Even though it was only the first game of pre-season for Arsenal, with another game in Australia then two in China and then the Emirates Cup to go before the Community Shield the weekend before the Premier League kicks off, surely Arsene Wenger would want to make the most of this time and get his best players fit and up to speed.
So what on earth were the Gunners doing in the final 20 minutes against Sydney FC with Mohamed Elneny playing in the centre of the back three? Arsenal were only 1-0 up at the time and if the opposition had been a bit better we may well have suffered an equaliser because the Egyptian certainly did not impress as a centre back.
We shouldn’t really expect him to either, so why did Wenger play him there I wonmder, especially when you have the club’s best defender Laurent Koscielny over on the tour of Australia. The France international was pictured in training on the Arsenal website this week so I am slightly concerned that we did not even see his name on the team sheet yesterday.
Another notable absence from that list of players was Aaron Ramsey, so is Wenger just being extra cautious with these two Gunners or have the injury problems started already for Arsenal? Does anyone know any more?
Bob.