After being delayed by 25 minutes, Arsenal arrived in good spirits ahead of their first pre-season clash of the year against non league Crawley Town.
Although Crawley themselves announced Henri Lansbury and Fran Merida would be turning out for the Gunners, the duo did not travel with the team which was coached by Steve Bould. Havard Nordtveit was with the boys in Austria last week, but he returned to London to skipper the Reserves.
Szczesny
Rodgers – Nordtveit (c) – Bartley – Steer
Ogogo – Dunne – Gibbs
Barazite – Fonte – Watt
Arsenal worked the first chance of the game with striker Rui Fonte crashing a header at Crawley stopper Rayner. Kyle Bartley would also go close minutes later, as his tame effort was clawed out.
Another neat Gunners passing move unlocked the town defence to send Fonte in once more, but he saw his goal-bound shot stabbed off the line by Lewis Killeen. With half time approaching Crawley seemed to step things up, Jamie Cook forced Szczesny into action, before Thomas Pinault thumped his effort into the stand.
More crisp passing created space for Barazite to sting Rayner’s gloves from a tight angle, but still the tenacious hosts held on.
Half Time – Arsenal 0-0 Crawley
Half time brought adjustments from both managers, with Steve Bould opting to introduce some of the star performers from his Under 18 team.
James Dunne > Emmanuel Frimpong
Rene Steer > Thomas Cruise
Sanchez Watt > Rhys Murphy
Both sides took time to settle down in the second half, with changes for both sides. But soon Arsenal got into their stride and stuck first blood. Barazite accelerated down the left hand side, before floating a cross to find Gibbs unmarked in the middle. His left footed shot flew in to put the visitors in front.
Luke Ayling came on with minutes left, before Barazite nearly added a second. But it finished 1-0.
A crowd of 2,341 had gathered at the Broadfield Stadium with 633 spectators there to cheer on the Gunners. Crawley chairman Vic Marley had his say after the fixture, and took time out to praise everybody to visited.
“The supporters have been brilliant and everyone is fully behind the new club. It has been a brilliant home pre-season.”
Article By – J.Sanderson
quality, well played youngens!
Is the reason for Merida and Lansburys absence known yet?
Also how come Nordviet has returned ahead of G. Hoyte as he is clearly the better defender.
Sounds like a good game did Murphy make any impact coming off the bench?
Cheers!
Good result against a side who trashed the spuds second string 6-0. Nice to see Gibbs get a goal. I expect he was feeling a slight bit of pressure after the crawley town manager bigged him up and kept quoting Wenger’s comment that Gibbs could be the next Giggs. Sounds like Barazite had a good game aswell.
Its all guna add to their pre-season fitness and get them in a bit of match shapness, and decent fitness for the coming Reserve league. Of course some of them will be off on loan, Gibbs looking like one of the likely candidates.
Nice to see some of the U18s get on aswell. Cruise, Bartley, Frimpong and Watt have very good potential. Frimpong especially really did himself proud for the U18s last season.
I think Crawley only used the Giggs thing so people would show more interest and turn up.
I think the website must have gone on Arsenal.com and just picked a handful of the youth boys and expected to them be going.
“I think Crawley only used the Giggs thing so people would show more interest and turn up.
I think the website must have gone on Arsenal.com and just picked a handful of the youth boys and expected to them be going.”
Probably. How did Fonte do, sounds like he managed to be center of the action at times but was he good or bad?
I think playing him as the focal point of the team will help. Watt is a real winger/forward type and having him and Barazite to assist with have no doubt helped.
I’d like him to forge a career with us, but i think he needs to be abit braver.
Makes sense. Hopefully Fonte will come on next season, theres no doubting hes got summin about him, highly rated in Portugal aswell cuz i remember the day after we signed him my m8 thats a die hard Sporting fan said i was supporting ‘an evil bunch of thieves’ :D
Btw, Ashley Young just scored the best goal of his carear, absolutely brilliant! Villa 1-0 Odense
Haha. Yep on quite a few Sporting blogs they were slating Arsenal for snapping him up.
Woah, I’m a big fan of Ashley Young. What was the goal like mate?
