football rambles

This was my first trip to a Football League Trophy aka Papa John's Trophy game and it might well have been my last (can't completely rule out Ipswich at home in it though!). After the excitement of the game against Burton on Saturday, this was a bit of a lacklustre affair. Only a quarter of the ground - as expected - was open and there were a lot of part-timers taking their opportunity to see future Gooners in action. I can't say I knew any of the Arsenal players and Cambridge rang the changes to give some of the fringe players a go. I am really hoping that Rossi doesn't get near the first team any time soon, as he was turned inside out time and time again by the Arsenal attack.  Arsenal dominated most of the game and it was only the introduction of first team mainstays Ironside, May and Knibbs that really looked like creating anything, but at two down with 25 minutes left they were unable to change the U's fortunes. The damage had already been done though with two ...

In the second game of the Emirates Cup Arsenal took on Lyon. The French club came second in the league last year and ran PSG close, it could be argued that they are further behind in their preseason preparations, but Arsenal really handed them a lesson in football. Apart from trying to sure up a leaky defence by signing Petr Cech as their new number 1, the Gunners have been pretty quiet in the transfer market. A lot of people thought that they would be trying to strengthen at the back, but yesterday's performance would suggest that they think attack is the best form of defending. Arsenal were firing and attacking from the start with Oxlade Chamberlain tearing down the right wing in an attempt to secure a starting place in the team. Looking back it seems surprising that it took them 30 minutes to open the scoring. The first goal came on the half hour mark when Oliver Giroud headed/ shouldered/ cheeked the ball into the back of the goal with after Oxlade Chamberlain crossed. Five min...

Photo of Alex Oxlade Chamberlain's celebration after he put the Gunners 2-0 up in the 6-0 victory over Lyon.

New Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech didn't  take part yesterday, but helped with the warm up by sending a few crosses in.

A few photos from before kick off in the first game between Villarreal v Wolfsburg. Photo of the North Bank before it started filling up. Photo of the scoreboard on the North Bank. The Clock End. The North Bank again

Yesterday we went on our annual trip to Arsenal and saw Villarreal beat Wolfsburg 2-1 and Arsenal beat Lyon 6-0. As usual it was a good day out and was probably the trip there that I enjoyed the most. Pictures and reports to follow.

We weren't at the Emirates for the second day, but saw the games on TV. Arsenal went into the second day as heavy favourites, but it was Valencia who were the surprise winners of the tournament. They beat Benfica, who looked poor again 3-1 after trailing for most of the first half. In the other game Alexis Sanchez started for Arsenal and Radamel Falcao started for Monaco. It was the Colombian who had more to smile about than the Chilean in the battle of the South American heavy weights as Falcao scored to give Monaco a 1-0 victory.

AC Milan were rumoured to be watching Joe Campbell for Arsenal on Saturday, but it was another young forward who stole the headlines - Yaya Sanogo had a good day and scored four of the goals that sunk a sorry looking Benfica, who after reaching the Europa League final last season and achieving a domestic treble have seen an exodus of star players that only Southampton can probably empathise with. Joe Campbell got the other goal for Arsenal and Alexis Sanchez made his first appearance in an Arsenal shirt towards the end. Sanogo opened the scoring on 27 minutes when he converted an Aaron Ramsey cross. On 41 minutes Joel Campbell doubled the Gunners lead with a volleyed shot home. Benfica's defence were looking beleaguered and pretty flat. Before the break they didn't manage to track Sanogo a further 2 times and the young striker rounded off the first half with a hat-trick. The second half didn't start off much better for the Portuguese side, but got even better for Sanogo...

Here are a few random photos from Arsenal 5 Benfica 1 The teams line up Arsenal kick off A few random shots from the game.

A couple of photos of Arsenal and Benfica warming up before Arsenal won 5-1 on the first day of the Emirates Cup. The Arsenal players are nearer the camera.

The trip to the Emirates Cup was the third time I have been to this tournament, here are a few photos from inside the ground

Yesterday we saw Valencia and Monaco draw 2-2 and Arsenal beat Benfica 5-1 in the first day of the Emirates Cup. Outside the Emirates Tony Adams statue outside the Emirates

Despite losing Cavani to Monaco, although they have replaced him with Higuan, much to Arsenal's chagrin and naming Benitez as their manager for next season I can see Napoli challenging for Serie A next season. They seem to have a number of quality players and plenty of strength in depth. Against Arsenal they certainly started off the brighter of the two teams. However, one definite fault in the Arsenal team was the way they fell for 2 Napoli sucker punches. Wenger is supposed to be tactically astute, but when you are relying on Mertesacker in defence it is perhaps not that wise. Napoli knew that if they played deep in defence and passed the ball around then they could lure Koscielny out of defence and then pump the ball forward to one of their fast players who would leave the flat footed Mertesacker lolloping behind like a pub player with a hangover. Lorenzo Insigne scored on 7 minutes with exactly the aforementioned trick and Goran Pandev made it 2 with an almost identical move....

The Arsenal players warm up Just before the players entered the pitch. The players enter the pitch.

A few photos from the Emirates from before the tournament started.

Last year there was no Emirates Cup because of the Olympics, but the tournament was back this year. In 2011 Arsenal were joined by PSG, New York Redbulls and Boca Juniors. This time the opponents were Galatasaray, Porto and Napoli. The Arsenal fans lived up to their reputation of not creating any atmosphere and being more interested in consuming hot dogs and buying replica shirts, but there was a pretty big Turkish contingent, who made their presence known inside and outside the ground. The Napoli fans were also in good form and a rendition of 'Bella Ciao' made them more popular with me. The next few posts will be about things that happened on the day. We were there on the first day when Porto played Galatasaray and Arsenal took on Napoli. The tournament as a whole was eventually won by Galatasaray after a great performance by Didier Drogba in the final game against Arsenal on Sunday.

'The thing about the Arsenal is they try to walk the ball into the back of the net', says Moz in 'The IT Crowd' when he's trying to get in with some football fans and never was a truer word said in jest. Arsenal murdered the Red Bulls, but their lack of direct play and short passing game which often has commentators purring was their undoing. It really must be frustrating being an Arsenal fan as their lack of striking and sometimes suspect defending was infuriating. Arsenal did finally get a goal when Van Persie connected with a header on 41 minutes, but it could and should have been more. The second was more of the same with Arsenal running the ball down to the by-line and then trying to walk the ball in and it just wouldn't go in for them. Ex-Gunner and now New York Red Bull's striker Thierry Henry had wanted to play the last 10 minutes for Arsenal, but the referee wouldn't allow it. It might have worked out because Arsenal needed a striker who wasn...

Arsenal take a corner agins New York Red Bulls in the second half of their games. Like most of their corners it didn't amount to a decent chance.

Thierry Henry takes a free kick for the Red Bulls in the first half of the game between Arsenal and New York Red Bulls.