PRE-SEASON APPRAISAL: Arsenal, Utd show promise but never write off Chelsea

ENGLAND: Arsenal concluded a very good pre-season by clinching their fourth Emirates Cup. The Gunners destroyed France’s deputy champions Olympic Lyon 6-0 in the opening match of the annual tournament before rounding up with a 1-0 dismissal of Germany’s cup holders Wolfsburg. The Emirates Cup success followed in the wake of the Barclays Asian Trophy won last week.

Overall, the Gunners have played three top quality opponents out of their four tune-up matches and the forms displayed by Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, SantiCazorla, MesutOzil, Chuba Akpom, Aaron Ramsey and new goalkeeper Petr Cech must have delighted Prof Arsene Wenger and many Gunners faithful.

I said last week that the Gunners were ready for the season. Their form at the Emirates Cup only further confirmed my assertion. And things can only get better when last season’s best player Alexis Sanchez returns from his extended holiday after his Copa America success.

Can the Gunners win the title – probably. But I think they are about two players from realizing that dream – get a world class striker to supplant Oliver Giroud and Danny Welbeck and an established defensive midfielder to help Coquelin and Arsenal would be ripe for the ultimate prize.

 

Manchester United also continued a very good pre-season form with that shock 3-1 rout of reigning European champions FC Barcelona. Despite not having Messi and Neymar, it was still a very good result for the Red Devils which could only boost their confidence.

Three wins from as many warm-up matches shows United should be in the mix this season. Can they go all the way? Probably, though I still think they need to urgently address their leaky defence. A quality reserve for first choice David De Gea is also very necessary just as Wayne Rooney needs a world-class sidekick in addition to Memphis Depay.

I also think the midfield is now overloaded and maybe a couple of guys need to shift in that department.

Should LVG successfully address these grey areas, then United would challenge for the top prize.

Manchester City and Chelsea: Champions of the past two seasons have been floundering disturbingly in this pre-season. City needed penalty shootout to beat AS Roma while they abjectly capitulated 4-1 to Real Madrid at the International Club Championship.

In all fairness, City under Manuel Pellegrini don’t shine in the pre-seasons. And they still have the bulk of last season’s very formidable side buoyed by the acquisition of Raheem Sterling. We hear they might also prise Kevin De Bruyne away from Wolfsburg.

 

Chelsea also retain the bulk of the championship-winning side of last season, though their pre-season results haven’t been very impressive. The Blues shockingly lost 4-2 to New York Red Bulls while they needed penalty lotteries to prevail over PSG in their only two notable tune-up matches thus far.

Their pre-season forms might have been underwhelming, but it would be foolhardy of anyone to write off the chances of these two new giants of English football.

Liverpool rounded up a pre-season tour of Asia and Australia with a shock 1-1 draw against a Malaysia selected XI. The Reds had won all their previous four matches on these tours with players such as Adam Lallana, Jordan Ibe, Joe Gomez and Danny Ings shinning against part-timers from the Far East.

Brendan Rodgers’ boys conclude their exercise this weekend against another lightweight oppositionsHadjuk Split and I wonder what the manager is up to. Simply put, the Reds may not be ready by the time the season kicks off in a fortnight for their lack of quality tune-up matches. My worries are also shared by Reds legend Mark Lawrenson.

 

Admittedly, the team look more balanced overall this season than last with the additions of Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino. But all their top four rivals have improved too. I think the hulking Belgian will score goals, something Liverpool bled for last term. But how far his goals will carry them remains to be seen.

SPAIN: Barca’s pre-season form continues to be worrisome especially after that 3-1 rout at the hands of Man United. Granted they didn’t have Messi and Neymar in the matches played so far, struggling to beat MLS All Star team 2-1 and bowing so tamely to the Red Devils wouldn’t make for a sweet summer exercise for coach Luis Enrique. But we can’t write off the treble champions yet, can we?

Real Madrid on the other hand brought some confidence back with that 4-1 rout of Man City and one may be tempted to say Senor Rafa Benitez is beginning to leave his prints on the record European champions.

But the team that have impressed me most from Spain are Villarreal who narrowly lost the Emirates Cup to the Gunners on goals points. The Yellow Submarines played effervescent football and will surely ruffle some feathers in Spain and the Europa League this season. They won’t win La Liga for sure but they could be among the king makers this term.
And who says they might not sneak into the lucrative Top Four in May?

GERMANY & ITALY: Borussia Dortmund showed they would not allow Bayern Munich a field day in the Bundesliga this season by destroying deputy European champions and Serie A record champions Juventus 2-0. The result was not a fair reflection of the game where the SignaIduna Park giants could have at least reached a half dozen tally but for the heroics of Gianluigi Buffon and his understudy Neto in the Old Lady’s goal. New boss Thomas Tuchel would be pleased.

The form displayed by Juve against Dortmund in Switzerland would be of some concerns to boss MaximillianoAllegri, though there would be no such worries for Milan counterpart SinisaMihajlovic. The Rossonerris target this season is to return into the UCL in 2016/17 season and after impressive overhaul, they look well underway to total recovery.