Barnet 1-2 Arsenal (Preseason friendly)

[SE13]

There are certain traditions at Arsenal which will never change. The team play in red and white, yes that will never change. The first pre-season friendly will be at Underhill against Barnet, that might change. And Nicklas Bendtner has the first touch of an elephant, this MUST change.

The Gunners lined up first half with quite a decent looking eleven in Almunia, Sagna, Justin Hoyte, Nordtviet, Clichy, Traore, Lansbury, Denilson, Ramsey, Walcott, and Bendtner. However the performance did nothing to enhance the reputation of these players in a very disappointing first half, lacking pace, ambition or quality for the most part.

Arsenal fell behind on the 15 minute mark to a sucker-punch free kick routine. The challenge from Nordtveit was late enough to probably earn a yellow in The Premiership, but being a friendly, he got away with a ticking off, however the punishment was greater from the resulting dead-ball. Almunia lined up a traditional wall, but Barnet were cheeky in switching the ball to the nearside as opposed to the predicted ball into the centre, and Almunia was beaten with pace at his nearpost, down to his right. Up until the whistle for half-time, Arsenal were never really at the races, with Bendtner squandering a chance or two, and losing possession at vital times during build up with overly heavy first touches.

Arsene Wenger rang the changes at half time, and they were to pay almost immediate dividends, most notably Jack Wilshire who virtually controlled proceedings throughout the second half with deft touches, fine vision and passes, and a hand in both the second half goals that eventually restored normal order. Jay Simpson was the first to prosper with a fine strike across the goalkeeper, followed a while later by Nacer Baritze scoring for the second year running with a wonderful finish.

Certainly on the look of the second half, the future is very bright.

Full time, 2-1 to Arsenal.

[TheLittleMozart]

Nice match report mate...
I thought Bentdner looked really rusty as did Almunia. Wilkshire came on and changed the game though!

[Trina]

I thought Ramsey had a decent game and was quite suprised at Wengers comments on him saying he looked tired.

Bendtner, Bendtner....what can I say...for a long time I haven't slated him because I want him to do well. But more and more I am starting to think he isn't cut out for it. But we shall see this season....he certainly needs to improve.

Can't say I was impressed with Lansbury either to be honest. Jay Simpson looks a good prospect though.

Still, it's experience for them and it was great to see Arsenal play again and show what talents we have coming through

Why wasn't Vela playing? I heard he got injured..

[Andreys_Does_Simples]

Good to know we kicked off with a win, look forward to watching it tomorrow.

[arseman]

Disappointed with Big Nick today, but I guess he was just rusty as was most of the team. That's the point of these friendlies, get people back into shape. It's not easy getting back to playing football after such a ling period of inactivity.

I was impressed with Ramsey in the first half, would have like to see him play the full 90 minutes, but Wilshere was quite something in the second half, kept finding space and holding off markers the way Hleb used to do.

[Bristol_Gunner]

to be honest pretty much all of the team in the first half cept ramsey and nordviet were pretty poor or below par. but first day back what cna you expect.

second half can be summed up in one word, wilshere. what a player im sorry but he just stood out like all the attacks were done through him and even though they all pretty much played well he stood out.

[Younggooner08]

I did find it quite amazing that rather than it being Bendtner/Walcott to get the goals that it was Barazite/Simpson. I too would have liked to see Ramsey play the full 90 minutes but maybe we would not have got our win so good job Wenger

[Cheese]

Haven't seen the match yet but reading the match report it seems like Arsenal are still lacking in the dead ball situations.. although this was our first pre-season friendly so today was more about fitness rather than performance.

Nice to hear that Jay Simpson got on the scoring sheet.. if he doesn't go out on loan this season i look forward to seeing him play a role in the Carling Cup and maybe the FA Cup aswell.

Nice round up SE13.

[Reverend Gooner]

Mmm, Bendtner is the player in the squad i worry about the most and this is not a good start, hopefully he will pick up soon.

