I would actually water at the thought of a Podolski/Arteta/Santi/Wilshire/RVP midfield 5 with Giroud up top, or Arshavin right, rvp up top and Giroud on the bench.
I just can't see it happening under Wenger but you never know. We looked VASTLY improved today, but then Cologne seemed a bit errm, completely rubbish so its really hard to gauge how well they played. Podolski's goals were well taken, the ball over the top for Gibbs to run on to was great, his interplay was great, he looked like the Podolski I've seen for the past decade, not the one from the summer which is fantastic.
Giroud, wasn't overly impressed with him infront of goal shooting, but did well to get the ball to others. RVP looks not at all sharp, but I know how good he is so have no problem. Gervinho looks a joke still, sure he got a goal, he got two last year in the same fixture. Multiple times he beat awful fullbacks just to pass into the box so poorly I wanted to cry, and the Arshavin run towards the end which he then passed brilliantly to Gervinho who somehow didn't shoot, took it wide then shot with no chance of scoring.
Gervinho will always be like that, 99/100 times he does the wrong thing when it matters, I don't care how long you can dribble the ball if you won't ever do anything with it afterwards.
Djourou/Song were their usual mix of stupidity and fouls, Song got away with a few fouls as per usual, how he gets away with them I don't know, he should without exaggeration be carded in every single game I've seen him play, how he doesn't I don't know, I forget which game it was he managed to get a yellow in the first 15 mins, then played the entire game, fouling constantly without getting sent off, Barca game I think. While I think he's an awful footballer I'll give him this, he is ******* magic at not getting cards when he should
Walcott, a couple half decent crosses but still the biggest *****(feline) that I've seen in a top league. Goes down constantly, and 99/100 times chooses to pass backwards rather than actually put in some effort and try and pass someone on the wing. He's got pace, and nothing else, and is the single least willing player in the country to use his pace.
What I'm most disappointed with is, this was our last preseason game, Giroud got 45mins, its not like he looked shattered nor are we playing in 3 days, only game with the team before the start of the season and we couldn't give him 90 mins, he needs to push it physically to be ready, no real reason for Podolski not to finish, nor have we at any stage even for 45 minutes played what is a first team together, which is completely ridiculous. We should have started the most likely to start next week first team, played them as long as possible and subbed as and when players got shattered. I can't see the logic of going into a new season without your first team having played even 45mins together, utterly mad.
