As the transfer crazed hordes follow the script fed to them by a click hungry media and demand more money be spent, and while they crave another Arsenal player be thrown on the beach to make room for a newer, more shiny and above all more expensive model, the rest of us, with an appetite for football rather than furthering the careers of a morally bankrupt, corrupt and lying fourth estate, have something to watch today. True it is only a public training session but there is a sense that this friendly tournament might matter a little more than usual as the first game of the season approaches.
This is largely due to the fact that our final warm up is being hyped as a proper match with a real trophy at stake. Both concepts are of course nonsense. The Charity Shield has never been a bona fide competitive game nor in any way an indication of a teams fortunes once the real games begin. This year however, the opposition we face is managed by the man who wishes more than any other to inherit Ferguson’s crown. The man who, above all else, longs to be regarded as Arsène’s bête noire and the new force of evil in the world of football now that the true prince of darkness has become a fading memory. He fails of course. Rather than a second rate Sir Alex, Mourinho is merely a richer Phil Brown, a wealthier Pulis. Hateful, silly and representing all that is antithetical to Arsène’s vision of how beautiful the beautiful game might be, his presence in the dugout next week has nonetheless added spice to an otherwise meaningless encounter and that in turn winds up the scrutiny under which today’s match must be played. There is a feeling that we are warming up for Wembley rather than three games away from West Ham and if that helps focus the players and excite the fans then who am I to poke a stick into the spokes?
I actually enjoy the Emirates Cup matches. They are light entertainment. Enjoyable little hills in an otherwise flat landscape. I don’t read anything into them, of course not. If I did I would have assumed that Sanogo was about to go on to become the Premier League top scorer after his crash bang wallop of a performance against Benfica last year. Also while we’re at it, despatching a team we were assured was one of Europe’s in form sides, and despatching them in such style surely indicated that we would rampage up and down the continent slaying all before us in the coming Champion’s League campaign.
On occasions there have been genuine portents. But these are the exceptions which prove the rule. For example I clearly recall the sight of a very young Kieran Gibbs tearing down the left wing a few years back and remember thinking ‘I wonder if this young man might make the grade?’. But then Gedion Zelalem looked so comfortable among the first team players last year that one might have assumed he was ready to step up. With him partnering a fit and in form Aaron Ramsey in the midfield, Sanogo and Campbell up front, Europe trembling at our feet the blueprint for 2014/15 was there for all to see. Wasn’t it?
The reality of course is that as with last season, today’s tournament is a friendly. Warm up matches designed to give some youngsters a little experience and help the others get into the groove so they can hit the ground running when the real business begins. If you watch Hector Bellerin’s performance last time around you can see what I mean. He played with a freedom and a joie de vivre which allowed him to show us just what could do. The way he slipped past the Benfica defence and then calmly looked up to pick out Joel Campbell rather than rushing a hopeful cross into a crowded penalty area was sublime. As we saw, however, it would take him many games in the Premier League pressure cooker before he felt that relaxed again. In short an exhibition match may showcase what players are capable of but it takes a different kind of confidence, and a deal of experience, to produce the same stuff on a weekly basis when the stakes are high and the crowd is hissing and groaning at every mistake.
So I heartily recommend we all try to simply enjoy the matches this weekend, don’t read too much into them either good or bad, and remember we’re all still on our football holidays, there will be plenty of time for bitten nails and smashed coffee cups when the real thing begins in a couple of weeks time. Before I leave you I must apologise for the brevity of today’s post. I would write more but for two factors. One I don’t know a thing about either of our opponents, and two the sun is shining outside and I am in the throes of a campaign to reduce the inordinate size of my spreading paunch and to that end I am going to put down my quill, replace the lid on the ink pot and get out onto my bike and try to put a few miles under my groaning belt.
Positively Arsenal 
Lovely stuff. Just enjoying the game will be the order of the day.
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Thanks Stew Froome. Just the job and hope the ride today leaves you fit and ready for the triumphal coast into Paris tomorrow.
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great again Steww, although I would say the pressure is ramped up year on year by the media and our enemy within. Actually I think it is important for just the reasons you have highlighted. Remember Jack announcing his arrival with total disregard to seasoned professionals and many other youngsters getting their chance among a largely supportive crowd, which they will not always experience on matchdays.
We should again see the progression of some of our youngsters and because of the quality of opposition, which I believe is better this year, see how our squad can cope with playing half a team in two games. We keep suggesting the squad is better equiped to face the challenges a marathon serves up and I would suggest two high profile games in two days is a microcosm of that.
