Gunners Finish with Win

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 17^th.

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 4^th 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.