Everyone is up in arms because we lost a pre-season friendly in a stadium in China at 35 degrees celcius of heat, not to mention the humidity. These conditions are not even remotely similar to the conditions Arsenal will have when we play back in England. Not only that but Antonio Conte played a full first team, while Wenger preferred to give some youngsters the chance to learn from the inconsequential match.
As Wenger said on Arsenal.com: “I played some boys with a lack of experience in unusual positions to see how they can cope with it,”
“Chelsea went for a regular team from the start on and I had a mix in one half and in the second half. We paid a little bit for it, but despite that, it was not all negative.
“We had some very good moments in the game as well, but we couldn’t score. Overall, I think there were lots of positives in the game. We lacked a bit of experience in decisive positions.
“They [the younger players] learned that every ball at that level is important. You cannot be at 95 per cent in these kind of games.
“You have to be completely 100 per cent committed and they paid for every mistake. The pace of the game was much higher than they are used to. They will go home with plenty of things to think about and hopefully they will learn quickly from it.
“As well, I must say there were a lot of positives from some young players. They have shown personality, quality and that they have a good chance at that level.”
Besides giving the youngsters a chance, he felt that overall the performance was encouraging and the scoreline does not worry him so much, especially as we played a massive game against Bayern Munich just three days previously. “I think it was a game of a good level where we finally lost well. It was a bit of a combination for us, I think it was a good opportunity for me to see players at that level who have no experience. I tried to play two teams with a mixture of regular players and young players. Of course you could see that we were a bit less mature than Chelsea. Also it was the last day of our tour, it was quite long and we looked a bit jaded tonight.”
And does he think that the players will be affected by the heat and humidity when they get home? “I think the impact is small. We are a bit tired because we worked hard. Overall, we fly back tonight and we recover. It is normal that the players are a bit tired after two weeks of intense preparation. This week we had two intense games as well but for us it’s better than playing weaker teams. We had two big teams to play and it’s good to see the potential of everybody in these kinds of games.”
So come on Arsenal fans, give Wenger a break! He has taken some youngsters away (while many of our best players stayed at home) and he has given them the opportunity to play against big teams in front of massive crowds. This can only be good for their development. Obviously he is not going to experiment when there are real points and trophies at stake. Surely he has done the right thing?
Sam P
Another Wenger experiment gone wrong then. Great pick me up for the youngsters.
2019 can’t come soon enough, the mans deluded
You have no clue Wolf !
That’s all you have, a general sweeping statement saying I have no clue? Clearly you have not been at watching Arsenal for the last 13 years. That’s where I get my clues where u get yours??
Pre season tours are hardly any basis to measure anything. The squad is not fully fit. The team was not remotely close to the starting line up (Sanchez?, Koz, Mustafi, Bellerin, Holding, probably several others..), Lacazettes barely met let alone worked with the squad, on the back of being in Oz the previous week, huge changes in climate, playing in extremely humid stadium…how does this compare to anything that’s likely to occur in 2/3 weeks time back in the uk?? Save your moaning till you’ve something reasonable or rationale to complain about.
I’ll give you something rationale and reasonable, the other teams where also playing in the same conditions as us and Chelsea is our competitor in the same league, champions last year to remind you, and they are clearly not doing what we were doing. We even played three games more than them before our encounter!
Arsenal always have stupid excuse to lose, I am assuring you that it will be the same ball game , the same excuse during the season. Arsenal have not done any meaningful upgrade that is capable of improving the team, how do you move from 5th to first, the teams ahead of you are improving and you are not,
Arsenal is really a club that gives youngsters too much liberty. The first team should be a privilege not a training ground for youngsters, that’s the hard truth!
You can’t read much into pre-season. Wenger has exposed young players to new cultures and the experience of playing in difficult conditions (in this case the heat and humidity). It can only be good for there development.