Gedion Zelalem is an enigma as he always seems more comftable with more experienced players. When you watch him for the reserves you see flahes of briliance but he seems to be bullied and barged off the ball by lesser players. I think that because of this loans to lower div teams may prove difficult. I remember a skinny merse struggling when first introduced to impose himself against crude defenders of the day until he stayed in the gym one summer and come back with the weight to ensure he wouldn’t be lent on I suggest Gedion needs some of the same because the lad has the vision and passing range of our own Liam, I honestly believe he can be that good if he can develop the other side of his game.
Results are important this weekend but performance is paramount and personally I cant wait.
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just stole this from Tony on Untold
look at the two teams that started in Singapore. Here’s the first team
Martinez
Debuchy Gabriel Mertersacker Monreal
Coquelin Flamini
Wilshere
Oxlade Chamberlain Akpom Iowbi
the second
Cech
Bellerin Koscielny Chambers Gibbs
Ramsey Ozil Cazorla
Walcott Giroud Wilshere
The only player starting twice was Jack Wilshere – in the second game he was playing as a forward.The subs who didn’t get a start in the game were
Arteta, Zelalem, Crowley, Toral, Willock.
Missing for different reasons: Alexis, Ospina, Welbeck.
There were also a few young players whose names we have become used to: Hayden, Bielik, Gnabry, who are considered first teamers. Then there are Maitland-Niles and Jenkinson who will be on loan. Plus the recent signings of Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Yassin Fortune.
When you see it written down its frightening
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Perfect post steww – I’m just looking forward to seeing the boys again and enjoying a few pressure free games in the sunshine. Enjoy your bike ride.
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for me the reason Zelalem struggles a bit at youth level but shines with the seniors is because at senior level he always has team mates available for the pass, players making the right runs so he can play to his strengths, and lastly he more often plays in an advanced midfield role, while at youth level he is played all over the shop so as to improve his overall midfield play – much like what was done with Ramsey and others in the first team.
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I’m back. Only managed ten miles this time. More than enough for a broken down old fat man.
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Nice one Stew, the 10 miles as well as the post. (while not the app you specified) I did download a version of something and have managed to go from 2.5 to 4 and a bit kilometres over three attempts and am starting to want to go and better it.
Back to your post, it has caused me some regret. Being fortunate enough to go to each and every competitive home game and a few away I think, annually without fail, “I wont do the Emirates Cup, I’ll work and feel less guilt for all the weekends Ill be begging others to cover for the rest of the season.”
Now I sit here in a stolen few minutes at taxpayers expense making this comment, I’m thinking (having read your delightful half dozen paragraphs) “Arse! Why didn’t I get myself tickets for it?” Cant even access it online on BT account as work PC wont allow a none admin to install the necessary software.
In summary therefore, regarding today’s game I’m thinking “wooohoo, they’re back” and “buggerations!” in equal measure
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being a football supporter has changed, utterly,
is it down to sky taking over the league, their moving of fixtures, in fact their influence in the layout of fixtures, they demand super Sundays several times a year, we no longer have our local rivals at Christmas and Easter, so to want a Saturday 3pm kick off is yearn for a by gone age,
is it down to blue roman coming in to launder his dirty money, there is no doubt that the playing field has never been so uneven, we will never see a club like Nottingham Forrest win the CL or BPL, unless they get taken over by their own blue roman, look what it done for a similar sized club. There has always been clubs with more money than others, at least for periods of their history, been able to outspend most of their rivals, but never has there been an age where the gap in spending power has been so wide, when a club can come in and without even knowing what wages a player is on and say we will pay you double just so the lad will demand to be let move to them, then we can see the gap.
is it down to broadband, this has given a platform to anyone who wants it, now any fool can put forward his theory as if he is an expert. Now a days the loud mouth in the pub ranting to a couple of people about what his team needs to win everything has been replaced(or should I say been added to) by the loud mouth ranting on his blog to tens of thousands. Instead of a twenty minute workplace chat about football you can now chat about it 24/7, and of course with that amount of scheduling to fill, just like round the clock TV, its all repeats, re-runs of the same discussions, mostly poor quality programmes with a few gems occasionally popping up, a harking back to the good old days of the 70’s when it was all so much more innocent and you could be openly racist, homophobic or sexist, especially when it came to all things football.