Cut past a few players at pace to just outside the centre of the area, smashed the ball and it rocketed into the far top corner, got quite a bit of curl aswell. He scores his fair share of stunners thou to be fair. I think hes a great player, skillful, great crossing and gets goals, if Joe Cole wasnt a Chelsea player Young would be ahead of him for England. Sadly thou current and even ex-Liverpool, Chelsea and Utd players seem to get preferance when it comes to England.
Didnt Fonte used to captain the portuguese U17 set-up aswell or am i just confusing memories?
Johnny Maverik – You’re right Johnny, he did used to skipper them
i heard wilfred bouma got a shocking injury in that game
I heard Young would be used as a striker ahead of Agbonlahor with Carew this season.
Why didn’t Mérida feature by the way? Because of the u-19?
Yea, not sure what it was, foot injury i think but they had to rush him to hospital. He’ll probably miss the start of the season and possibly quite a bit more. Not good for Villa seeing as Barry would be one of the players able to fill in there, still… hes not gone yet.
Ashley Young was superb all the way throu, great goal and a great performance to match it.
Nordtveit did not play. He got injured during warm up.
A Young can only dream of having Cole’s ball manipulative skill & control, young is good player but not anything more. Him & Agbonlahor lacks guile & adequate technique. Also I was checking the dribbling stats of these to player & its woeful, 25% & 19% respectively for more than 100 dribbles. Both players embody the theory of “try & error”.
They need to learn how to play with their brain 1st instead of their pace
“They need to learn how to play with their brain 1st instead of their pace”
Well i can see how that can apply to Agbonlahor who always looks extremely raw and overly explosive to me (by that i meen uncontroled), but ur wrong about Young.
The Fact Remains that Young scores more than Joe Cole, Assists more than Joe Cole, and plays that same amount of games as Joe Cole but isnt surrounded by 10 world class, big name players like Joe Cole is.
thanks for the Article Jay , do you have any idea where I can watch live matches online free ? I don’t get to see matches here from Nigeria expect Premiership matches which is not too good for me
http://soccerfanbase.com
I probably should be doing this but try this site: http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com/
Its not always reliable but its free and u can usually get the game u want.
shouldent*
JM doesn’t like the Cole.
Ashley Young came second to Cesc in the assists chart last year didn’t he? Considering that Cesc is an anomaly (in terms of talent), that shows how great Young could be. He’s still very young, so with time and experience he’ll learn the best decision to make more often than not. And as he got so many assists and made it into the team of the year, he’s obviously progressing pretty well. A good player with the potential of being a great one in my opinion, and should unquestionably be England’s no.1 LM.
Ablongahor will forever be a decent midtable striker. In the future he may occupy that Heskey/Vassell/Defoe/etc. role of being fifth picked England striker but he seems to lack technique and intelligence on the pitch. So, currently England’s fifth best striker?
I’ve seen a shot of Bouma’s ankle: geeeeeeez louise. Ow.
Oh wait, this is an Arsenal blog, my bad. ;) Who’s that new Irish signing?
Or bet356.com is good aswell, its free to sign up and u dnt have to give out any credit card details or any of that. U just sign up, watch the live stream of the game, have a bet if u want (i neva have and neva will) and there nothing more 2 it. The streams a bit jittery but its decent enough quality, definatly watchable. Its also completetly legal where as the other site im pretty sure isnt.
Young does not have accurate apporach play FACT, his pace make him a dangerous player, he is not renowned for playing intricate football [Triangle football, 3rd man running, 1-2, reverse passing etc]. Stop deluding yourself, good player but he falls into the category of many English players rated above their intrinsic value
Ashley Young had an extraordinary amount of assists last year but most we’re from free kicks, corners, and long balls up to Carew and co…
if he was good enough to play for us… Wenger would have signed him already… Villa is his level
“his pace make him a dangerous player, he is not renowned for playing intricate football”
Ur talkin bollocks. Young is a very intricate player, contantly playing 1-2s to go round players, playing in triangles, switching play accross field, cutting teh ball back to the outside of the area, as well as his stunning crossing ability, his skills to get himself out of trouble and his acuracy with both long balls and short passes it makes him a very good player, and like Samuel said, hes not a finished product yet, he can be a great player.
Joe Cole is a bag of tricks that very rarely delivers any end product, dont get me wrong hes a good player, and the Chelsea factor does enter into me not likeing him that much. But hes never shown himself to be a reliable player, hes inconsistant, and hes 26, so hes never guna get a whole lot better. 7 goal in over 50 games in an attacking position for ur National team is im sorry to say crap by any standards other than seemingly England standards.
