Arsenal’s build up to the new season really kicks off tomorrow afternoon as the Gunners head to Barnet’s Underhill Stadium for the inaugural pre-season friendly of the season.
The fixture has become a regular in recent years, with the club opting to play the game as a part of an agreement which allows the Reserve team to ground share with The Bees. But it’s not only traditional to start preparations at Barnet, it’s also a regular play ground for a selection of promising youths. This year will be no different.
Although a selection of first-team players who didn’t go to the World Cup will play, a rotation policy for the second half should see some of the stars of the future again get match minutes in front of the boss. The aim is to sufficiently impress and make the plane for Austria. The new 25 man squad rule puts extra significance on their impact this year.
Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs have been working hard over the summer, and both are in contention to start the game. The former is one of a series of loanees who will play, giving Arsène Wenger an idea as to whether they’re first-team material, or they need a little extra before making the step up. Henri Lansbury, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Wojciech Szczęsny are all others who fit into that particular category.
Last season saw a 2-2 draw, with Dutchman Nacer Barazite scoring his third in as many appearances against Barnet. You wouldn’t bet on him doing it again after fully recovering from shoulder surgery. Thomas Cruise, Francis Coquelin, Oğuzhan Özyakup and Gilles Sunu are all absent, as they’re away at the Under 19 European Championships. Kyle Bartley is also out after suffering a shoulder injury during the holidays. Full news on the squad is expected later today, so feel free to leave your team predictions in the comment section below.
Kick off at Underhill is at 3pm.
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jay do you think afobe or aneke will get any games in pre season or is it to early
I hope Afobe does he has signed professional terms with us so we wont lose him
has aneke signed a contract aswell if he has bring him in
he’s a brilliant player
Aneke is still, somehow, only 16 so he legally can’t sign a professional contract yet I believe. Afobe is most likely going to be going with the Reserves during pre-season as they have quite a few friendlies planned too.
for the first team i meant
Do anybody know is its any truth in the Wickman story?
I hope so but 7 million for a player is crazy
didnt think he was that special
although for a guy his size he’s very good technically
i wouldn’t expect either of them to be involved.
there’s a number of players i’m particularly interested in seeing what happens to this season
and tomorrow may give us an indication on that…….
Can Lansbury, Wilshere and JET show that after their loan spells they are ready for graduation?
Can Eastmond show that he is capable of being the back up to Song that the squad requires?
Barazite is another interesting one….. this really is a big season for him.
Will Frimpong progress or has he lost out to Eastmond and potentially Coquelin?
So many questions…… tomorrow will be good fun. Anyone that’s going, I’ll see you there.
How much were your tickets mate?
I paid 38 quid for two tickets, which included the booking fee. Ring the ticket office on 020 8449 632.
I’ll be in the Community Stand, as it’s a seated area and it’s unreserved seating so first come first serve.
Cheers mate.
I wouldn’t expect Afobe or Aneke to play. They’ve not been back training long, they were given extra time off because of the U17 Euros. They’re still Reserves anyway.
No truth in the Wickham story either.
If he goes with the most experience, i expect these 2 line-ups
Almunia
Eastmond, Djourou, Vermaelen, Gibbs
Nasri, Denilson, Rosicky
Walcott, Eduardo, Arshavin
Fabianski
Hoyte, Nordveit, Koscielny, Traore
Wilshere, Randall, Lansbury
Simpson, Chamakh, Barazite
I dont think i am far out squad has just been announced with Miguel, Frimpong and Henderson in instead of Hoyte, Randall and Simpson, seems the writing is truly on the wall for thse 3?
First X1 as above 2nd X1
Fabianski
Miguel, Nordveit, Koscielny, Traore
Lansbury, Frimpong, Henderson
Wilshere, Chamakh, Barazite
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/arsenal-announce-22-man-squad-for-barnet
Squad up. No Randell, Simpson, Hoyte Watt
Hajduk Split released Marko Livaja…
nice player I hope arsenal does sign him and for a 16 year old good height
wenger should sign him…
have they got a work permit for pedro bothelo yet and i would like to see frimpong play as i think he is better than eastmond and should have the chance to show it. could’ve gone to the game and still really want to but have friends from overseas who are here
is frimpong better or Eastmond ????
I saw Eastmond play for first team and the fact that he didnt look out of place or the weakest player in our first XI makes Eastmond stock skyrocket in my mind
I hope and pray Wilshere and Lansbury do well this year. Gibbs is a shoe in for 1st team squad as it is.
Would like to see JW make Arshavin and NAsri fight for this place a little harder and Lansbury force Denilson and DIaby to step up their games.
I hope we keep both
they will be very good backup and with the increase in reserve games the can actually play week in and week out
I notice Bartley is not in the squad for the Barnet game. Has he gone out on loan?