As someone old enough to remember football in the 60’s, (my first football/Arsenal memories are of the 68 and 69 league cup final defeats, its what made me a Gooner), As a kid I knew every club ground of all 92 league clubs, could name nearly all the mangers, I knew the playing history of all Arsenal’s first team squad(even though I did not know what they all looked like), I knew the names of all the first team coaching staff, I knew the honors won by the club and who the big names of years gone by, but all I knew about the board was that Denis Hill-wood was chairman, I did not know his views on the club or what he was worth, Charlie George was my first hero, and it broke my hearth to see him sold, I did not understand it but it was my role as a fan to move on to next Arsenal hero the great Liam Brady (being Irish this was an easy one), by time he left I was old enough to understand it more, but it was even more painful, but Rix was still there, then Charlie Nic, and so on and so on, they come they go but Arsenal go on, or at least that was the way of supporters back in the day.
I don’t know when it became important for fans to know every minute detail of a clubs workings, when did fans need to know the club accounts in detail, (even if clearly for many in knowing the details does not mean understanding the info) when did knowing every detail about the entire board of the club happen as a thing, when did fans change their role of supporting the club to actually thinking they have the right for the club to be run how they think it should be run. When did real football become a version of Football Manager to so many fans. When did so many people spout so much hate for something they claim to love. When did so many stop moving from one hero to the next and what was the reason.
out of the few options I put forward for the reason the role of a supporter has changed so much the invention of the Internet is for me the biggest reason for the change, but the others had a major contributing input too.
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Steww – Exemplary. That was 10 miles more than I managed so far, but you are my conscience reminding me I must hit on the road later after the sun has set.
It goes without saying, that today’s blog is up to your usual brilliant standards even though you seem concerned about its length. As your most famous bard said “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Why engage in hyping the transfer sweepstakes being whipped up the mainstream media and the various crooks and charlatans in the football industry?
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reports that Arsenal have signed 16 year old striker from Ajax – expect some idiot to complain about “not another kid”
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Less is the new more Stew
I anticipate goals today as the French side are a bit like us, good going forward but slack from time to time at the back. A good season for them last year, second behind PSG and toe to toe right up to the final few matches before they dropped points and let the Parisians pick up the trophy.
Lacazette the big name but Gonalons well know, look out for Nabil Fekir, a young goal scoring midfielder and one of the French stars of the future maybe..
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As a warm-up for the Emirates Cup, I recommend viewing the Callum Davies’ compilation of Wengerball at the Emirates. I assure you this is 11 minutes of mouth-watering football porn. On the evidence of this alone, there is no way history can erase the role of Arsene Wenger as the greatest exponent of what Steww describes as “how beautiful the beautiful game might be”.
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some rumors that Theo has signed or at least agreed a new Arsenal contact. good news if true.
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Arsene’s Eyes @Arsenes_Eyes 3h3 hours ago
Massive day today. It’s the first time everyone calling for Wenger to sign Lacazette will actually watch him play. #EmiratesCup #AFC
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It does make you wonder how the opposition are selected every year. Are the ARSENAL scouts running the final rule over players on their list or is it clubs we have agreements or associations with. The sale of tickets seems to go well whoever the opposition are so I don’t think its solely based on that.
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Just noticed the piece I solt from Untold doesn’t include TR7 unbelievable! I know it happens every time anyone writes anything about the squad, there is always one player left out but thomas nooooo….
Anyway that makes it even more frightening
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Steve – keep your head down , avoid the score and use Arsenal Player later on or tomorrow morning. Just a word to the wise take your glasses off when loading the game on Arsenal Player as they often do irritating things like having small windows open advertising things like ‘Ozil reflects on the Arsenal Victory’ or ‘Wenger Discusses Disappointing Draw’ they then bury the first and second half of the game beneath these to make it really hard to avoid knowing the outcome before you watch. The other favourite trick is to have a screenshot of the broadcast as the ‘thumbnail’ image usually taken in the 89th minute with the score clearly visible.
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Team in full: Martinez, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Coquelin, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Iwobi, Giroud
Subs: Cech, Gabriel, Monreal, Chambers, Bellerin, Hayden, Arteta, Cazorla, Reine-Adelaide, Walcott, Akpom
Copyright 2015 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150725/team-news-iwobi-starts-opening-game#8gWs5vJ50F8ZdSIe.99
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Ozil freekick and Giroud gives AFC the lead with a fine header with about half an hour gone.
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33 minutes, Arsenal win back the ball on edge of own area, ball out to Ramsey in the middle, he wriggles free, plays it to Giroud who puts Ox in and from corner of the area he powers it home. – 2-0
34 minutes Arsenal win the ball just inside lyon half, a couple of quick passes and Ramsey feeds Iwobi who fires home first time – 3-0
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Well I thought they’d be goals …..
