by Nia Griffiths
After Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Wolfsburg, Arsene Wenger was keen to draw on the positives from this weekend, of which there are many.
Not only do we come away with a fully fit squad, the depths of which we haven’t had in a long time, but we have proof that we have two more than capable teams within it.
Both teams showed they were capable of scoring goals and keeping clean sheets, which is probably a good place to start when mounting a title challenge, although I’m no expert.
The first win on Saturday was by a landslide against Lyon as we thrashed them 6-0, while Sunday’s win saw a more patient, reserved team winning 1-0 against the Bundesliga side.
“First of all our defensive stability was very good,” Wenger said. “After that our game is well structured, we can create chances and our technical level is good.”
In Sunday’s fixture, Theo Walcott received a beauty of an assist by new Young Gun, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, who’s only 17, for him to bury in the back of the net.
The Emirates Cup has become renowned for giving the young players a chance to shine in front of the home ground and the boss was eager to praise them, saying, “Physically we are already not far from a very good level and some young players have done extremely well. We could give them a chance and that’s very pleasing for our fans to see that as well.”
He continued, “We had two different teams, two good games, everybody played well, we have no injuries and we had clean sheets. The young players who played were convincing as well so you could see that it’s a photo of the present and of the future as well. The team spirit is very good as well so everything is positive.”
On our the creativity and attitude within the team, Wenger has high hopes.
“It smells like we can score goals,” he said. “That is something that is very positive. Around the box our passing looks incisive, dangerous, creative, and our finishing has not always been at the level that we want it to be in the last two days but we cannot complain.”
‘It smells like we can score goals,’ an interesting take on the Nirvana classic there.