Written by Mean Lean on Sunday, 24 July 2011 01:08

We've got Gervinho.. We've got Gervinho..We've got Gervinho..We've got Gervinho!!

His transfer to Arsenal was the (latest) worst kept secret until he finally appeared on Arsenal.com, paper work seemly the obstacle. Well he finally got all that sorted in time for his first pre season game in Germany against FC Cologne.

I have been intrigued to know where Gervinho would start. I got my answer at 2.30pm on Saturday. Gervinho started on the left of a front three alongside Chamakh and Walcott. Could that be Arsene Wenger's strike force in the Champions League qualifier, that is very possible.

It didn't take Gervinho very long to show the Arsenal fans what he is all about. His starting position was from the left but he certainly does not intend on hugging the touchline. He made a great diagonal run from left to center and Jack Wilshere found his run with a clipped left foot pass into his stride. Gervinho's early finish was very clinical and very pleasing.

While the club are open to letting go of Cesc Fabregas this year, I wonder if in a round about way, Gervinho is Cesc's replacement. While Samir Nasri is an extremely gifted player, he lacks directness in attack and perhaps Nasri dropping back into the play making position will allow the team to be quicker and more direct going forward. Assuming that Nasri also stays at the club.

Gervinho proved it was no fluke when Wilshere's crossfield daisy cutter was allowed to get through to Theo Walcott following poor defending by the opposition left back, Walcott raced into the box and squared the ball into the area where there is often no Arsenal player taking up a position but this time Gervinho had found himself in the right place at the right time to turn the ball into the net from close range via a collision with the goalkeeper.

Last season felt like a season where everyone wanted to run to the ball. Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, Cesc Fabregas, Andrey Arshavin all wanted their fair share of ball manipulation but even if Gervinho does not reach the technical levels of some of those names, he will be invaluable to this team if he can continue to get into goalscoring positions throughout the season.

I am looking forward to Gervinho and Walcott having the movement, link up and artistry of Robin Van Persie alongside them. Marouane Chamakh is still out of sync right now and looks a shadow of the man that came in and hit the ground running last season. He gave the ball away frequently in the time he was on the pitch and did not cause the defenders any problems at all. Hopefully it is still pre season rust with him and he will get back to his best before the season starts. I certainly hope so because right now he is no threat to Van Persie's place in the team.

While Gervinho would understandably grab the headlines, he was not the man of the first half, that award goes to Jack Wilshere who was head and shoulders above his team mates. We are slowly seeing that 15 year old swagger that he had when he was dominating his age group back then. With Cesc Fabregas not involved, he is taking up extra attacking responsibility and I am enjoying that. His drop of the shoulder and turn of direction whilst running with the ball will open up plenty of space for our attacking wide players over the course of the season.

He may not yet be able to pick out the range of passes that Cesc can consistently, I have no doubt that he will be dominating midfield's in his own way over the next few years if he can steer clear of major injury.

Defensively our strategy was very risky at times. Our high line appeared very high, with especially Gibbs being caught too high up the pitch. He gave us a good outlet when we had the ball but when we lost it, Gibbs often struggled to reach the play when Cologne counter attacked.

It is why someone like Brede Hangeland would be an awful signing for us and would get exposed for a lack of space and mobility time and time again.

Our off the ball work has been something that I have been watching keenly since the pre season started. Our pressing of the opposition when we lose the ball in attacking areas. Jack Wilshere spoke post match about how the team have been working hard on winning the ball back high up the pitch and I could tell that from our Asia trip.

It is different to the Barcelona method of pressing. Instead of pushing right up the field and boxing the opposition outside of their penalty area, our attackers drop back to join our midfield and our defensive line pushes up the field leaving a compact area of space to apply intense pressing. This way the team do not have to expend a lot of energy pressing over the whole pitch.

The team of Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey have been doing it much better than the team of Samir Nasri, Robin Van Persie and Andrey Arshavin so far this pre season although I thought it was less effective yesterday than it was in Asia.

I am hoping the team can perfect it and can use it over the course of the whole season. If we do then I imagine that with our pacey forwards, we will see many counter attacking goals from the team in 3 or 4 passes with Walcott or Gervinho slotting away the chances.

My concern with the system is balls being played into the channels of the full backs, especially if they are pushing so high up the pitch.

Theo Walcott has been speaking of his desire to play as a central striker but I really do not see what would really change given the amount of rotation in the front line when we have control of possession. Chamakh often moved out of his central role into wide areas while Theo and Gervinho took turns to take up the strikers role.