I think he is going to be a top defender
there is an answer as to why he is not in the squad in the passage written by j
Arsenal.com are saying Ozyakup is only on the Dutch stand-by for the U-19 championship
http://www.arsenal.com/news/reserves-news/three-gunners-to-do-battle-for-u-19-title
No Watt? A bit surprising that. Any ideas why?
Where is woijech szcensy, vito mannone, jay simpson?
Sanchez watt is probably with the England under 19s.
I got a big feeling lansbury will break through this season along with jay thomas
with regards to the keepers…..it’s not a big surprise. realistically, they are 3rd and 4th choice keepers and won’t get game time tomorrow.
watt is a big surprise though as he’s the one you would expect to be there but then again our wide players, where he would play are all in the squad (nasri, rosicky, walcott, wilshere, arshavin) and are all ahead of him.
i would expect him to go on loan this season and make a play for the 2011/12 season
Denilson hasn’t made the squad either, I presume he’s picked up a knock?
1st XI
Almunia
Djourou, Kos, Vermaelen, Gibbs
Nasri, Eastmond, Rosicky
Walcott, Chamakh, Arshavin
2nd XI
Fabianski
Henderson, Nordtveit, Miquel, Traore
Wilshere, Frimpong, Lansbury
Barazite, Eduardo, E-Thomas
he is not in any of pre season pics maybe long holiday
he had back problem last season so maybe that’s keeping him out
Pedro botelho what happened with his work permit?
That’s a very strong squad that’s been announced. Definitely made the game more interested for me.
Interested in having a close look at Connor Henderson and Harvard Nordveit.
who do you guys think is a better talent
lansbury or henderson
I will go for Lansbury if it wasn’t for Ramsey he would have already been in the first team
or gone gym like diaby last season
denilson that is
denilson is our with a groin injury
What about Kyle Bartley? surprised him and Watt are not in the squad
Bartley has broken his collarbone.
That’s strange, Emmanuel-Thomas was not in it earlier and Denilson was, perhaps someone has come in with a massive bid for Denilson and he is leaving
Pllllllllllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Denilson’s going nowhere, and he will become a top player.
he might be injured but yeah its a bit weird
or he might be jet legged
I doubt he spend his holidays in england
denilson got injured
recurrence oh groin problem according to a site
I thought he had back problem
Sanchez Watt will not make it at our club.
Neither will Frimpong. Eastmond is much better
I hope Eastmond and COquelin make it
I love Eastmond for the fact that he knows how to take a kick and give it back wihtout complaining. GREAT trait to have for a DM
Coquelin well who cant love him. HE is a brilliant player that will do a great job when she grows up
I love the fact that we’ve got so many first-teamers who weren’t at the World Cup to be perfectly honest. While RVP and Cesc are possibly our best attacking players and went all the way to the finals, besides them we really didn’t have that many representatives in the knock-out stages and that should mean our players are a little more fresh for the season going forward.
We usually go with a young squad against Barnet and I expect no different this time. I’d like to see:
Fab; Gibbs, Kosci, Djourou, Nortveit; Eastmond, JET, Lansbury; Barazite, Wilshere, Chamakh/Eduardo
We really lack RB’s and DM’s in this squad. Sagna, Song and Eboue still being given an extended break I take it. Really that only leaves Eastmond with Coquelin loaned out. Might be a good opportunity to give the Scandinavian a go.
Would like to see Frimpong given a go at some point in this match.
Rhys Murphy as well its really sad whats has happened to the kid. he was on fire a couple of years ago him and lansbury were the 2 best English prospects lansbury seems to have recovered but murphy is still getting injured.
Can anyone please tell how tall Havard Nordvteit actually is? Is he 188cm?
Nordveit is 194cm tall quite a big lad
Espn says 1.86, wiki says 1.87
he’s 6’2
which is a very good height for a CB
from our under 18
only miguel has been selected so he must be doing something very very right
I guess wenger thinks highly off him aswell
Frimpong & Henderson also played in u18s didn’t they?
yeah but miguel will play for the youth team this year
Miquel broke into the Reserve side at the end of the season. With Ayling gone and Bartley very likely to go out on loan again, Miquel should be in the Reserves next year, not the U18s.
i think we might use him for the youth cup next season
its great to see so many options
we can play angha and harjovic in defense who also have talent to become great great players
I think Miquel will be the main CB at Reserve level, with Bartley and Nordtveit also playing a part if and when they’re available. With Angha, Hajrovic and Boateng in the U18s, and Angha stepping up into the Reserves if required as he did a few times last season (when Bartley and Ayling had their late-season loans)
Trouble is that Miquel is another that was stolen from Barca youth so you can bet when he is developed he’ll be pining for his roots a la cesc
no no no
they released him when he was 15 so they rejected him and then he went to another club and restarted his career and is know the best CB in our youth setup
I doubt Barca can cry foul
Barca did release him and he spent a season (or maybe two) with a lower league side in Spain before coming to Arsenal, but I don’t think that would stop Barca from coming back for him if he did turn out to be a huge success.
