Match Report: Legia Warsaw 5-6 Arsenal
Arsenal fought their way back from 3-0 down to thump six past Legia Warsaw in a hugely entertaining, if somewhat defenceless, encounter.
The North Londoners found themselves three goals behind after just 37 minutes thanks to some truly woeful defending. Then goals from Marouane Chamakh and a brace from Emmanuel Eboue put them level before Kieran Gibbs made it 4-3 to the Gunners.
Legia got themselves back level before late goals from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Samir Nasri won the game for the north London side before the Poles once again scored leaving Wenger with some serious questions to ask of his first team back four.
Arsenal’s Starting XI & Subs
Fabianski
Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Clichy
Wilshere – Frimpong – Nasri
Walcott – Chamakh – Rosicky
Subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Nordtveit, Eboue, Lansbury, Emmanuel-Thomas, Vela.
Post-Match Reaction
“Legia played a game with good commitment. They started better than us and played well going forward. It was good preparation for us, Legia were dangerous going forward. In the end we won 6-5 but it was an enjoyable game,” said Arsene Wenger.
C’MON AW, FABIANSKI OUT NOW!
EBOUE TO START AT ANFIELD!
Craziest match I have ever seen. Even crazier than Angola vs Mali. The defending was shocking and some of the finishing was great.
lol..what can we say but super poor defending yet again..Don’t think Koscielny is ready by any means, he will come good but definately not ready for prem. If ever we’ve needed a proven defender and keeper – it’s now, I believe Arsene will get the job done.
On the other hand, showed great spirit to come back when we didnt look a threat up front either first half whilst Rosicky was on the pitch. He has to go, seriously. Does SFA every time, we hardly ever score with him in the side. Stats prove it. So indirect its unreal, never a threat. Galatasary go get your man.
Defenders needed urgently!!! A Goalkeeper too.
that advert is so god damn annoying!
Koscielny and Fabianski both awful.
The one good thing out of this is Fabianski cannot start against Liverpool next week
AW needs to get in a decent keeper and a commanding CB – this has become so obvious now , but will he do anything to sort this out- I really hope he does
This was not our first team and ya’ll know it, so stop acting like its the end of the world.
btw wheres Diaby, Song and Denilson?
Our idiot of a manager has had an entire summer to address the problems and done nothing. One week to go and we are a shambles defensively. Little wonder Kos was the only one bought. No one else wanted him. Slow and cannot read a game and like Fabianski looks a total liabilty. Arsene knows. Like hell he does.
I’m terrified of us going into the season with Fabianski anywhere near our first team…I hope he goes out on loan, but I don’t know if anyone will take him…
I don’t expect we’ll be signing any keepers now…
I think it’ll be
1 Almunia, 2 Szczesny, 3 Mannone
That’s ok I suppose, so long as we buy a f***ing defender.
I’d love Hangelaand, but that shit Hughes won’t let him go.
I told this after the celtic match and i m saying it again ,i think we are fortunate to see the defence crumble at preseason rather than at anfield.Now arsene would have seen all the problems and i m sure he will do something before the window if not before the liverpool game. KEEP THE FAITH GOONERS
THIS is why you have pre-season!! Lessons made clearer and WHAT a game! New GK and Central defender pleeeeease! Lets loan someone even! Rosicky is good-I will always think that.
Wenger must go. I love him but if he is going to be so negligent and does not sign a proper gk and cb, then he has to leave. Im fed up.
We also need new defence and gk coaches.
Dave and patt i accept we need defence and goal keeping coaches but i think u cant ask for arsene’s head after witnessing a preseason game which did not have many first teamers, song in particular.So as i said wait until the end of the window i m sure arsene will do something.KEEP THE FAITH
What a mess we have at the back.I`m afraid you guys.
looks like we are going to have to score about 5 goals a game next season because i dont see how we are going to keep any clean sheets. ffs 🙁
above comments def correct, koscielny not ready for physical demands, and lacks speed of thought sometimes, fabianski is fast turning into wengers worst ever signing, the kid needs to be sold or loaned out to a foriegn team, obviously now its clear to other selling teams we need these players the price will go up, wenger just needs to bite the bullet and spend some cash, or i feel this season is the season we start to go backwards/
Frimpong was non-existing in the first half, the first goal was mainly his fault although Wilshere’s track back wasn’t impressive.
Nasri, Chamack and Sagna the only ones decent in the first half. Walcott was AWFUL, Rosicky didn’t do much and the defence was just shocking, Vermaelen more to blame than Koscielny.
Wilshere had a decent game and Vela impressed hugely with three assists. Of course it’s just one game but it looks like a new Vela, hopefully he can continue into the season.
