Wolfsburg
45 mins: Peeeeeeeeep! It’s half time. Wolfsburg have played well, Arsenal have had some smart moves, and a couple of half-chances. It’s not exactly a thriller, but it’s a decidedly superior pre-season encounter. More shortly.
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45 mins: Klose tries to play his way out of defence, but instead chips the ball straight onto Cazorla’s chest. He gets away with it.
43 mins: Özil sends a shot bobbling wide, after a one-two-one-two involving Özil, Wilshere, Özil, Monreal and finally Özil again. Lovely move, hard chance.
41 mins: Gabriel totally takes out Vieirinha, but the referee waves play on as Wolfsburg attack. When the ball eventually goes out of play, the referee unaccountably fails to give the Arsenal centre-back a stern ticking-off and/or a yellow card.
39 mins: Wilshere is cynically fouled again, this time by Vieirinha, who gets away without a booking.
38 mins: Terrible miss! Another Wolfsburg corner is flicked on at the near post and lands at the feet of Klose, 12 yards out and with the goal at his mercy. He shows it mercy, and the ball flies over the bar.
36 mins: Then Klose blocks off Wilshere in cynical fashion, and is booked.
35 mins: Bendtner tries to pass the ball into the back of the net from 35 yards. No chance. Cech was going the wrong way, but he had time to stop, check, go the other way, and pick it up.
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33 mins: This time Walcott does put the ball in the net, but he’s a yard or so offside. Shame, as it was a lovely move, the ball being flicked and poked across the Wolfsburg defence, and eventually over it.
29 mins: A lovely cross from Schurrle on the left would have given the man on the far post a pretty easy headed chance, had there only been a man on the far post.
27 mins: Lah-de-dah! Reine-Adelaide beats his man on the left wing with a shrug of the shoulders and a little drag back, making De Bruyne look totally nonplussed.
25 mins: Walcott is played through again, bursting clear of a high defence and onto Wilshere’s pass. Instead of bursting forwards and shooting, however, he dawdles and is tackled.
23 mins: Another De Bruyne cross, low from the left, and it’s just too far ahead of a sliding, diving, feet-first Bendnter in the middle. “Some Arsenal fans appear to be booing Kevin De Bruyne,” writes Shaun Wilkinson. “Is there anything in football more ludicrous than this “We’ll boo you because you’re good” that some English fans seem to indulge in?” Probably – there are a lot of ludicrous things in football, after all – but it’s certainly a bit silly.
21 mins: Ooooh! Now Arsenal have a great chance. Walcott is played through by Özil, but his low shot from a tight angle is saved!
19 mins: De Bruyne pulls the corner back to Träsch, whose first-time shot was probably heading in until it thwacked an unknowning Arsenal defender on the back of the bonce.
18 mins: Benaglio, the Wolfsburg keeper, dallies on the ball, and as Arsenal players close him down he hits a low clearance straight to a team-mate in the centre-circle, though it’s not entirely clear if it was brilliant or just lucky. A couple of moments later the Germans’ have another corner.
15 mins: Wolfsburg are still on top here, but can’t convert possession on the flanks into chances in the middle. When Bendtner is found by a right-wing cross he decides that rather than head it he should make a ludicrously optimistic attempt at flying mid-air one-touch killer control, and the chance is gone.
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13 mins: Jung plays the ball down the right wing, for Bendtner to run onto. He stays exactly where he is. Goal kick.
11 mins: Wolfsburg continue to look quite smart, in a footballing sense. In a tailoring sense, they continue to look extraordinarily green.
8 mins: Jung cuts in from the right and takes a bit of a swing with his left foot, but his shot hits Gabriel in the head and squirts away for a corner. From which they win another corner.
7 mins: A bit of Wolfsburg possession, which culminates in Rodríguez being tripped by Wilshere in midfield.
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5 mins: Another Bellerin cross and this one is very marginally better than the last, but Naldo reaches it first.
4 mins: And down the other end De Bruyne crosses low from the left, and Cech claims – to a massive ovation from the stands.
4 mins: Lovely little run by Wilshere, who rides a couple of challenges, surges forwards and then plays the ball right to Bellerin, whose low ball in is a bit rubbish.
