It is only a friendly, but we must perform well against Atletico Madrid
So, the much Emirates cup is here. We have grown to love this competition because it shows we have a ground big enough to attract the cream of the crop. Real Madrid, Juventus, Inter Milan, Valencia have all visited here before. While PSG are not exactly a big name, Rangers and Atletico Madrid are. And we are playing these two teams this year.
The pre-season games have been really straightforward and no team has really troubled us. As an attacking unit, the goals have flowed and plenty of chances were created. Defensively the same problems plague us but personally I’d rather see us making these mistakes now than in the season itself. Wenger has even had the luxury of not including a few players into the pre-season mode, Walcott being arguably the highest profile player.
We need to take Madrid seriously as I think there is a good chance we might face them in the CL qualifying round, right? A attack line up consisting of Forlan and Aguero is pretty potent and although aerially their threat is not that great, they have enough movement and trickery to unsettle any defence around.
I’ve always rated Forlan, even when he was at Manchester United. The problem he had was that Van Nistelrooy was in the form of his life and every time Forlan messed up it really put him in a bad light. Since his departure from Utd, Forlan has improved immensely and must be taken seriously even if it is a friendly. Keeping him quiet, psychologically will act as a major boost to this Arsenal team regardless of whether they play them in the CL qualifying round.
I’m looking forward to seeing what team we play and how we line up in terms of formation. I don’t know if I’ve said it before but for me only I could potentially name only half the team, the rest could be anything. It might even be a local lad like Jay-Emmanuel Thomas or JET as we like to call him. Why do I think that? Two years ago, a player called Kieran Gibbs played in this tournament. Need I say more?
