The latest fashion report first: Arsenal warmed up in yellow t-shirts with dark, thin almost pin-stripe hoops. If you can have such a thing as a pin-stripe hoop that is. We wore our new home kit with the appalling old-Charlton look sleeves which lack sufficient white for my taste, especially given the all red v-neck collar. Our new socks are white with a single red hoop however, which at least lends a tad more white to the overall effect of the complete kit.
It was also the first sighting of a garish green keepers' jersey, with matching green socks, which as yet has not been seen in the Club shops. But this Nike style was seen in Euro 08 and looks pretty naff to my eyes because like all the worst football kits the design is not symmetrical.
Our team was numbered one to eleven, the eleven starters being as follows:
Manuel ALMUNIA 1, Bacary SAGNA 2, Havard NORDTVEIT 5, Justin HOYTE 6, Gael CLICHY 3, Henri LANSBURY 11, Aaron RAMSEY 8, DENILSON 4, Armand TRAORE 7,Nicklas BENDTNER 10, Theo WALCOTT 9
Gael captained our team for an immensely forgettable first half of football played out in front of just under 5,500 supporters. The crowd appeared to contain mainly Arsenal fans and judging by the banner behind the goal included a large group of Daventry Gooners. Our team was very much a mix and match affair, and a long way from being sharp as it played out a first half kicking up the famous Underhill slope. The boys largely strolling around in a rather disjointed manner, but it is of course very early days and we shouldn't expect much more at this stage of the proceedings.
Barnet sat fairly deep, were well organised and on this showing maybe worth a punt as promotion prospects. It looked like our first team expected to stroll it and although we surely bossed the possession stats Barnet created enough chances to deserve their single goal half-time lead. Walcott and Bendtner received poor service and that which they did receive tended to come down our right flank. That said Traore put in our best crosses, but there little to worry the Barnet keeper before the break.
Gillett, the Barnet number 3, scored their only goal from a free kick given away by Nordtveit just outside our box with about a quarter of an hour played. Our wall looked ok but Barnet shifted the ball further left, no-one from the wall closed down and Gillett bent it around the static defenders wall just inside the post for a very tasty goal. Even Robin would have been proud of that one. 1-0 Barnet.
As for our first half performance? Well you'd have expected Denilson to boss the game and stake a claim for a first team place in such a game, but it was Ramsey who really looked the part. He worked well, always appeared to make himself plenty of time on the ball, switched play in a controlled fashion and can clearly hit a decent long pass. I enjoyed what I saw and predict a fine future for him at Arsenal. The rosy cheeked Nordtveit tended to dive in a bit. While Traore hit some decent enough crosses but didn’t set the world on fire. Lansbury did ok but we never really shone in the opening 45 minutes. Although we almost started to play just before the break as the team got to know one another and started to remember how the Arsenal play football.
Half-time 1-0 to Barnet or 'One-nil to the Barnet boys' as their minority of fans chanted.
Never mind the score-line Le Boss clearly knew who was going to play the second half before the match started and to prove it he made eleven changes at half time and the new team as captained by Randall was:
Vito MANNONE 24 (Wojciech SZCZESNY 21), Abu OGOGO 12 (James DUNNE 23), Gavin HOYTE 13, Paul RODGERS 14, Rene STEER 15, Jack WILSHERE 19, Francis COQUELIN, 17 Mark RANDALL, 18 Nacer BARAZITE 16,
Rui FONTE 20, Jay SIMPSON 22,
Forgive me if I have any of these wrong or spelt wrongly but none of the players had a name on their backs. And some like Coquelin were totally new to me.
Our reserves of course play at Barnet and this being basically our reserve side, who are used to playing as a team, hit an early rhythm that the first half team never managed. They played far more as a unit than in the first half and their interchanging was such that I'm not entirely sure who played in which position, so take the positions of the named team as set out above to be a guideline rather than gospel.
This was a team effort by Arsenal and although not entirely one-sided the fresh legs and team continuity showed in a improved performance. Arsenal made just two late substitutions, while Barnet had a gradual succession of subs throughout the half. Barnet by the way have a player called Albert Adomah who is capable of going much further in the game, he looked to me to be at least a Championship player and caused us a few problems.
Given that I spent a large part of this half working out who was who a full report is pretty well impossible. So in brief; Simpson equalised round about the 63 minute mark with a fine goal struck hard from a narrow angle on the right. He was put through by a sweet ball from the very youthful Jack Wilshere. Wilshere played on the right, or rightish, whilst enjoying cutting inside to make maximum use of his skilful left peg. Jack has a low centre of gravity which makes it difficult to knock him off the ball. His superb control makes such a concept as knocking him off the ball even more demanding and for me he was our best player of the second half. That said it was the unity of our reserve team that really won this match.
Our second goal scored on 74 minutes was from a move started by Wilshere when he won the ball in the Barnet half. He laid off a great ball to Simpson who played one low inside to Barazite who came in from the left to slot his shot low to the keepers left. So 1-2 to Arsenal and we played out a controlled finish to the match in which we continued to play football and has a decent number of good attacking moves.
You'll want to know about our new boy Francis Coquelin who played the role of a holding midfield player alongside Randall. Well to my eyes he looked strong and confident, could put it about when required and just as you would expect with any Wenger signing he can play football.
For me this game improved as it went along. As I intimated earlier Barnet gave us good first match workout and all the players appeared to come through it unscathed. A very long way from being a classic but a decent enough start.
By the way Carlos Vela was spotted in the crowd, although no one explained why he didn't play, given that he was named in the original squad for the Barnet match.
Final score Barnet 1-2 Arsenal.
The ramblings that preceded this note should be regarded as a syndicated match report available for use on any independent Arsenal website that feels the need, provided they acquire my approval in advance.