After today, Eboue must be ahead of Walcott in the pecking order. AND if Fabianski plays a game instead of Szczesny than Wenger is mental.
The worrying thing is, while its an understrength side, its probably our 1st choice keeper and defence. We might win games with our attacking play, but defence wins trophies
wtf wenger needs to sort this out asap,everyone can see we need a goalkeeper apart from wenger who keeps on sayin fabianski will be our numb 1 in the future fabianski can never be numba 1,why oh why doesnt wenger jst pay the money and get in either hart,gordon,schwarzer, and in defence get in GARY CAHILL
Having not seen the game, I can only comment on the basis that Arsenal conceding 5 goals to Legia is something of an abomination. Wenger MUST see that Fabianski inspires zero confidence in his centre halves, of whom there are two too few a full 3 months since last season finished on a whimper. Any new signing will not be ready for an Anfield baptism, which means a busy deadline day on 31 August. Failure to address the clinically obvious deficiencies at GK and CB will amount to a serious dereliction of duty by the management at AFC.
Will someone please tell wenger we’re not going to win the league by penny pinching, Spend the money on 2 world class defender and a keeper and i’m sure we’ll win things this year. ( Mertesacker, jagielka and Lloris or adler would be money well spent )
Can anyone explain how THE ENTIRE WORLD knows we need a center back and a keeper, except for the one person capable of purchasing such players?
Flappianski needs to go out on loan to Siberia.
How can Wenger really believe with our poor keepers and awful defence we can compete.We need a Goalkeeper and a CB in before Liverpool.Or we will get mullered.
Instead of working on French TV for the world cup Wenger should have been looking for players it is his job you know
On club website. van Persie & Fabregas won’t even travel to Anfield next week! As Song is also out, think we are in serious Poo! Still, the next 3 away games are all easy!!!!!
we should of purchased dunne and given last season for £8mill, but no instead we have KOS and he cost £10mill
Szczesny should really be given a shot at no.1 now, but wenger might think the Liverpool game is too big to throw him into.
The defence was poor, but I can’t really say any of our defenders played too poorly individually. I think there was too big a gap between defence and midfield, and Legia were good enough to take advantage of that. It does look a bit ominous for the season, though…
@Bala:
its not one pre-season game, its the last 3 years that we cant defend
also that blocking the goalie is simple to stop. you walk up to your marker. stamp on his foot (or grab his balls if he dont stop) and tell him to “STOP F***NG BLOCKING MY GOAL KEEPER!”
Also if Wenger is too stubborn to get a new goalie and centre half i believe he should be sacked. Its neglegance to the team so there for he is not doing his job properly. This OR we employ a director for football to bring in players like reina/ hart, mertesaker/ cahill.
the only reason he hasnt bought is because he is stubborn. this is arsenals fault because he was allowed to get comfortable in his job. so with no pressure on him he has got lazy.
maybe thats why when people say he is great in the transfer window when he sells players at the right time and price (toure, viera, ljunberg, henry, anelka) but never for buying
wenger likes fabianski sooo much the only way he will dump him is….. if he broke his leg in a car accident or sumthin…..so all u gunners in london….if u see fabianski walkin or in his car do as all a favour and……….?
I think its a bit premature to sack our coach based on a pre-season freindly where we missed 5 100% starting players. Yes, fabianski skrewed up but as we all read on the arsenal website this was his last chance to prove himself and I think its pretty obvious that he’s failed so I wouldn’t worry too much about him actually playing competetively for us this season. Dave and patt; ur being very harsh on our manager and hopefully the more realistic fans out there don’t agree. Sack wenger cause we got 5 goals scored on us in a freindly? R u f***ing serious, lets come back to reality where we don’t fire a succesful manager after a meaningless game in pre-season. U know every time something negative happens to our team, the trolls come out and start spewing their hateful, ignorant rhetoric, and it just makes us loyal (real) gunner fans look like a bunch of spoiled retards just cuz there’s a couple little kids that know nothing about football or reality……its annoying
@Superior Spurs:
we beat vilareal 4-1 on aggregate in the quater final of the european cup, u guys got hammerd by them at home.
WE ARE STILL SUPERIOR
i fear we may end up like a popular rice pudding product. Muller-ed!
But to that twat superior spurs. I love it how all of a sudden the spuds are growing bigger balls and spouting shit. no other team in the EPL feels the need to give it the biggen cos they hit 4th spot in the first time since. Er? never!!
No cos other teams managers have respect. Cant wait till someone wipes that s**t grin from your face and spanks you. Harry will wipe out your funds just like he did with Bournemouth, west ham, Portsmouth and Southampton. Probably to pay his un paid tax bills. bunch of deluded fools.