2 mins: Arsenal’s first attack ends with Theo Walcott being caught very narrowly offside on the edge of the area. There was a decent run from Reine-Adelaide, and a yahoo backheel flick from Cazorla, along the way.
Peeeeeeeep!
1 min: And they’re off!
The players are in the tunnel. “Arsenal are going to walk this one,” surmises David James on BT Sport. You heard it here first. Well, you heard it there first, but then here not long after.
Martin Keown thinks De Bruyne would be a bad signing for Manchester City. “How good is he anyway?” he sniffs.
“Actually, goal difference won’t come into play unless the teams are level on goals scored,” writes George Feldman. “Teams get a point for each goal scored, in addition to three for a win and one for a draw. A system that probably will not be adopted for France next year. Russia in 2018? Who knows? (The old NASL in the late 1970’s-early 1980’s also awarded extra points in the regular table based on goals scored.)”
George is absolutely spot on here. Arsenal got nine points yesterday. Crikey. Using those rules, Chelsea would have finished the last Premier League season with 160 points, 94 points ahead of Burnley.
Looking forward to seeing Jeff Reine-Adelaide, who starts today after a fine substitute appearance yesterday, after which Arsène Wenger said this of his recent capture from the Lens academy:
Reine-Adelaide is something special you know. He is a great talent and when he came on you could see that – 17 years old let’s not forget that. In fact I don’t remember how I played at 17 but I didn’t play like that!
Peep peep! Villarreal’s 2-0 win is confirmed, and Petr Cech runs straight onto the pitch to get ready for the next game.
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In case you’re wondering about the rules, should Arsenal win and find themselves level on points with Villarreal, they’d win the pot on goal difference (they couldn’t have a goal difference of less than +7, while Villarreal are marooned on +3). As the regulations state:
Goal difference will be the deciding factor if two teams finish level on points- and if they still can’t be split, then the number of goals scored will come into play. The trophy will be shared if the teams still have identical records.
Meanwhile, Villarreal are 2-0 up against Lyon in today’s early game and have been pretty much entirely untroubled – one penalty appeal aside – in the last half-hour or so.
Team news!
The teams are in, and they look quite a bit like this. Headline news: Arsenal make 10 changes from yesterday’s game, with only Özil starting both matches, while Nicklas Bendtner is in Wolfsburg’s starting XI.
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Chambers, Gabriel, Monreal, Arteta, Cazorla, Reine-Adelaide, Özil, Wilshere, Walcott. Substitutes: Martinez, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Akpom, Coquelin, Hayden, Iwobi.
Wolfsburg: Benaglio; Jung, Naldo, Klose, Rodriguez; Träsch, Guilavogui-Vieirinha, De Bruyne, Schürrle; Bendtner. Substitutes: Not sure yet, to be frank.
Here is the @Arsenal team to take on @VfL_Wolfsburg. What do you think of it? #EmiratesCup2015 pic.twitter.com/3EdZZhLJpm
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) July 26, 2015
Hello world!
It’s already been a good day for Wolfsburg, whose ex-Chelsea winger Kevin De Bruyne was earlier today named Germany’s footballer of the year by top German football magazine Kicker (by a landslide – he got 367 of 814 valid votes cast by members of the Association of German Sports Journalists, with Arjen Robben in second place with 94 and Manuel Neuer third with 67). And that’s not all – his manager Dieter Hecking got the top coach nod (a closer battle this one, with Hecking’s 203 votes seeing him finish just 12 ahead of Markus Weinzierl, whose Augsburg side came fifth in the Bundesliga to qualify for the Europa League.
So it’s perhaps not an enormous surprise that Arsène Wenger was rather complimentary about them yesterday:
They are one of the top teams in Germany and they are fighting against Bayern, and may even be at the same level.*
For all that, they lost 2-1 to Villarreal in their first Emirates Cup match yesterday. Though they left Nicklas Bendtner on the bench for most of that one, so were probably keeping their powder dry for this afternoon. Arsenal, meanwhile, stormed to a super-duper 6-0, six-goalscorer thrashing of Lyon, so everything is rosy in their world too.
Team news! Arsène Wenger said yesterday that Petr Cech and Jack Wilshere would both play today. More, no doubt, to follow.
* They’re not on the same level. They finished 10 points behind them last season. Still, they were second in the Bundesliga and thus can safely be considered “one of the top teams in Germany”.
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