Not that it should matters. Knowing what we know now, if we could turn back the clock would we reject the chance to sign Cesc as a 16 year old? I don’t think so. If Miquel one day goes back to Spain, so be it.
why isn’t bartley in there? is he injured
Nortvedit inclusion is a good thing hopefully he will get into the first team this season
and MIGUEL really is making a name for himself he’s the only one from our under 18 team to make it in the 22 man squad for Barnet
Andrew I hope you are right re Miquel. I’ve seen the lad. Quite an accomplshed player to say the least. Tremendous prospect.
its not miGuel it is miQuel
thanks for that
and I have always thought that miquel is a defender that along with his incredible height is also a brilliant player technically
and as wenger has said again and again he wants CB who can play not just defend
Bartley got injured over the summer, Watt will never make it with us, no where near good enough. Barazite is miles ahead of him in all departments.
Almunia
Eastmond Djourou Vermaelen Gibbs
Frimpong
Lansbury Nasri
Walcott Arshavin
Chamakh
2nd Half
Fabianski
Miquel Nordtveit Koscielny Traore
Henderson
Rosicky Wilshere
Barazite Eduardo
Emmanuel-Thomas
isnt miguel left footed
wenger will either put kos on the right or djourou
for the second team
it will either be frimpong or Eastmond
and I am acutally hoping we change our formation this season either to 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2
I believe Miquel is left-footed and plays on the left side of CD, and can also line up at LB.
I agree, I think Kos and Djourou will be our right sided CBs. Kos played on the left side for Lorient but he’s right footed.
I’d also like to see us play with 2 holding midfielders. It gives the front players a lot of confidence to attack and take risks knowing they’re well protected, and the full-backs get so much freedom to go forward. Some think that 2 DMs is a defensive formation but I don’t see that all – I believe it gives you a solid base to attack with confidence.
spain played with two holding mdifielders
so did the dutch
so did germany
so did argentina
and hopefully so will ARSENAL this season
Farca play with one but in all honesty then can afford to because they have brilliant players who keep 60-70% of possession all the time
And so did Brazil ;) I think 4-2-3-1 is a great formation and I hope we adopt it more often against the top sides. Perhaps switching to just 1 DM against the weaker sides that will park the bus and need more penetration to break down.
just play one holding midfielder a bit more forward when someone parks the bus and it becomes 4-3-3
but discipline is what we need with our holding midfielders
I doubt we are going to sign anyone for our midfield so it will probably be diaby or denilson who will partner song in the midfield and they have to realise that there first job next season is to defend and break up play and when the team needs it attack
if they can do that then I doubt theirs any team in europe who can stop us
at least not in the PL
Our 3 man midfield was an incredibly well oiled machine at the beginning of last season, but slowly they seemed to lose that sharpness and we weren’t pressing and closing down as well…
Hopefully Wenger and the coaches will use this pre-season to get that discipline back into Song, Diaby and Denilson, get that midfield purring, and get us playing like we did on the opening day at Everton, all season long. Communicate better and work harder.
pressing went because tiredness set it in that’s why I want a big midifield with atleast two – three players for every spot
Fab – Nasri, Rosicky, Wilshere
Diaby – Denilson, lansbury and ramsey when fit
Song – Nortvedit and Eastmond
I wanted to see how good Nortvedit was so download him against stuggart and he was brilliant as a DM and I will be happy to make him a stand by DM for Song
I’m also interested to see where Nordtveit will line up for us in future. The Barnet game might not tell us much though, quite a few players will be used out of position. Like Song, I think he might get switched around a bit at first until Wenger decides on his best position.
