By Myles Palmer
There are 22 days till the Middlesbrough-Arsenal match and that is a long time in football.
Gooners can see Arsenal v Real Mallorca on Eurosport on Monday night and the Roma game is on C5 on Wednesday night.
Arsene Wenger’s team selection might be interesting for the Roma game, if he fancies putting one over on the wonderful Fabio Capello, whom he may encounter later in the Champions League.
But I doubt it. Both manangers know that pre-season friendlies are experimental exercises that take place between training sessions.The results are less important than the chance for managers to try things that they would never try in a serious game.
Last night’s 4-1 defeat by the Turkish club Kocaelispor did not mean a lot.
Oleg Luzhny, a player I like, has had some catastrophic games at left centreback and he apparently had another one against the Turks when they met at Wattens in the Austrian Alps.
Adams and Campbell can play that position, but not Upson, it seems, since Upson played at left back again.
Let’s face it, the big dates are August 18th and August 24th. On the 18th Arsenal will get three points if they win at Middlesbrough. And on the 24th they will get six games in the Champions League when the draw is made in Switzerland.
Arsenal are seeded in the top eight now, having been quarter-finalists last time.
So there are 22 days left in which a helluva lot can happen in terms of tabloid headlines. But how many of those stories will be meaningful?
Last night Wenger said,”We were exposed on the counter-attacks because we were pushing too far up the field. But I saw some combinations that might work next season and it is good that no one got injured and that everyone got a game.”
For Wenger what is important is that he has four games in the next 22 days where he can look at different combinatiions.
Not all of those selections will be focused on finalising his team for the Middlesbrough game, since he probably knows what side he would like to start at the Riverside. He is looking well beyond August, I’m sure.
Arsenal play Mallorca, Roma, Norwich and Barnet. I think they will beat Norwich and Barnet,but beating Middlesbrough is far more important.
26th July 2001