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38 minutes Ramsey plays a 30 yard pass to Ozil out wide, continues his run and gets a superb 20 yard return pass from Ozil and slots in at the near post – 4-0
Ramsey has been outstanding so far.
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HT: Arsenal 4-0 Lyon
AFC in total control, scored four, had another ruled out for a close offside, Lyon have had a couple of shots on target and Martinez has done well
Ramsey has been superb, Ozil has also been very good, Ox running at them at every chance, Debuchy overlapping a lot,
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Good grief. What a display. We started at such a measured careful pace but when we did cut loose it was frightening.
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61 minutes Ozil makes it 5-0
Akpom, Arteta and Cazorla on for Ramsey, Ozil and Iwobi.
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Thanks for tip re arsenal player Stew. Unfortunately having just gone online and looked at twitter and here, I started from wrong end of thread. Wills till do Arsenal player tomorrow although working again, but not all day so will get home for the live game and watch today’s after that.
4 in 9 minutes eh? blimey! I’m as Optimistic as a pubic louse on a chair looking up at an approaching naked bottom, for this season
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70 minutes, Walcott and Reine-Adelaide on for Ox and Giroud
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78 minutes Hayden on for Coquelin
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84 minutes, freekick, lyon wall jump and Cazorla fires his shot under them to make it 6-0
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FT: Arsenal 6-0 Lyon
a stroll in the sunshine
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some World Cup group draw news.
England drawn in a group with Solvakia, Scotland, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta.
Wales got Austria, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Moldova and Georgia.
Northern Ireland in with Germany, Czech Republic, Norway, Azerbaijan and San Marino.
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how the hell have BT sport got a women with a speech impediment doing the interviews.
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West Bromwich Albion @WBAFCofficial 43m43 minutes ago
Pulis: “Diaby came in, had his medical…We’ve made him an offer and we shall see” Full story: http://www.wba.co.uk/news/article/pulis-wba-albion-diaby-2571244.aspx …
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http://soccerlens.com/marco-amelia-arsenal-transfer-goalkeeper/172606/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=marco-amelia-arsenal-transfer-goalkeeper
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Brilliant article, enjoyable game.
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Just from here, twitter and a bbc summary, It certainly looks like we were rather clinical, stylish, impressive and entertaining today. with that impression in my head I’ve just checked who we DIDN’T have in today’s squad. “Cor Blimey Guv, them Arsenal fellas are looking pretty tasty, I don’t mind tellin’ ya, young fellow me laddie” some people with strange accents and ways of speaking must be saying somewhere.
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http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150725/wenger-on-victory-ozil-and-iwobi
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I know it was kind of one-sided and not to make too much of it, but I want to be the first to say that if all the planets align, I sense a big future for young Reine-Adelaide, I might even go so far as to say, a young pretender to what AD in his pomp showed us
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WOW!
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Pass – was that him with the tricksy feet on the edge of their area? If so he has some skills.
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Am not going to get carried away but can’t pretend that 6:0 wasn’t entertaining and very pleasing. Lyon looked like a team one week behind us in their preparation but even at their best I doubt if they could keep up with us.
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Leo @_LS87_ 1h1 hour ago
Just a friendly but isn’t it strange that some fans give more importance to how the squad looks on paper than how it’s playing on the pitch?
e
Leo @_LS87_ 2h2 hours ago
Must remember that pre-season results are meaningless unless we lose
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Reine-Adelaide looked very good confident and compedent on the ball. Tricky feet a couple of times, showed good control in tight areas and intelligent enough to know when to release te ball. His passing short and long was accurate, he looks every inch an Arsene Wenger ARSENAL player.
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Dont quite know if that was our first team,second team or what but I think Lyon are better than the commentators are saying after they see the score. The word frightening is apt in describing the squad and the game I suppose we will know a little more after the chelski game until then i’m loving it
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Iwobi’s reaction
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150725/-i-never-thought-it-d-feel-this-good-?
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Arsene Wenger had good words for Reine-Adelaide after the game:
“Rene-Adelaide is something special you know,” he told Arsenal Player. “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!
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http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150725/-rene-adelaide-is-something-special-
I told you so!
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To invoke the spirit of the late great Sid Waddell, there is only one word to describe that: Holy fuck!
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today was the first time I’d seen Rene-Adelaide and he reminded me so much of Anelka when he first broke through at Arsenal, he just looks like he is ready and has that something extra about him.
Interesting comment by Wenger about Iwobi, not being flashy but “understanding” the game.
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