Arsenal.com says Nordtveit was a late withdrawal with Jay Thomas in his place.
NORDTVEIT DID NOT PLAY TODAY
Samuel stop comparing Young to Cesc just bcuz he finiahed 1 assist behind Fab doesnt u should be stating young in the same breath as Fab.
Well said Good to be a GOONAH
Nice to see Gibbs put one away. Could be a big year for Frimpong.
Come on Rhys bang a few in early season!
SZCZEZNY,OGOGO ,STEER(CRUISE 57),DUNNE(FRIMPONG 57),BARTLEY,(capt)RODGERS(AYLING 74),WATT (MURPHY ht),GIBBS,FONTE,BARAZITE,EMMANUEL-THOMAS(EASTMOND 74).
the report of the game on the Arsenal website said that Nordveit was a late withdrawal and was replaced by Jay Thomas. They don’t give a reason as to why he was withdrawn
goal came after 70 mins .Vernazza came on at ht as part of his trisl but was replaced 75 mins .Why do I appear to be the only contributor here that took the trouble to travel the short distance from London to this game on a sunny weekend afternoon ?
Pontificating and opinions are much more relevant after live viewing.Perhaps some of you will get to Rushden on Thursday -I will hope to have returned from Stuttgart by then .
I WAS TOLD BY MATT FORTUNE (.COM’s REPORTER TODAY ON-SITE) THAT ARSENAL TV HAD NO CAMERAS AT CRAWLEY .
Gibbs did well. Where can I download the match.
I’m amazed at the subtle attack on Young. I’ll prefer Young to many of the players we have. Young can play at both RM and LM. He’s a direct player who takes on defenders. He’s one of the dead ball specialist in the premier league, an expertise we lack in our team apart from RvP. Young at Arsenal will really be great and contribute to winning things; we can have him for about 13/14 but it won’t happen.
It is a shame you’ve got your info wrong on this report then. Jay certainly doesn’t look anything like Havard. Me thinks you’ve copied some info from other sites lol
Good player though. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen of Jay Thomas. I think he’s got what it takes to make the grade. Not sure if CB or CM is his best position. How do you rate him versus similar type players that have come through before, such as Muamba and Djourou?
im a bit disapointed witht the result as i thought we could have beaten them by more
A few request’s
1,J could u give us the links to those sporting blogs?
2, Could u give us a list of the top young players at the club and how they rate along side the youngsters at the other big clubs in the country
both would be very much appreciated :)
yeah true, jay what do you think of Jay Thomas, i think hes very similiar to diaby. not just because hes tall, but because of his technique and ball control. plus i agree there should be some article on our youngster and how promising they are and if they would be able to make the grade at arsenal. kwl . blessssss…..
sos abwt the jay i got confused with j (you) and jay thomas.hehe
how long ndoes it take for comment(s) to be noderated ?
J do you know when players will be let go by the club and who will take their places in the reserves
forgot to say great article keep up the good work
WHATS GOING ON………..
MATE Nordtveit DID NOT PLAY
check the arsenal official site
MATE HOW CAN U POST A FALSE MATCH REPORT LIKE THIS
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=494372&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=Friendly:+Crawley+Town+0-1+Reserves+XI
I love Jay Thomas. Hes a personal favourite of mine. Does well at CB but i see him as a Central midfielder. Gets a fair share of goals, very tricky on the ball and can put in a decent tackle, not to mention his dominance in the air.
CC don’t make a drama out of it, probably just a mistake!
I don’t get this big Rui Fonte wankfest on here,A rubbish player if ever I saw one.The worst out of reserve/u18 teams attacking players,That’s right even worse than Giles Sunu who has been shocking for the reserves and french u17 teams in the last year.
Young was heavily scouted by us before Watford were in Prem,We signed Walcott not long after that,Most have been a toss up to which one we we’re going to sign.Can’t help but feel we made the wrong deal.