Miquel is very calm and composed in possession and he’s technically very good for a CB but he still has many things to improve like his positioning, jumping, heading, pace and quickness of turn. He can seem quite stiff sometimes. Nonetheless, he’s a good prospect.
can anybody tell me his height now????
maybe arsenal.com should show add a height section and update it yearly
he was 6’3 when he came to us and he was 16 then its been two years now so he could be our giant in defense I always wanted to have a merterascker type player in our team
I have never had problem with miquel’s pace and heading
but yeah he should focus on his positioning and quickness in reaction this season
I AM SO HAPPY OUR SEASON IS STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN
I THINK THE FOOTBALL WE PLAY IS A CURSE. I CANT ENJOY FOOTBALL IF ARSENAL ISNT PLAYING
ITS JUST BORING
I agree go AFC! Best club in the world! I’ve been anxiously waiting for this day gotta love ATVO! enjoy the season Andrew! Peace
same to you Matt
arsenal first team will lift the PL and FA Cup
reserve wont win anything but our youth team players will play a lot in the reserve and gain plenty of experience
our youth will win the academy again, I am not sure we have enough quality to the youth cup this season but i hope we do
i’ve got an ugly feeling that the club will try to mould JET into a striker on account of his size. he doesn’t have the natural qualities to be any kind of striker in my opinion. i hope somehow he makes it as a midfielder. a skyscraper like him powering our midfield would be awesome.
well too late
he played as a striker in his loan spell and he did the same in fa cup
I have to disagree, I think he has great qualities for a striker. Find some of his highlights playing for Doncaster last season and see for yourself. His link-up play with his back to goal, his finishing, timing of his runs, he knows how to be a CF.
I still dont see JET making it at arsenal in the long term
Really? His technique and close control is superb, there are guys half his size that can’t run with the ball the way he can. I think he has a very big future, but I do believe he will be one of those guys who won’t really bloom until a bit later. Like Diaby, I think he will be frustrating and inconsistent until he hits 22-24 because of his big size.
i wonder who will play right back?
djorou has done his shift of being pimped out at right back to help the team. he’s a central defender and it’s about time we saw him play there.
djourou, nortvedit, eastmond and Kos can play there
and maybe frimpong and lansbury as well
I really think Henri Lansbury can be the answer @ right back? We should’ve kept Gallas he would be awesome @ right back?
Gallas is leaving for a 2 year contract and more money, it has nothing to do with football. Lansbury could be a good RB but his future seems to be in midfield.
@MattMQ
Gallas played at LB not RB. Lansbury should play alongside Fabregas (if he stays)…
——-Song
Fabregas–Lansbury
Gallas played @ right back for Chelsea @ times!
I love Miguel, he’s my favourite player of that generation. I love Barazite too and really hope he makes it, though given the time it seems to be taking for him to given a chance pre-season in Austria, I’m not very confident. When you think that the infinitely less talented Mark Randall was taken along for at least three seasons, you’d have to wonder whether there’s not positive discrimination in favour of the English. If so, I’d guess Lansbury, all things being equal, will get preference over Henderson, which is fine by me – I think he’s better anyway.
Oh and Conor Whickham – well, all I can say is, there must be a god. Have been praying for days that the rumours were rubbish and that stupid Spurs will be splashing out 9 million, or whatever’s being demanded, and not us. For that price we could stock our academy with a million additional Bazarites and Miguels. Not saying we don’t a striker, just that we can do better than Whickham, who doesn’t to me look any better than Jay Simpson.
Something doesn’t quite add up in the squad, there’s only seven defenders and they are: Gibbs, Traore, Koscielny, Djourou, Miguel, Nordtveit and Vermaelen. That probably means that Lansbury could be playing right back in the second half. In that case, my predictions.
First Half:
Arshavin–Chamakh–Walcott
Wilshere–Eastmond–Nasri
Gibbs-Vermaelen-Koscielny-Djourou
Almunia
Second Half:
Barazite–Eduardo–Emmanuel-Thomas
Henderson–Frimpong–Rosicky
Traore–Miguel–Nordtveit-Lansbury
Fabianski
Actually, Wenger has never said he will DEFINITELY make 11 changes at half time? Maybe he’ll just switch someone else to right back but not actually make a substitution. I’m saying this because simply there is just too much attacking players in the squad, if you look at my first half XI, alongside Eastmond are two VERY attack-minded players, and the only real central midfielders in the squad are Lansbury, Eastmond and Coquelin.
any chance anyone knows what actually going on with connor wickham? the rumour doing the rounds is we are bidding for him….any truth behind this?
To me this season is all about barazite, wilshere , lansbury, JET
OUR CARLING CUP SQUAD SHOULD BE VERY JUICY. i’ll go for-
VITO
EBOUE NORVIET KOSCY GIBBS
SONG LANSBURY
JET
WILSHERE NASRI
BARAZITE
Ppl are forgetting craig eastmond can play right back
that’s the point :D
Andrew – I have to know what is your obsession with height, you are always asking “how tall is he?”
very strange…… almunia isnt in the squad and has been replaced by chezzer and jay simpson is now in the squad although i cant figure out who in place of.
kick off delayed by 10 minutes by some reason.
Does this mean Leeds have a good chance of getting Sanchez Watt back on loan this season.
Did well for us in the little time we had him.
A shot at the Championship would look like a good move for all. Not sure he’s ready for the PL yet.