Arsenal’s pre-season kicked off where it normally does, at The Underhill in Barnet. The exciting news before the match was that Ramsey and Vela were to be named in the squad, as it turned out Vela didn’t make the starting line up or the subs bench.
We did get a good look at Ramsey tho, he played the first 45 minutes and what I saw was quite impressive. He sprayed the ball all over the pitch, especially towards the right wing position. Sagna was bombing on to receive the Welshman’s advancing passes.
The rest of the first half team didn’t really impress me. I know it’s a friendly and we can’t really read too much into it but I did feel that Almunia, Walcott and Bendtner let themselves down a bit. The Spanish goalkeeper (soon to be English?) failed to save a simple direct free-kick from Barnet’s Gilet. Theo and Nicklas were far too quiet for my likings and didn’t really threaten the Barnet goal.
The second half saw Arsenal make 11 changes and we looked a lot better for it. Jack Wilshere caught the eye with some impressive passing as did Barizite. Jay Simpson found the net mid-way through the half and he supplied the pass for the winning goal which Barizite tucked away quite nicely.
The first game of the season ended well and as usual Arsenal passed the ball well and attacked well. Our defending wasn’t as good as Barnet did cut us open a few times. But as I said we can’t read too much into these pre-season games just yet. Once the main first teamers get back and playing we’ll have more of an idea on where we stand.