A full strength celskj side vs an experimental young arsenal side is no real reflection and only add support that the club is tying to develope new talent which spending a few quid to strengthen the team. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
Agree with your final statement there. That’s why we’ve no EPL in 13 seasons
What about 3 FA cups in 4 years? Or is that only not a trophy whenever Arsenal win it? It is people like you that make our fan-base a laughing stock. I would so love for people like you to go “support” a different team; as everyone will be happy then (as long as you pick one of those teams that buys their way to success).
What do on know about ‘people like me’ Supported the the club longer than you most probably been alive. No its people like you who ‘could’ go and support another club because you support Wenger and not Arsenal. Your the sellout
Yes go support another team
Sorry Jay that reply was meant for Gooner 100
I’m a sellout because I actually get behind the club and support the players and manger? What an utterly shit argument; you don’t have clue. The only counter-arguments you could come up with, are nothing but conjecture, which you couldn’t possibly know.
You do realise that all your negativity does, is create a toxic atmosphere which effects the players? So, with that in mind, you tell me which one of us is more of an asset to the club? Because the players actually respond well, when they hear the fans getting behind them. You should actually listen to the hugely detrimental effect “boo-boys” like yourself have on some of our players.
“Nothing ventured nothing gained” that can be said the same about our first team development. It’s all nice that young players and put in the deep end to gain knowledge and experience but it’s another thing to do it in pre-season where first team players are supposed to work on their tactics and integration.
Total delusion. We were hammered by Bayern Munich too, but got lucky. We had nothing to beat in Australia. I don’t know why Wenger suddenly stopped upgrading, but he has. Chelsea and City and United have tried to get better. Wenger started well and has lost his way. Same old story, same old groundhog day. Wenger just cannot do it anymore. Without Sanchez we are poor. Sad but true. It’s more than just giving youngsters a chance. There is something fundamentally wrong.
My Copy & pasted post from previous artical:
Wenger basically has the same team he had last season. I see no light at the end of the tunnel until he goes. Transfers still arduous and slow while our rivals leaving us behind in this transfer window.
Two pre-season games, both Munich & Chelsea have ripped us a new one. Sorry nothing has changed, Wenger not the man to take ur forward
We lack ambition at Arsenal we are the big club that is desperate for the title more than others but we are not showing hunger in our business, We have a scouting that is very poor as we have wasted a lot of Money on the wrong Sanchez is the only great player we have bought for decades, Ozil buy was mistake we had carzorla the we wanted a striker, we wssted money on xhaka, Elneny, chambers,welbeck, mustafi and finally in lacazette he lacks height and physicality to thrive in epl you saw yesterday he was suffocated by Chelsea defenders he did not look a threat at all,but hey let’s blame Kreonke for paying the highest wage bill in Europe for Deadwoods…pooor management poor Arsenal what do you expect
You’re talking out of your ass. You don’t have to like those players that’s your prerogative, but don’t expect people to agree with that as we all have a list and we all have our opinions. Mustafi and Xhaka have had one season dude, I see you don’t have Coquelin in your list – he must have been great from day one. Elneny is a 5m squad player and your banging on about wasting money in this day and age of Football. Welbeck an England International who was young enough to improve, he went for his correct value. Chambers costly yeah, but he also found Holding, and other managers wouldn’t blink about spending 17m on a CB.
I disagree that we lack ambition, spending money on duds does not show lack of ambition but poor scouting. Where I am not convinced about on our transfer strategy iis our unwillingness to compete for players with top clubs altleast go out and get them early and flip them when they are older. Two examples, if we are going to spend 53m on Lacazette, why didn’t we go all out and get Lukaku who has the experience and physicality needed? But if we are not willing to compete with Chelsea and the rest for players at least go the other way and be Atletico Madrid, BVB or Monaco and snatch Dembele, Abumenyang, Falcao, Aguero,Costa, Griezmann,or develop Martial , Lemar and Mbappe.
