not that i am one to defend wenger but i believe we are on this tour with a shortage of first team or senior centrebacks. both holding and chambers are held out because of their participation in international play. gabriel is still out, i believe. debuchy was left behind for being debuchy. and i think one of koscielny or mustafi is still out?
Yes, all those CBs are sitting out - including both Koz and Mustafi. Other than Per, that's 5 of them. Sanchez hasn't played this preseason either. I'm not taking any concerns from this Chelsea game today. Chelsea clearly wanted a game that means nothing.
Bielik, Kolasinac and Kos all were in the matchday squad, and at least are actually defenders. It would be good to see Maitland-Niles get a chance in midfield instead of getting killed being a defender, and to get Kolasinac more time to get used to playing with Monreal and Kos. Hopefully, Wenger will start trimming the fat on our next couple of games so the team is ready for matchday one.
in case anyone was interested. i liked kolasinac fighting for the ball on that first goal. montreal tries to but doesn't have the physicality taht kolasinac seems to. it's nice to see walcott finish so confidently on that first goal. we would be in good shape if he goes into the season confident. and, y'know, wenger actually play him. nelson looks damn good. aaaaaaaaaaaaand we're playing maitland-niles at centreback again.
yay.......we beat Benfica in a friendly. we're gonna win the league by 20 points!! Eusebio is looking down on his old club in scorn, cos they lost a friendly of all matches.... ******** pre-season. though I'd never seen Quest TV before. Now I know how to polish a door with a smooth shine...thanks Quest TV! I love how Kevin Campbell said we would do shit after losing to Chelsea in a friendly. Considering Spurs lost to City, Chelsea themselves lost to Bayern and Inter (helped by the best own goal of all-time), so would he say they're shit too?I thnk it's because he never excelled at Arsenal, and he's bitter, but we're a fair bunch. if you do well, we'll praise you, it's as simple as that.
Poor first half against Sevilla. We are pushing everything wide with no consideration in our play to bring Lacazette into the game. Right now he looks like a square peg shoe horned into a round hole as is the norm with Wenger signings
I wonder if Benfica would do us a favour and take Joe Willock back to keep his brother company?! They might as well bring Maitland-Niles too in case they get fed up of each other
sevilla looked good, and maybe edged the result. i think our defending was suspsect in parts, but overall OK. I think this is Wenger's way of stating Elneny can be a decent makeshift centre-back, and to be fair he didn't do that badly. Sevilla had more attacking quality though, but then we had good chances. Both teams played well in parts, though Ox and Bellerin were our best players. it's just a friendly though, but overall, i think we and Sevilla were the best teams in this tournament. RB Leipzig were poor on both games, and Benfica were meh...
Judging on the back end of last season Ox should be imho the starting RWB. His physical attributes and better end product are way more suited to that role than Bellerin.
If Alexis is sold and we don't find a replacement, we can start OX on the left and Bellerin opposite to him.