Good little write up SE13 and as has been said it is good to see the youngsters on the scoresheet.

[She_Gunner_Wales]

Mmm, Bendtner is the player in the squad i worry about the most and this is not a good start, hopefully he will pick up soon.

I agree, he was right out of sorts & we need him to have that sharpness back for when the REAL competition starts.

Although the 1st half was pretty flat from us i was particularly impressed with Ramsey & Wiltshire, both worked their socks off & certainly look like cracking prospects.

Was nice to see the reserve players get on the score sheet rather than 1st team players, no doubt it will give them some confidence, cracking goal from Jay Simpson, and fair play to him he had a hand in Barazites goal too, who incidently scored in the 2-0 win over Barnet last pre-season.
Have to give credit to Gillet for Barnet, that strike was stunning!

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Nice write up Chris.

[She_Gunner_Wales]

OH and just to add to an opening win for us, Utd drew 1-1 v Kaiser Chiefs, Rooney lost his rag & got taken off before getting sent off & Tevez couldnt find the net on numerous occaisions.

Oh MY, where are the goals going to come from while they are without Nancy Boy!

[Trina]

OH and just to add to an opening win for us, Utd drew 1-1 v Kaiser Chiefs, Rooney lost his rag & got taken off before getting sent off & Tevez couldnt find the net on numerous occaisions.

Oh MY, where are the goals going to come from while they are without Nancy Boy!

haha! didn't know about that. That's cheered me up

[Inchpräctice]

Finally got home and watched it on DVD.
Well that was a bit of an anticlimax wasn't it? I was quite excited about seeing Vela and the countdown board at the top of the forum added to the tension.
If I'd known how it would turn out I would've taken that board down.
Where the hell was Vela?
He can't be injured already surely.....?

The result in these games doesn't matter but the performance does and the first half was rubbish.
Almunia was worked about 4 times harder than the Barnet keeper. The whole team looked ring rusty and many of the players first touch had deserted them.
I don't think it's fair to single out Bendtner SE13 when most of the team were shocking. Theo was absent and then easily disposessed, his first touch was as bad as the rest.
The only players that looked sharp in the first half were Ramsey, Denilson and Traore.
Barnet defended well but Sagna couldn't get his cross past the first man even with 3 attempts.
I couldn't help thinking that if Denilson was on the ball more often we would've created more chances.

Then Wenger surprised me by removing every single first team player from the pitch. That was disappointing because I thought we might at least see a bit more of Ramsey.
Bloody lucky he did though because the kids saved our arses.
I think the first teamers were taught a lesson today and hopefully they'll pull their socks up after that.
The reserves played at a much higher tempo with more desire and energy. Their passing was better and they kept posession more convincingly. They were also far calmer in front of goal.
If I was Theo and Bendtner today I would double my efforts in training because Simpson and Barazite showed far more composure in front of goal, and there isn't much difference in terms of age.
If Ramsey was the star of the first half then Wilshere was the star of the second. His determination and strength for such a short player were superb. He looks like he's going to be a huge player for us in the years to come. Hard to believe he's only just turned 16!

It's only a pre-season friendly but the same fixture last year was far more watchable.
Let's hope they buck their ideas up by the time we play Zombies with Coladas on Tuesday.

Incidentally if anyone saw the interview with Wenger after the game he said that there are more signings to come, so let's hope they're good ones.

[rogerthornhill]

I liked what I saw of Ramsey, I thought it was a pity that so many changes were made at half-time but I suppose that's just the nature of this kind of match. Looking forward to the Emirates Cup.

[rogerthornhill]

Incidentally if anyone saw the interview with Wenger after the game he said that there are more signings to come, so let's hope they're good ones.

He did say that and it was quite encouraging but he has also said that there will be "two maximum but one certainly" I'm hoping that he is just being cagey and that there will be three at least.