Currently, we are stuck somewhere in between, not developing our own talent to the max, not buying promising players early (Abumenyang 10m, Dembele 15m and Griezmann 24m) and not targeting the absolute best
It’s the 11 players who’ve played the most minutes, they are the ones who f’d up most of all. It’s the favorites that didn’t stand up. All but Alexis.
If it’s their first season with us well then you give them a little slack. Main culprits for me were Ozil, Walcott, Coquelin, Bellerin, Monreal, Koscielny. Some will say why Walcott. It’s because we tend to have to swap him out, even when he’s scoring, because he is so dreadfully bad at all the other stuff.
Worst squad player that done the most damage in the little amount of time, goes to Gabriel. Best squad player goes to Giroud, Ox and Ramsey done well at the latter stages but Giroud done it over a huge chunk of the season.
The negativity and pessimism on this website is just too much…..people always finding things to say. This is the last time am opening this site, it has become a waste of time. No support for the arsenal football club whatsoever
Yes, support for Arsenal FC, always.
Arsenal FC, not Arsene FC.
We are 3 weeks away from the start of the season and we are 2-3 players short. Not to mention we have Sanchez, Mustafi, Holding, Chambers and who else still on holiday!!
Now you’re being pessimistic. I think most of us are realistic individuals besides a few. Support or our football club is irrelevant of how you support it, everyone does it in his or her own way.
After more than a decade, thats what you have to say, wonder how u guys get to format ur brains once a seasoN bout to commence.
…from what I could see on updates from sydney and china – the newbies at arsenal lacked focus and I could well believe they were fielded with the view to seeing how they respond to Chelski a team that can put their act together when it counts. We have some fun boys among our numbers so perhaps that humbling in a relatively meaningless competition will bring our fun boys down to earth. The idea being that as things stand they not the finished item BUT that’s not to say they wont learn from their naive fun-boy approach to being followed worldwide by the media machine and adoring fans. The quality among them will eventually emerge, OR they’ll be shown the door -hopefully.
I know it’s only a friendly, and the score doesn’t matter but, what I saw against Chelsea doesn’t bode well the season ahead.
It was the same style of play we’ve seen for the past few seasons, too many passes from defence to midfield, a lot of those passes going astray, or putting the player under pressure from the opposition, to slow as well. By the time we’re in the opposition half, they’ve 8 players behind the ball, and we get crowded out and the move breaks down. There seems to be no urgency about the play unless there’s 10 minutes to go and we’re losing.
Also, look at what the clubs are doing around us, they’re spending big (with the exception of Spurs), City Utd, Chelsea and even Everton are far more ambitious than we are, it looks like it could be another season of frustration and dare I say boredom coming up for us.
So true. The problem really is so much the players, but rather the fact, that Wenger can’t organize a team defensively. And I hope that we will see improvement defensively, because we can’t win the league with the usual “Wenger Defense”. That is our problem and unfortunately, there are no signs yet, that things could get better.
Sick and tired of our negative toxic fans. This was a meaningless friendly against a team we beat twice last year in competetive matches including FA cup final. We have made two big signings with hopefully more to come and let us start judging team from 11th Aug when we play our first Premier match.
Here here,still time to make some additions to the first team (hopefully) and to get still absent players back into the fold,so I’ll give it another couple of weeks and then assess the state of play before writing off the season just yet.
Wenger: “There is nothing friendly in Arsenal vs Chelsea’s match”
Conte: let me give you full taste of my squad.
Wenger: *giggle* the only hint i will share with you is my youngster, not even in his position, though
lol. Conte putting the willies up teams before the seasons even started. Mind games. And what we get from la professeur de noisette?? A footballing ‘lesson’ from Bayern & Chelsea.
Youth not an excuse for me or pre season. That’s the trouble with you akb’s you except mediocre and defeat as normal.
for god sake it was a friendly. plus we were playing with back 4 which is usually shit when played against big teams. 4-2-3-1 only worked against m.city because we dominated there midfield and only with 3-4-3 do we fight well vs big teams.
seeing as most of you dont watch other teams play each week like i do, u wouldnt really realise how scrappy some chelsea wins were both vs big and small teams.
On the starting lineup, only Niles and Bramall can be considered as ‘boys without experience’ and yes Chelsea started with the best 11 they had. But, lets not kid ourselves we do not look any better than last season yet. And for me, I am not sure its the players or that new signings are the solution.
I am convinced our manager long lost the dynamism and ruthlessness needed to win in this league. The EPL now has some of the most celebrated managers in the world and Wenger will not win anything if he is not ready to change. Some will say, ” but Wenger changed to a back 3 last year and it worked’. But for me that’s not enough.
Wenger has to learn to change game by game. Be more attacking against mid to bottom table teams and more defensive against the big guns. Currently, rival bosses know how Arsenal will line up on Monday and that’s not good. I see no reason why Lacazette and Giroud cannot start together in some games to keep some of these teams honest defending.
And for heavens sake, resolve the defensive midfielder position, if you are going to have Ozil and Xhaka as your Nos 10 and 8, then we need a solid no 6. We all now Ozil and Xhaka cannot defend and I am not sure Coquelin is a championship winning no 6.
Summer matches are even less important than training matches. Sanogo scored a hattrick (actually 4 goals) in one summer match.
The only thing I’m concerned about is Kolsanic’a physical fitness and why Wenger is playing Eleny and Niles out of position. I hope it’s just to give real defense rest
I’m more concerned about more signings
Kolsanic and Lacazette are NOT enough.
Chelsea have got Batshuyai and Morata. They aren’t finished. Spurs, Liverpool, United are all improving
We have improved to Top 4 ability but not to Title winning level yet.
We need Lemar, a top CM (ie Goretzka, Gueye, Carvalho) minimum to compete for the Title
The latest Bull??? is that Monaco are willing to accept £55 million for Lemar.
Chelsea have joined Liverpool and City in the chase for The Ox and are supposedly set to bid £25 million in the next 48 hours lol.
Meanwhile, Mahrez is still trying to force a move to Arsenal.
I appreciate your bull****, I mean updating us on the bull**** LOL
I think you are more credible than Guilleli or however you spell his name lol
I hope this won’t be a case of Lemar and Mahrez wanting to come to us but Wenger being too cheap
As far as I know, Wenger hasn’t bid on Mahrez yet.
God knows what is in his mind
Wenger blaming tiredness already, is bare jokes! ?? Hey Sam P, it’s not as if Chelsea were playing in Air conditioning fitted kits or something. So you can’t use the heat or humidity as an excuse for that defeat, let’s just leave it as an experiment which went wrong and move on.
More importantly, we need to hope that there’s some transfer activity happening at Arsenal during this week… Tick Tock.
For us to really maximize our chances. I believe we need to sort out CF RW CM and CB, we got Lacazette so hopefully he’ll do a bit more than fine. Those other positions, we haven’t done anything about them. Unless you’re thinking the CB role – Holding and now maybe Beilik. But that’s not what I mean. Also some people will look at the CB situation thinking it is the least of our concerns, but is it?. When it’s right back there, it gives the players ahead so much confidence knowing a mistake by themselves is not so costly as that is one well drilled (I wont say rearguard lol) back-line. I don’t think it’s about selling players, we need to open space up alright, but I’d sell the ones who are serially here after every seasons failure, make example of a few. But it’s all about who we bring in – So first up for me would definitely be a huge commanding CB ..who’d have a nickname like the Eagle/Vulture. Next up CM, find one that we can get at-least six top seasons, go balls out on this one as this position after reinforcing CB is what I’d liken to a Boxer lining up his feet, ready to throw the knockout blow. The knockout blow would come from the next two positions – right wing and striker. Hopefully Lacazette is as calm and clever as they say he is when in front of goal, also not as wasteful as others. We need a right wing that can compliment Alexis and Ozil, it’s uneven at the minute, lob-sided. I’ll leave it to Wenger, if I knew he felt this way that would be the job half done.
Honestly, one loss in a friendly match and already so many Arsenal “fans” are acting like it’s the end of the world. Why do we have to have one of the worst fan-bases in the PL? It’s an embarrassment.
Is it any wonder we sometimes struggle with the toxic support the idiots on here provide.
Are you lot for real, it’s a PRESEASON friendly . We have bought in two quality signings. If u are that unhappy go and support spurs. We have travelled halfway round the world and played in unpleasant conditions. It is about time you moaners got behind the team or go and support someone else. COYG.
Looks like the AKB are back won’t be long before they disappear similar to last season
I’m all for supporting you club but I also have a brain if something is wrong I will say. I still support Arsenal but I’m not deluded enough to follow like a sheep no matter what happens
If the tables were reversed –
If Arsenal had played our best team (or close to it) against a half/half Chelsea team and won 3-0
I’d have been happy – for sure!
But I wouldn’t be celebrating too much either. Because I know (and you know) this was not an even match playing best vs best!
God Arsenal fans are a fickle, hysterical lot. I’m seeing people predict the entire season as a calamity from just this game. You people are spineless! Pathetic!
Not only was it just a friendly, we played with a backline that never played together before and a bunch of youth. The entire team was in an unfamiliar setup with the top 3 scorers missing. Chelsea played a full strength first team.
If anything, this game will lull Chelsea into a sense of false confidence while making Arsenal hungrier and more determined for the Community Shield.
Here’s what I learned –
• Players playing well individually
– Ox
– Giroud
– Coqueline
– Cech
– Ospina (under-rated)
– Monreal
– Iwobi – starter contender
• Our shape needs work!
• We at risk from simple balls over top
• Nelson Willock – maybe ready for cup games – and good potential for future
Here is the current transfer business by the top 6 clubs from last season.
Arsenal In
Sead Kolasinac (Schalke) Free
Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon) £52
Total spent = £52 so far
Chelsea In
Willy Caballero Free
Antonio Rudiger (Roma) £35
Tiemoue Bakayoko (Monaco) £40
Alvaro Morata (Real Madrid) £70
Total = £145
Liverpool In
Mohamed Salah (Roma) £35
Dominic Solanke (Chelsea) Free Details
Andrew Robertson (Hull City) £10
Total = £45
Manchester City In
Bernardo Silva (AS Monaco) £45
Ederson (Benfica) £35
Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur) £51
Douglas Luiz (Vasco De Gama) Undisclosed
Danilo (Real Madrid) £27
Benjamin Mendy £52
Total = £210
Manchester UnitedIn
Victor Lindelof (Benfica) £37
Romelu Lukaku (Everton) £90
Total = £127
Everton In
Jordan Pickford (Sunderland) £25m
Davy Klaassen (Ajax) £24
Henry Onyekuru (Eupen) £8
Sandro Ramirez (Malaga) £6
Michael Keane (Burnley) £30m
Wayne Rooney (Man Utd) undisclosed
Cuco Martina (Southampton) Free
Total = £93
Tottenham Hotspur NO PLAYERS
Now I think there is still reasons to be cheerful,I agree Man C & Chelski have spent & bought some good players,we all understand that 5 of those teams might be in the CL proper which is a huge distraction for those 4-5 teams.Chelsea will not be able to field the same 13-14 players all season,as for Man C they were very frail at the back last season,add to that 2 flying wing backs and I’m not sure they will be any better this coming season.LFC will most probably have CL as well if they qualify and haven’t exactly bought great players apart from Salah who could be a good aquasistion for them.Spuds have sold a good player & strengthened a rival & still not bought a single player yet,Man U have bought 2 good players & in Lukaku have a proven goal scorer in the PL but if they play the same dour way they did last season & with the added games the CL brings will they perform week in week out in the league ??? As for Everton yes they have released a lot of players and also brought in a lot too to give better quality in the squad as they have Europa league the same as US the big difference is I think we will play squad players & youngsters maybe with a few senior players all the way up to the QF
This tells me most of our rivals will pave the way for us to field pretty much the same side every weekend in the PL thus giving us an advantage over all the other 5 teams playing in the CL & Europa,just remember the League has been won in the last 2 seasons by teams NOT in Europe YES we are this season but I think Wenger will put all his eggs in the League basket and field an under strength side in all comps hence focusing on the League until we are no longer in the race.