We played jack wilshere and frimpong in midfield of course we are going to look vulnerable.
Koscielny was brilliant against pato and the likes and now ppl are lating him cause he had a bad game.
There are so many fickle fans out there.
Koscielny looks a quality player to me but when vermaelen and koscielny dont have any protection at all and clichy and sagna cannot defend properly of course we are going to look vulnerable.
BUT ITS PRE SEASON PPL! GET REAL
CHELSEA HAVE LOST ALL THIER GAMES IN PRES SEASON APART FROM ONE AGAINST CYRSTAL PALACE.
PRE SEASON MEANS NOTHING ITS JUST ABOUT FITNESS AND RYTHMN.
GIVE CREDIT TO LEGIA WARSAW ITS THIER NEW STADIUM OF COURSE THEY ARE GOING TO GIVE EVERYTHING.
TOO MANY AROGANT GOONERS ON HERE WE SHOULD GIVE ALOT OF CREDIT TO LEGIA WARSAW.
THE THING IS WE WON WE WON WE WON!
Im sure nobody wants wenger sacked, we just want him to do he’s job properly & see & fix the obvious. Its got nothing to do with todays game or any of the pre-season games as a matter of fact our problems started over 3 yrs ago!
From the begining of last summer we let 2 senior players leave a pretty inexperienced side that needed bolstering & this summer we have lost 5 senior players in gallas,campbell,eduardo,senderos & silvestre.
So that is 7 down but we have bought 3 players in that time in vermaelen who i believe has the world at he’s feet & deserves much better partners then the ones he has. chamakh, another player that seems to have alot of talent & could possibly be our top scorer come the end of the season.. Then we have koscielny who i cant really say much good or bad about as i have only seen him in action a few times & in a couple of these games we have conceeded 7 goals all together while he’s been playing so everyone can work that one out themselves.
So really none of us should be supprised that we should fall short every season!! Which other club in the world would do anything better with this squad of players? I dont know what wengers plans are but if he plans this on being he’s last season then its probably better he doesnt make any new signings & leaves the money to somebody that is not afraid to use it.
how was carlos vela performance?
you cant say anything because its just pre-season, but if anything similar happens in Anfeild next weekend, then its right to come out and criticize the players and coach…
@ger: he played really well, got 3 assists. was one of the better players
tired of this foolishness- problem is defense coach. simple. get martin keown back or someone as good. get rid of pat rice, its unbelievable AW is still manager this season, he should stop this idiotic practice of playing on our emotions
Next week will be a defining week for us. Wenger doesn’t needs the pre season to know that we have a bad keeping situation he knows that towards the end of last season and he has been trying to get a decent keeper in since then. However, we won’t go out there and buy Lloris, Neuer, Frey, Buffon because they would break our wage structure. We can definitely spend big but the problem is these so called ‘big’ players command a ridiculously big salary too and Wenger is pretty adamant that the wage structure we have now should be respected and I agree with him.
As for the criticsm of Kos, i think for me he still look really much like a top player just that yesterday was really just a freak day for our defence. Even Vermaelen played really poor. And if Wenger bought in another CB which i am inclined to believe he will as he had admittedly publicly about it even more so that getting a new keeper, we will be covered for in that area. Just 1 more CB not 2 is enough. However, the root of the problem is actually not our defence or even the keeper (Almunia and fabianski mostly make mistakes when dealing with high balls and set pieces), i believe is actually our 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 formation. A conventional 4-2-2 formation where everyone is crystal clear of their roles on the pitch i think will be a much more stable formation.
As for who he will bring in, I have no preference in the CB position as most of the players linked seems like good players. As for the keeping situation, Schawarz like i said is still our best bet and if I am Wenger at this point in time, i will still continue to pursue him until all hope are lost as he to me is the best man we can possibly get. Experienced, relatively inexpensive, mentor to our young keepers to pave the way for them to take the helm a couple of seasons after, and of course knowing that he wants to join us. Other than Hughes, i think the odds are pretty much with us.
Lastly, what’s with the Rosicky haters out there, whenever he gets the ball he brings a wave of calm to the team as he can actually keeps it. He is the most gifted player we have and he seldom makes any mistakes. Given his particiaption in pre season, he will be a main feature in our squad comes the regular season and that’s good news for arsenal fans.
@george I agree with everything you said 100%. Finally an Arsenal fan with some sense.
Yet another nail in Ar2ena1’s coffin proving how inferior they actually are.
Barca superstar Xavi has waded into the Cesc Fabregas transfer debate – insisting Arsenal won’t be able to keep him if they don’t make a flying start to the season.
