Thursday, August 28, 2008

Hitting a stride

Arsenal were 4-nil winners over FC Twente yesterday at the Emirates in the second leg of their Champions League qualifier. Goal highlights here. (From 101 Great Goals, thanks, as ever, to Arseblog for the link)

I've always staunchly believed that a team should play itself into form in the pre-season against lesser opposition. Especially a team like Arsenal who rely so heavily on their approach to football to get their results. It's safe to say they didn't really take that approach this summer, save some very early matches, with the Emirates Cup and the Amsterdam tournament. They played - well at that - against some top competition including the likes of Real Madrid, Ajax, Juventus and Sevilla. But they never played in a way that let them find top gear to get rolling into the season.

Yesterday's match allowed them to play into their stride a little better. Hopefully they'll be able to move forward now with the fantastic goals they picked up yesterday. Interesting that Gallas went on a run and ended up scoring on a rebound.  Theo's goal was fantastic from several perspectives; the pass into space to spring him, his pace to get into that space, the curl to his shot, and predominantly the fact that he took the shot instead of passing it on to the open man. Time is on his side, but he's starting to show himself. This won't be the first time that someone has said that it's a big year for him.

Newcastle on Saturday. Should be interesting given how much King Kev has had them running thus far.

No comments: