Arsenal finished their pre-season tour of Asia with
a 2-1 win over Urawa Red Diamonds in Japan on Friday 26th July.
The first chance of the game fell to the hosts, when
Tsukasa Umesaki evaded Jack Wilshere’s challenge before seeing his shot fizz
wide of Fabianski’s post. Arsenal then got a foothold in the game when Theo
Walcott went on a mazy run from the right which has become a trademark in his
career, before his shot hit the post and bounced clear.
The next moment of note in the first half was a
nervous moment for Arsenal’s Polish goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski. He spilt a
cross under pressure from Brazilian midfielder Richardes, but recovered
brilliantly to deny the Brazilian a shot at goal.
Arsenal then had a ten minute siege on the Diamonds’
goal, Olivier Giroud’s free kick deflected of the wall for a corner, which led
to a 30 yard strike from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain that rocketed off the
crossbar. Theo Walcott then tried his luck from slightly closer range, but a
deflection took the sting out of the shot and made it an easy catch for goalkeeper
Yamagishi.
Another free kick, this time from Walcott, was put
behind and from the resulting corner, the hosts cleared under some pressure
from Laurent Koscielny. Afterwards Bacary Sagna, who has played better in his Arsenal career,
managed to over hit a pass to Giroud so badly that it went out for a goal kick.
Fabianski then made a wonderful save to keep out
Ugajin, who cut inside left-back Ignasi Miquel before aiming his shot into the
top corner. The Arsenal stopper showing alertness after having nothing to do
for a good 20 minutes. 0-0 at Half Time.
Arsenal made five Half-Time substitutions,
Mertersacker replaced by Carl Jenkinson, Arteta and Wilshere off for Rosicky
and Ramsey and Gnabry and Giroud off for Ryo and Podolski.
And it was striker Podolski that set Arsenal moving,
Ramsey’s ball into the box finding Walcott, who squared it back to the German,
who was playing in the central striker’s role, to volley home emphatically
after having only been on the pitch for three minutes.
The Diamonds then went up the other end and Ugajin’s
cross was tipped over by Fabianski, and the resulting corner only went out for
a goal kick.
It was then Walcott’s chance to score, but in trying
to round the keeper, only passed it straight to Yamagishi.
French defender Koscielny then showed that he could
challenge injured club captain Thomas Vermaelen when the Belgian returns by
sliding and blocking Koroki who was advancing on the Arsenal goal.
After a Diamonds’ free kick was turned behind for a
corner, the Gunners failed to clear convincingly and former Leicester City
defender Yuki Abe thrashed his shot past a helpless Fabianski.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott were
replaced by promising youngsters Gedion Zelalem and Chuba Akpom.
Another ball forward from the right-back area, again
from Ramsey, caused havoc amongst the Diamonds’ Defence that gave Akpom a
chance he couldn’t miss.
Aaron Ramsey then went close before Ryo Miyaichi had
a shot deflected that went straight into the keeper’s arms.
Arsenal have since returned to England, participating in a disappointing Emirates Cup in which they drew to Napoli and lost a half-time lead to Galatasaray. That said, they did power to a 3-1 victory over Manchester City on Saturday. Now for the big kick-off, next Saturday, August 17th.
Man of the Match: Laurent Koscielny, he showed more
than enough that he will be a crucial part of Arsenal’s defence if they want to
improve on 4th place in the fast approaching Barclays Premier League
season.
One to Watch: Chuba Akpom, played for Arsenal’s
under 18 team at 15 years old and looked like one for the future, it would be
an idea to loan him out to a Championship or League 1 team.
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