2, Could u give us a list of the top young players at the club and how they rate along side the youngsters at the other big clubs in the country
both would be very much appreciated
goonerguy said this on July 27, 2008 at 12:00 am
Read the player profiles, they are there for a reason. As for other youngsters, 1. why would you care? it’s not chelsea or united are ever gonna play them and 2. only city, boro and west ham have any yufs that will make games in the premiership. if jol stayed at spurs and jose at chelsea then maybe we’d see more breakthrough. 3. there are about ten youngsters in who look like they’d breakthrough at other clubs compared to the ten alone in our academy: Sturridge, Rose and Bale at Spurs, Sears and Tompkin at WHU, a couple at Boro no-one cares about unfortunatly (look at the rise of Wheater, cracking player but who cares?), di Santo and the fella who was linked to us as a hoax at Chelsea, the Brazilian fullbacks at Utd (will never make it but are supposedly great), that Pacheco striker at Pool – yeah, it’s slim pickings.
Any one got news about moses
J, have you heard the news that is linking us wit a move for Victor Moses… Jus wonderin if it was true, pls update us if u have any news… Thanks
J, Another DM added to the mix as well. Talk that we may go in for Gokhan Inler. Is there any truth to this one?
Who would you put your money on to be Arsene’s remaining buy(s) now?
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/sport/3550223.ARSENAL_TALK__Wenger_gets_a_double_boost/
Adebayor set to sign 4 year contract extension worth 75000 pounds a week with arsenal.
Dont know how reliable this source is so we will have to wait and see
From all the DM’s we’re still linked too I prefer Yaya Touré…
sanderson will anymore senior players return for the game tomorrow?
“From all the DM’s we’re still linked too I prefer Yaya Touré”
I have to agree with u there. If we’re guna bring some1 in my first choice would be him. There again, its an unlikely move by Wenger and he’d cost aswell, id say probably around 13-18mil. Im sure Wenger will find some1 if he feels we need some1 in there, and it wont be any1 we expect (probably better than ny1 we expect aswell).
As for Adebayor ill be really happy if he does sign a new contract and gets all this out the way before the start of the season so he can start where he left off last season, scoring us goals. My personal opinion is that the media have jumped on something lacking controvesy and have blown it way out of proportion. Ok so he wants a pay rise to put himself in the upper-bracket of Arsenal earners. Whilst if i was an Arsenal player id be happy with 5k a week and be done with it however well i was performing (christ, i’d play for a minimum wage if they wanted), i can understand his logic, as its undeniable hes a top performer for us, so it seems slightly unfair hes ok 30k a week whilst players such as Toure and Gallas are probably on 60-70k.
The media wanted a controvesy, and they created one so well done to them, i hope they sold alot of papers. The reality is Wenger wants Adebayor at the club, he doesnt want to leave the club despite what his agent is saying (why do players employ these wankers, all their interested in is their own wallet, not the interests of the player), give him a pay rise and be done with it.
does this mean that Nordveit has been deemed not ready for first team action then??
I agree with Dad about Rui Fonte – is it cos ‘e is foreign.
The thing that has always put me off about Moses is the doubt about his true age – and there’s a lot of others in that boat.
Sturridge is at City not Spurs by the way.
What is it with you guys wanting another African in Yaya Toure? Can’t you see how we get decimated every two years by the Africa Cup of Nations? No, get a european. I thought that Ruben de la Red looked decent for Spain at the Euros. He’s even a red by name – can’t beat that!
“I agree with Dad about Rui Fonte – is it cos ‘e is foreign.”
Well i dnt cuz we werent praising him. Theres potential, ny1 can see that, and he is highly rated over in portugal. But his performances are way below what ud expect of a young player of his talent and reputation. If anything we were criticising him, hes really gotta show hes got what it takes next season or he’ll just be another Van Den Berg.
Jack Wilshere’s left foot,
We get the best possible players. We’re not getting a crappy European when we can get an amazing African.
Yaya Toure > Ruben De La Red
Which is why Barcelona has Yaya Toure and not Ruben De La Red
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Wenger will have no probs splashin the cash this year coz he doesn’t need to spend next year. Next season 2009/2010 sees the return of TOP loanees:
Boletho
Merida
Barazite
Gibbs
Randall
Simpson
Lansbury
Gilbert
Even if we only keep 3 imo (Merida, Boletho & Barazite) we’ll make a small fortune off the other 5. Its a win win situation increase competition within the squad for free while making up to 10 mil on the other 5.
Oh yeah we’ll have Coqelin and Wilshire knocking on the door next year too
Cool post, maybe you dream fof writters?
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Sry, hehe))