Gervinho was taken off after half an hour, it was his first game of the pre season and he took a minor knock according to Arsene Wenger. It is a shame he couldn't stick around to claim a hat trick but with movement like his, I am sure he will get other opportunities. His overall link up play isn't perfect, his weight of pass wasn't always right but hopefully that will improve with time.

Ryo Miyaichi came on and gave the team something different from Gervinho. He didn't make as many central runs but his carrying of the ball was quality. One run and timed pass found Theo Walcott darting into the box from the left but Theo's cross to Chamakh was badly over hit. Ryo only managed to gain 15 minutes but in that time he once again showed he had the quality to play for us.

Carl Jenkinson continues to look steady and he had a good game. His own goal was a freak of nature and would have been a goal of the season contender at the other end of the pitch but he shouldn't get down about it. Much better to get it out of the way in a pre season game rather than at Old Trafford.

Team B came out for the second half, well apart from Kieran Gibbs who may have been kept on to correct his defensive positioning. I thought it interesting that Armand Traore was not involved as he had been in Asia. Is Arsene going back on his earlier statement that he didn't need a left back or was that a message to clubs who were putting high price tags on their players?

Samir Nasri continued in his favoured central attacking role, Tomas Rosicky playing as the second central midfielder and Carlos Vela continuing on the right of a front three. The rest of the side was players playing in their normal positions.

Defensively the team continued to have problems on the break, in fact we got caught more often in the second half and we were pretty lucky not to concede another goal.

Tomas Rosicky looked sharp and much closer to his best. I like the role given to him at this stage of his career. He may not have the decisive thrust to play as an attacking wide player or the killer passes to play in Cesc's role but he is a very intelligent player who keeps the ball well, makes space for himself and drives into spaces with the ball.

I hope to see more of him in this position during the upcoming season when the likes of Jack Wilshere and perhaps Aaron Ramsey need rotating.

Andrey Arshavin is not yet at his sharpest but he looks trimmer and fitter than much of last season which is a great sign. I would have loved to have seen a little of Arshavin playing behind Van Persie during this pre season.

The game yesterday also taught me that Emmanuel Frimpong is more mobile and a better ball carrier than I thought he was. I had a picture of Frimpong being a sitter who only tackled and played the ball simple but he ran with the ball well. His passing still needs work. He tried a few passes in between the lines that were intercepted, he also hit a few longer passes astray.

All in all it was a good run out, a much more intense game than previous pre season games so far. Our defending against the counter attack needs to sharpen up but we are more than capable of that given our defensive record in open play last season.

Wilshere, Gervinho, Miyaichi, Rosicky and Jenkinson were all impressive and that is good but the injury to Conor Henderson who was given a chance to impress at left back suffered a bad knee injury, hopefully it will not be as bad as Frimpong's last season.

I have my box tickets for the Emirates cup so I am looking forward to watching Wenger's strongest side merged together.

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Comments (17)

• 24-Jul-2011 11:14 | | fred  - Arshavin
  

  Arshavin looked like he has bulked up but mostly on his Arse. It even wobbled as he ran. Shocking really

• 24-Jul-2011 11:45 | | Vuja De
  

  I noticed that we seemed vulnerable anytime long balls were sprayed out to the wide area, and sometimes when they were simply played over the top of our central defenders too, particularly in the second half.
  
  When Vermaelen and then Djourou - in the second half - made forward runs to join in the attack, nobody in midfield dropped back to provide defensive cover...we were almost caught out on such occasions as we suddenly lost possession/an attack broke down, and we were immediately vulnerable to a swift long ball style counter-attack.

• 24-Jul-2011 12:21 | | podge
  

  I always thought Rosicky lacked the physicality to play in that position but maybe it does suit him now he is great on the ball(obviously) and works hard to win the ball he could be like Modric for us giving us 1 more option for that position we are pretty stacked there with Rosicky,Wilshere,Ramsey,Diaby and maybe even another youngster who moves up into the first team squad

• 24-Jul-2011 12:28 | | king gooner  - kozzer
  

  here's a novel idea-should we get another c/half,whoever it may be,what about "kozzer"as left back?any thoughts?

• 24-Jul-2011 12:29 | | MeanLean
  

  Podge, I agree completely. He could certainly do a Modric type job for us. Keep the ball moving, finding our attacking players with quality passes between the lines and joining our attacks. I hope we see the best out of him there

• 24-Jul-2011 12:31 | | MeanLean
  

  It was a big problem. Against the likes of Nani, young, Bale and co we cannot afford to give opponents that option.