Xavi, 30, is desperate for World Cup-winning colleague Fabregas, 23, to join him at the Nou Camp.
On Friday Fabregas ended the speculation that he would be leaving London to go back to boyhood club Barca by issuing a statement.
He pledged his immediate future to the Gunners but, despite the assurances he was staying with Arsene Wenger’s side, Xavi warned: “Nobody at Barca has given up on the Cesc deal. We have made that very clear.
“If Arsenal are way behind Chelsea and Manchester United in the league by the January transfer window and out of Europe, then Cesc will be even more disheartened with the club than he is now.
“If that is the case I don’t see how they could stop him coming in January.”
Xavi commented: “You should never cage an animal that is meant to be in the wild and you can’t cage a player of Cesc’s talent.
“He needs to be at a club where he can win trophies.”
Xavi fully understands why Arsenal are fighting hard to keep their skipper.
The playmaker said: “Without him they have no chance of major trophies but if they can’t assemble a squad to challenge for them, then it’s just not fair to keep Cesc against his will.
“He has given sweat, blood and tears for the club cause but has just not had the necessary quality around him in order to win trophies.”
(From The Daily Star)
Anyone know if wenger has spoken about this game?
@George:
are you deluded on the rosicky comments?
he cant keep the ball at all, he is too weak. whenever he realises this he runs into the man and falls over to get a free kick. THIS IS CHEATING. also this calmness is actually him being slow and indirect.
He is supposed to be our most experrienced winger yet doesnt know that if you go to the by line you will 99% of the time get a crooss that will cause the defence trouble or like iniesta did in the world cup semi-final get you a corner which in this case got them into the world cup final (puyols header)
for these reasons and the fact that walcott is in effective when he starts this shoul be arsenals team next week.
——–Scezney——-
sagne–kos–TV5–gibbs
—frimpong/Denilson——-
—-nasri—wilshere–
Eboue————-Vela
——-Chamakh——–
it is too weak in midfield but that is wenger fault
What is going on? Wenger sort this mess out now!! How can u not see that our goalkeeper and back4 needs changing? How do u expect to keep cecs and van persie?? Please…. If u loved this club like u say u do!!! Spend some money where we need it!!!! Everyone in the world can see it!!! Y can’t u? Do it for us!! We have had enough!!! Either do it now or let someone else take charge!!! This is not acceptable. Sort it now. U have promised us so many things and let us down so badly. Please wenger don’t make us start to hate u.
eboue sagna vermaelen clichy
i think that can work if wenger dosnt buy a wclass dfndr kos is good but at da moment not good enough for epl
We dont have the money. Back off wenger. These ‘bigger’ players demand stupid salaries. We don’t want to change our wage structure so we will not get massive names. We will have a great team in a few years, wilshere will be amazing in two/three years time and so will ramsey. But arsenal fans need to be patient, we are going to win the prem the right way, not by buying the trophy, but earning it…
Keep the faith. Go support chelsea if you want instant success. It will take years for our youngsters to come good. I wonder how many of you so called fans would show up to the stadium if we were in the bottom half of the table, not many i believe.
if we dont buy a new number 1 im not gonna pay any more money for shirts etc, waste my money of the wages of clowns 1 and 2!
Guess he is coming so…
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/sagna-spahic-is-good-enough-for-arsenal
@ arseman. Let’s see your comments at the end of the season. When (again) we are potless and all our best players leave (for real) and the next few seasons we end up playing for a top 6 place. Whether u like it or not this is modern football and if u don’t spend the money (which we have some, not loads but enough) we won’t win a thing. Wake up fella. Be real. Is our team good enough? Look at the top 6 teams. We have the worst goalkeeper (by a mile) and our defence concedes the most goals. It ain’t good enough. Something needs to be done by either wenger or board level. The problem is wenger has been here too long. No one dares to say anything to him. If I don’t perform at work. I get told to sort it out or else. The same should apply here. I’m not saying he needs to go coz he is our greatest ever manger however he needs to stop protecting the players that are not good enough. Shape up or ship out.
arseneman shu.. up!!! We have 50-60 mill to spend on new players, fact!!!! Even Wenger said we can say “no” to anybody!!!
i have been saying this for the last 2/3 seasons. We are much better and are improving. The last season was a big improvement from the previous and i believe we will be even better this season. As long as we keep on improving i will be a happy gooner. mannone and szcsesny are going to be great keepers in a few years. Plus we have some great youngsters coming through. I am realistic, we don’t have the resources of the likes of man u, city, chelsea, or even bloody tottenham. And to be up in the top 4 is remarkable already. I am willing to wait for success, i think we will finish in the top 3 again this season, but it will be much closer than last season. I will continue to go to the emirates and support the team even if we are struggling. Thats what true fans do.