I’m a supporter who has been through the highs and lows over the last 10 years but let’s face it only Chelski & Citeh have dramatically improved their team the others have done about the same business as us,Everton won’t challenge so that leaves us to buy at least 2 more players to strengthen the 1st 11 and really go for the league,look it might not pan out that way but I’m actually more confident this season than I have been for a while and this is based on extra European games and who has done the best business so far,Man U are only buying 1 more player FACT & we still have plenty of cash to get more players so let’s band together support the team,club and manager this season and you never know what will happen.
COYG
We didn’t win the league last season, we finished 5th,so we should be the ones who should have done more activity in transfer .Next season we will be a mid table team
Admin need to do something abt now arsenal supporters in this group, this guys ridicule my dear club in d name of hating Wenger, is not by force u support arsenal, go n support Chelsea n conte, or man u and Mou. Just bcos we lost pre season , u comr up with all these insult. Wenger has done d best thing not to use our first team against a team we r about playing in community shied.
Are you 12 writing like that !
Definitely thinking like that!!!
Admin need to do something abt non arsenal supporters in this group, this guys ridicule my dear club in d name of hating on Wenger, is not by force u support arsenal, go n support Chelsea n conte, or man u and Mou. Just bcos we lost a pre season game, u come up with all these insult. Wenger has made d best decision not to use our first team against a team we r about playing in community shied few days to come.
Looks like the akbs are doing what they do best just before the start of every new season, and worst 75% into the season… What might that be???? Lol
For the junkies on this site pre season is no more important than 14 years without winning big trophies … They just want to hear the yoghurt man say he is doing his best for the club and they are on a high
If we bring in Lamar, mahrez and or rafinha and Carvalho will take the man seriously and all are available
Sell ox Walcott welbeck Gibbs wilshere jenkinson debuchy Gabriel elneny to fund at least half of what we need …
I shouldn’t read too much in to there pre season and Wenger did play some youngsters to see how they fared, if we sign four quality players specially lemar, mahrez and rafinha and a goalkeeper we be a force, ok Manchester United and City plus Chelsea have brought expensive players, but you need a settled side, money won’t win you the title, consistency and a winning formula Will.
I think Chelsea will struggle next season with Costa and matic leaving
It’s disheartening seeing Wenger in charge & doing the same coward transfers but even more sadden is reading comment from supposed arsenal fan saying shits like we still got many players on holiday & there is Sanchez, excuse me morons people like & your arsene is why he wont sign for coz u don’t match his ambition. After we missed out of top 4 which I’m happy & hoping we’ll start making real recruitment but no, kolasinach is unproven & not sure lacazett is world class & we are not even do in anything about cm + Walcott is a liability with giroud + Sanchez is still a mystery..I’m afraid our dear club needs divine rescue coz like le prof most fans don’t know whats up
Wenger had just one job to do, put out a team that beats Chelsea. You don’t mess about experimenting against Chelsea.
that job is in the Premier League not at the end of four matches pre season in 35 degrees heat… !!
if Arsene had played a full team like Chelsea and got someone injured you guys would have been up in arms…
Guess what Pedro got a serious injury for Chelsea and I am sure Conte is the more worried manager !
Looks like all AKBs are out to thumbs down every comment against winger. People like them are why our club is going this way
We should have fielded our first choice team at least in the first half in order to challenge our EPL rival. Loosing to a direct rival has a multidimensional impact on any team moral as it is more than just a friendly. Trying with youngsters is good but not in such a game which is vital for the team future performance motivation. Any way let’s learn from it and look forward.