• 24-Jul-2011 12:33 | | MeanLean
  

  Cannot see it myself given that Koscielny is right footed and wouldn't have the mobility and stamina to play that role in our system. Same goes for Vermaelen in my opinion

• 24-Jul-2011 18:15 | | Man United Killa  - Rosicky?
  

  Rosicky??Haha..are you kidding me?

• 24-Jul-2011 23:47 | | MeanLean
  

  So you didn't watch the game right?

• 25-Jul-2011 07:13 | | redboy
  

  Hold on to your hats boys we will get murdered down our left side next season with gibbs at left back.And why are we playing with such a high line all the time its just asking for trouble.

• 25-Jul-2011 13:04 | | jgunz  - gerviniho and our high line defense
  

  Gerviniho took his chances with glipses of real quality hope he can continue and get us 20+ goals in all compitions.
  
  why are we playing such a high line apart from our terrible set peices, we also look very vulnerable with counter attacking we need to either play our cb's a little deeper or force one of our fullbacks to stand on the half way line and watch for the ball over the top.

• 26-Jul-2011 00:50 | | Man United Killa
  

  I watched every second of the game..what makes you think Rosicky will carry this form into the EPL?...hahaha!show some ambition my friend!

• 26-Jul-2011 01:02 | | MeanLean
  

  What does ambition have to do with it? How does your ambition improve our chances? Serious question because you've said that a few times. I personally think he is a good player who didn't shine when given a limited amount of chances last season

• 26-Jul-2011 04:14 | | Man United Killa  - Ambition drives success and vice versa
  

  I never said Rosicky is not a good player..Only,he is no longer good enough for us.He is slow and indirect.And for the love of God can someone ask him to take a shot every now and then!God knows we have enough of players like that in our club.Diaby comes to mind!We don't need anymore.Pinning hopes on a veteran like Rosicky amounts to lack of ambition.If we only sign one more player ( a defender) like Wenger is saying then say goodbye to the league and other major trophies before they begin...especially if we dont change our ineffective tippy tappy and work on our porous defense.
  Let me tell you something ML..Like you,I see positives in this team..I just dont see as many as you do.I think you get ove-rexcited sometimes and make ridiculous comments about how you think we can win this and that.Sure,we can win stuff- but not with a squad short of at least 4 world class players.
  So tell me.Who would be your starting midfield if Cesc leaves?If you are going to start taking about a Ramsey-Wilshere-Song combination, forget it..dont waste your time.They are not ready for the big stage-maybe one day.The problem is that,at the start of the season,we seem to have too many players than we can count..but when the going gets tough it becomes obvious that we are a team populated by substandard players who just cant step up.
  Most of these kids coming through have potential but blending potential with World Class signings is key-Not only for winning trophies but for the development of these youngsters.These are my thoughts!

• 27-Jul-2011 12:54 | | Andy Mack
  

  We play a high line because we play a pressing game.

• 27-Jul-2011 17:48 | | Fg
  

  Probably because Nasri carried his form into the competitive season if I was too speak for Mean Lean.

• 29-Jul-2011 18:16 | | GTID  - 4-3-3 is the key
  

  for ages ive been arguing for rosicky as a central midfielder. altho he started out as a number 10 its obvious from the occasions he played there last season that he doesnt get involved in the game enough in that position and doesnt drive forward as he used to in his pre-injury days. he still does however move the ball very well and can play intelligent passes forward which he rarely misplaces.
  
  fabregas too is no number 10 and its baffled me why wenger continuously played him there when he himself stated that its wasnt his best position. in his best season we played a 4-3-3 which brought out the best of him but didnt work overall, but moving to 4-2-3-1 wasnt the answer. for a 4-3-3 to work you have to have strikers who can play wide, not out and out wingers. villa starts on the left for barca to great effect, as does pedro on the right. the reason it didnt work for us when we tried it was that we'd play players like rosicky and nasri in wide positions and as a result there was rarely any penetration, hence the over-relaince on rvp and fabregas.
  
  mata's the key here with him and gervinho on the wings, actual strikers who can create problems from wide with their runs infield then 4-3-3 is definitely the way to go, if by some miracle fabregas stayed then he should be restored as the third central midfielder with rosicky or wilshere behind.

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