If we don’t finish in the top 4 this year i will start to lose faith in wenger, but for now i support him all the way!
@ The Left Hand Of HENRY; are you kidding me?
Rosicky is better than nasri, wilshere, walcott, i would even say Arshavin, much better actually. He is slow? i doubt that is fair but he is never known for his speed. By your standard, nasri, wilshere and even Fabregas are slow. Seriously, we seldom lose the ball and he can spot runs and place a pass like Fab. In pre season, i do see him tracking back to defend and he looks really fit. For me if healthy he should make the team every single time.
And because of our formation 4-3-3 or 4-5-1, whenever the wingers cross, most likely only one Arsenal player will be in the box. That’s why we don’t really do it for the wingers, they will cut in and join the sole attacker to exploit the defence we have been doing that for years. The crossers will be the 2 full backs when they join in the attack and the wingers are allowed to drift towards the penalty box, that’s when we have more bodies in the box. Which is why i said this formation sometimes leave our backline too vulnerable. It is just not a good odd to cross to a single arsenal player surronded by 3 opposition defenders.
@Angry fan:
Spending within our means is actually the right way to conduct any business even for a football club. Man Utd, Chelsea, Man city, Real madrid those clubs are exception. They have owners that are willing to fork out their own money to cover their debts. Last time i checked, we don’t have an owner that is willing to do that sort of thing yet. however, even if there is, I don’t think i will approve the club to spend more than it earns as it just makes winning a bit less satisfactory. Look at those that are not in the exception list, Liverpool, Leeds, Portsmouth, they are literally drowning in debt. Leeds being the most famous example. Liverpool are looking to replace Mascherano with Poulsen don’t that makes you sick if you are a Liverpool fan. Barcelona keep talking about their youth academy but they are big spenders in europe too. Danial Alves, Pique, Thierry Henry, Keita, Ibrahimović, Villa, Gabriel Milito, Éric Abidal just to name a few in recent times. And if we manage to win the league or the CL next season, we can proudly say we are the first team in modern football to achieve this while conducting our club in the most correct way possible (buying players ‘economically’ and nurturing our youths). Yes not even Barcelona can claim they had done that as they do spend a lot of money and now they are seriously in debt too.
There are still a few weeks left in the transfer window. And players will be bought for sure. I am not an anti-buyer i want Arsene to sign a keeper and a CB too. But let him do his job as to me he is the best man out there for me.
arseman @12.24
Last season was not an improvement.We lost NINE league games(nearly a quarter)compared to six the previous season.We finish 3rd only because Liverpool imploded.In the CL we got knocked out of the CL in the Q/F instead of the S/F.In the domestic cups it was the usual early knockout
Last season was not and improvement.Sadly Wenger agrees with you that why he has failed to bring in a keeper and a commanding CH
this game was awfull!! And come anfield next sunday with this team, it can get ugly. Our defence is just a joke, individually they are all poor, and as a unit they get even worse. Sagna is ok, but the rest is trash!!!
@george. you took the words out of my mouth mate,of course we all want great players at our beloved club but not at the expense of the future of arsenal. look at the positives guys :we have an amazing stadium,almost debt free and one of the best managers in the world.i also feel the same as arsenman above,i will support arsenal even if theyre fighting for survival.wenger is our manager and its his job to make sure we have a team to fight for trophies this season and im sure he knows what to do.until you guys become arsenal manager please just support the gunners . i for one cant wait for the season to start,and of course the nail bitting moments when we are wionning 3-2 with a few minutes to go lol
@ arseneman you are so blind!!! Where is the money gone from sales of Greedybayor etc.? I can tell you it wasnt for the debts. WE “have” at least 50 mill to spend!! Wenger needs to go as I cant see Tech9 starting or a new GK coming in. And this Spahic thing is a fukking joke!!
Rosicky was absolutely, positively shocking..that second goal he wasnt even looking at the ball and he was on the f’ing line!!!!!! he let it go straight past him didnt do anything to clear it. Happy to let fabianski take the full blame.
Get Jagielka, stekelenburg and the direct SWP or Afellay in ASAP to replace Rosicky and we’re in business – Any game which Rosicky starts you’ll notice we’ll never look like scoring, especially against premiership sides. End of last season is enough proof. He falls over every time he’s challenged and can’t do anything in an attacking sense, a seriously over rated moody player.
I totally agree with george and french gooner. I trust wenger to make the right decisions for our club. He will likely bring in a cb and a keeper just before the transfer window closes, but he is not going to break the wage structure in doing so.