Report: Valencia 2-0 Arsenal
Reality struck Arsenal in their final game of this preseason as Valencia dismantled them 2-0 at the Mestalla.
Two goals from Michel and Villa in the last 15 minutes meant Wenger’s men ended their preparations for 2009/10 with some question marks.
Diaby and Walcott were the squad’s main returning men. The former had shaken off injury to start while the latter ended his holidays for a place on the bench.
Despite both teams possessing a similar approach to football, their attacking intents were hindered by sloppy passes and clumsy tackles on a wet pitch.
Notable chances of the first half were gifted to left-footers from either side. First, a ball broke to David Silva on the edge of the area with Almunia wobbling off his territory. The forward attempted to swerve the ball past Arsenal’s stopper but he could only find the advertisement boards.
Arsenal then made their most fluid move when Van Persie was sent free into the box, but the Dutchman rushed and stroke straight at the ‘keeper from a difficult angle.
A fit-again Fabianski came in for Almunia after the restart while several changes saw the likes of Walcott, Sagna and Wilshere all introduced. The Gunners soon found their tempo and a host of chances kept coming. Walcott stroke just wide off the post after a slick through-pass from Fabregas had sent him in.
The English youngster and Sagna then took command on the right and sent in teasing crosses while Valencia looked shaky in dealing with some Arsenal corner kicks.
Joaquin then stung Fabianski’s fingers with a shot and David Villa – who had engineered that move – missed some sitters. On two occasions, the highly-rated striker found himself with only the goalkeeper to beat, but he either curled the ball well over or into Fabiasnki’s hands.
The night would get worse for Villa. Valencia were awarded a penalty after Silvestre was alleged to have fouled Michel. Spain’s hit-man stepped up and his kick was saved with aplomb by Fabianski. The corner that resulted from that save nearly saw Arsenal concede as Fabregas cleared off the goal line.
Despite their heroics, Arsenal would be dispatched when Michel managed to beat Fabianski from a very crowded area after 75 minutes. Chasing shadows before that, it was hard for Wenger’s men to bounce back and they surrendered the fight when Villa added a second in the dying minutes with a low, clinical strike.
Thus, few glitches remain ahead of next week’s massive kick-off at Mersey side.
we need a new back 4
This defeat is a blessing in disguise before the new season starts. It is an eye opener for Wenger to work on the shortcoming and also which area need reinforcement in terms of personnel (new players)before the transfer window closes.The purpose of having friendlies not about winning but rather using it to assess and fine tune the squad. Go….Gunners !!
Couldn`t agree more make it five a goal keeper.
There’s no reason to panic because of this defeat. Teams like Man Utd and Liverpool also lost in friendlies recently. I hope that there won’t be any Arsenal fans calling for Wenger’s and player’s head at this point of time. This is only a pre-season match. I believe things will get better.
people would call for wenger’s head if he couldn’t get a crossword question let alone lose a pre-season friendly…
When we won the Emirates Cup recently, Wenger and his squad received raved reviews from the fans. Now that we have just lost a match in a friendly, already some of the fans are singing a different tune. Its really mind boggling.
I really appreciate your strictly positive antics Kidz 😉
Thanks mate.
We can’t afford to make thesame mistake we made last season,what is silvester still doing is arsenal? It was a good match, an eyes opener to wenger.please buy players now. no shaking Arsenal for life
valencia 0-0 ASNL I
valencia 2-0 ASNL II
that’s it!
n teams have more power at home.
1 more thing: f**kin heavy rain, i hate it, it destroys our style
The big difference is they were getting their starting eleven fit, and we don’t know what our starting eleven will be? We’ve probably got enough of a squad to do top four, but even with two additions it doesn’t look like we can do much more. Without an Arshavin like signing it’s a bit late in the game to be making meaningful changes. I have a lot of ideas about the squad and certain additions, but i wouldn’t bore you with those, just hope wenger’s seen enough that we could use some new players.
Wengers crap now…….we are in for another season of mediocre performances and results, ending in a grand total of nothing. We needed a major overhaul after the sh*t that was dished up last season but what do we get, an average signing in vermaelan and sales of 2 of our so called main squad players according to wenger last year, with no replacements bought in. with one weeks to go it’s already too late ….. this light weight bunch of cheap younstgers and purchases play will fail. Ah well maybe after another failure at the end of this season we will get rid of wenger and all you bl**dy Arsene knows dick heads will shut up and realise just how wrong you all are!!
AW will sign one or two players, stay cool
Fuck silvester.
He is main reason of our defensive problem.
We need to buy strong CB, a CDM and a finishing striker.
the gunners back line was worrying today… if we are going to continue to play with a high line we will need defenders with pace. this isnt really a problem for our outside backs but without toure our central defenders really do lack pace. djourou has long legs and can cover ground well and also has height so he should be our centreback partner with gallas this season but i am a little worried because it is hard to find too many quality teams that play a high line and are successful at it. and lets be honest without a solid back line arsenal are not going to win anything anytime soon, which i hate to say but we all know that defense wins championships and that happens to be the one thing that we truely lack.
also it worried me that song fouled any player that came within 5 feet of him.. he will have to figure that out if he is going to be the DM that we need but i actually do think that he can fill the role if he cant learn to tackle instead of hack
PLASTIC FANS BE GONE, FUCKING DOOM AND GLOOM BUNCH OF GLORY HUNTERS AND MOST OF ALL CUNTS!!!
YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOUR COMMENTS AND BEHAVIOUR SOME OF YOU, WE LOOSE ONE PRE SEASON AND HERE WE GO…….
ARSENAL SEASON IS A DISASTER EVEN BEFGORE IT BEGINS
I TELL YOU WHAT SOME OF YOU PLASTICS SHOULD DO GO AND SUPPORT ANOTHER TEAM!!!!
SCOUSERS LOST 3:0 TO ESPANIOL THEN TO ATLETICO MADRID I HAVENT HEARD ANY SCOUSERS CALL NAMES AND FOR HEADS. SERIOUSLY I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU OUT THERE YOU MUST BE LIVING VERY SAD LIVES.
SUPPORT YOUR TEAM OR BR GONE WANKERS!!!
First quality team we play in pre-season and we are not good enough. Watch Man U and Chelsea today and remember how far behind them we finished last season. Our players are good but Man U Chelsea and Liverpool players are much more inteligent.
Not many of The Arsenal fans gave Wenger and his squad much hope last season. In fact, many predicted that Arsenal will miss out in the race for the 4th position ( Champion League Qualification ) in view of Spurs spending almost 40 million pounds on new players couple with Aston Villa and Everton strong performances. Still, we The Arsenals managed to triumph at the end of the day. Rival managers still see Arsenal to be among the top team this coming new season. Have faith in your own team.
Arsenal needs a striker.