pre season games match thread.

[Bendtners Drinking Buddy]

Firstly, i think people need to seriously chill out in terms of Results / Performances - its PRE SEASON, with half a team, making changes every 2 minutes and most of our main starting 11 left at home - particularly at the back, where even our Goalkeeper has only played in one fixture - the results will have no bearing on how we start the season.........ive seen teams have a flyer in pre-season and start awfully, and vice-versa.

What I DO agree with is how poorly this pre-season has been managed in terms of fixtures - how we can have one fixture between now and August 18th is shocking, and needs to be sorted out..........play somebody from the Championship at home, charge a tenner to get in and let the dads take their kids on a weekday evening if needs be - i bet it would attract a decent crowd, i dont see why it isnt simple to resolve tbh.

[highburyJD]

this tour has been an utter disaster.

i think this is the worst preseason preparation we've had.

everyone seems to agree on this...
why?
haven't suffered any big injuries or lost a game
have won the two preseason pretend tournaments
it hasn't been good - opposition are low rent and none of our players have set the world alight
but really where is this 'disaster' idea coming from?
I feel some on here lack imagination as to what a disaster could be

and realistically winning every preseason game 5-0 with your players looking awesome is irrelevant if you don't translate it into real season form (and losing every game means nothing if you start really well)

[gunner_ace]

Firstly, i think people need to seriously chill out in terms of Results / Performances - its PRE SEASON, with half a team, making changes every 2 minutes and most of our main starting 11 left at home - particularly at the back, where even our Goalkeeper has only played in one fixture - the results will have no bearing on how we start the season.........ive seen teams have a flyer in pre-season and start awfully, and vice-versa.

What I DO agree with is how poorly this pre-season has been managed in terms of fixtures - how we can have one fixture between now and August 18th is shocking, and needs to be sorted out..........play somebody from the Championship at home, charge a tenner to get in and let the dads take their kids on a weekday evening if needs be - i bet it would attract a decent crowd, i dont see why it isnt simple to resolve tbh.

Or even just arrange a game at the Grove and let everyone in for free. No logistics there with tickets etc, just need an opponent and a date. Surely even Arsenal couldnt f**k that one up, surely?

We used to do exactly that at Highbury for reserve games, when they were still played there. Just turn up on the day and take a seat in the east stand that they had opened up for the day, hence only need a few stewards and creates a bit of an atmosphere.

[gunner_ace]

this tour has been an utter disaster.

i think this is the worst preseason preparation we've had.

everyone seems to agree on this...
why?
haven't suffered any big injuries or lost a game
have won the two preseason pretend tournaments
it hasn't been good - opposition are low rent and none of our players have set the world alight
but really where is this 'disaster' idea coming from?
I feel some on here lack imagination as to what a disaster could be

and realistically winning every preseason game 5-0 with your players looking awesome is irrelevant if you don't translate it into real season form (and losing every game means nothing if you start really well)

well for a start 4 key squad players who are in desperate need of raiising their fitness levels were in Nigeria for commercial reasons and earning an extra bit of coin, when they could have now had 3 matches under their belt.

[highburyJD]

well for a start 4 key squad players who are in desperate need of raiising their fitness levels were in Nigeria for commercial reasons and earning an extra bit of coin, when they could have now had 3 matches under their belt.

they're all injured/in recovery
as much stick as our medical team have been given,
I don't think wild speculation based on zero knowledge is the basis on which we should return our players to action...

[Gunnersaurus]

Podolski and Mertersacker are no more injured than Walcott or Chamberlin who.also went to the Euros so recovery does not come into it.

[DB10_TH14]

this tour has been an utter disaster.
haven't suffered any big injuries or lost a game

we did lose to city, while the pre season hasent been a disaster and diably is still fit its discouraging to see the same mistakes still being made out their, realistically can only judge once the season starts though

[highburyJD]

Podolski and Mertersacker are no more injured than Walcott or Chamberlin who.also went to the Euros so recovery does not come into it.

all those Euro2012 players were specifically given time off for recovery no?
is there another conspiracy theory I've missed..?

[clockender1]

this tour has been an utter disaster.

i think this is the worst preseason preparation we've had.

everyone seems to agree on this...
why?

we've looked awful against, it hasn't boosted confidence or cohesion amongst the team, and as pointed out our new strikeforce has 90 minutes to gel before the start of the season.

even AW has said our defence looks fragile and the team won't be ready for the start of the season.

to me after last seasons start, that's a disaster waiting to happen.

[highburyJD]

maybe (and I forgot about the Shitty loss which is the only preseason game I watched all the way through, oops)
but maybe not - Brazil and Italy often stumble into WCs on terrible friendly form and then go all the way
I remember us absolutely killing it in preseason in the early Noughties then starting poorly

you don't really know how good preparation for any event is until after the event

[mcdowell42]

Ridiculous in my opinion that Arsenal may have to arrange another friendly as team not properly prepared for new season


And equally ridiculous that Wenger saying Giroud and Podolski may have to start season on the bench because they are not ready


This is 1 of biggest clubs in Europe and they dont seem to have been able to prepare for a football season. If that's the case, unforgivable

Those using Nigeria tour cancellation as excuse seem to forget that was cancelled about a month ago. Did nobody think about this then


And how much did Giroud play in the Euros? Five mins? And they can't get him ready for the start of the season? Err....

Matt Law twitter journalist with express or mirror not sure which

Hes 100% spot on

[Leyton Gooner]

Only Wenker's Arsenal could leave their two marquee signings out for the opening games of the new season because they're "not ready". Surely it should be a priority to make sure your major new signings, likely to be the best players in the squad, are ready to start the season, or am I missing something here?

[augie]

Podolski and Mertersacker are no more injured than Walcott or Chamberlin who.also went to the Euros so recovery does not come into it.

all those Euro2012 players were specifically given time off for recovery no?
is there another conspiracy theory I've missed..?

But chesney, ox and braindead walnut were all at the euro's too but they were still involved in asian tour so where is the difference ? You could maybe argue that those players had limited involvement in the euro's but neithrt did giroud Tbh even if they were not match fit they still should have been out there doing their fitness work with the squad and it is decisions like this that make it impossible to comprehend what goes on in wengers head

[highburyJD]

maybe this thread should be merged with the Kalou signing one
people going mental about imaginary future activity...

[officepest]

maybe this thread should be merged with the Kalou signing one
people going mental about imaginary future activity...

Not quite, people are getting miffed as our pre-season is, once again, far from ideal.

PS Kalou will still sign. FACT.