Arsenal defeated Everton 3-1 in the Barclays Asia Trophy today, with goals coming from Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil, while Ross Barkley scored a consolation goal for the Blues.
What did we learn from the game? Here are five findings.
Per Mertesacker shouldn’t be first choice
Arsene Wenger opted for Calum Chambers and Laurent Koscienly at centre back and he was right to do so. Both defenders displayed composure on the ball, but an aggressive approach to win the ball back off either Arouna Kone or Romelu Lukaku. This was particularly remarkable due to Arsenal having no recognised defensive midfielder on the pitch until Francis Coquelin came on.
Whilst this was only a friendly, the ability of Chambers to read to the game and remove the danger was impressive at a young age. This allowed more tackles to be made by the England u21 and set Arsenal on numerous counter attacks. This impressive performance from the two centre backs and with Gabriel Paulista to come in shows that Per Mertesacker shouldn’t be a first team centre back.
Theo Walcott’s pace is vital
With a lack in pace in the centre forward position, Walcott’s pace from a wide area is so important to offer another dimension to Arsenal’s play. The first goal today perfectly illustrated his importance. By Olivier Giroud making a move towards the ball, it pushes the centre half up the pitch, which then allows Walcott to have the space in behind the defence to run in to. From that first goal, Everton were made to drop off so Walcott couldn’t run in behind, which allowed more space to the creative players to work their magic. This was shown in the second goal when Everton dropped too deep and allowed Santi Cazorla to shoot from the edge of the box. This is the impact of Theo Walcott at his devastating best.
Cazorla is our Xavi
Another sparkling performance from the little Spanish maestro showed just how important he is to this Arsenal side. His sensational pass to Walcott for the opening goal is just a small example of how well he played. The similarity to Xavi reflects his improvement over the last year by Cazorla now controlling the tempo of a football match. His range of passing through either his left or right foot is of the highest quality, whilst his low centre of gravity allows him to get out of tight situations in central midfield. A man of the match performance from a truly brilliant footballer.
Ozil is a man reborn
A World Cup winner with Germany, but was much criticised for his lack of contribution with assists and his work rate on the pitch. However, when Ozil came back from his injury last year, he started to show performances that provoked Arsenal to pay the £42m+ fee. Mesut Ozil, alongside Santi Cazorla, completely ran Saturday’s game from start to finish. The German identified pockets in behind the Everton midfield to create Arsenal attacks and showed ice cool composure when going through on goal to slide the ball past the onrushing Joel Robles to cap off a good performance.
Giroud lacks of clinical edge
All previous observations from the friendly have been due to positive performances from individuals within the Gunners team. However, a slight negative and worry was the inconsistent performance of Olivier Giroud. The French international displayed good pieces of play to hold the ball up and bring others into the game.
When Giroud was in the box, he showed a lack of movement and poor technical play. This lead to a break down in attacks for Arsenal and it was left to the creative players to win the trophy for the Gunners. A few missed chances for the 28-year-old summed up his performance, with an easy header being missed. This performance should have shown Wenger that he needs a striker to lead the line this season. Will it happen? Only Wenger knows.
