A much stronger Arsenal side lined up against a pretty decent Real Madrid side, few neutrals would have predicted the one sided nature of the encounter. The deadlock was not broken in the first half, Adebayor missed one particularly good chance, and there was some lovely interplay between RVP and Adebayor at times, one great move leading to a good low shot from Theo Walcott that was well saved by Jerzy Dudek.The goal came in the second half, an idiotic challenge from Salgado on RVP left Clattenberg no choice but to point to the spot, then Adebayor slotted a very nice penalty past Dudek, one nil it was and so it stayed. Adebayor almost added a second following some rather fine jinking dribbling, there was a typically brilliant substitute appearance from Jack Wilshere.
Denilson had an outstanding game again, he obviously wasn't affected by some rather moronic calls on certain Internet sites for him to be farmed out on loan because they think he isn't up to playing for the first team. Diaby was decent, Walcott intermittently excellent and Nasri neat and tidy. Adebayor showed just how hard he would be to replace if he did leave, and maybe the fact that a few of us are slightly unhappy with his antics mighty actually give him a bit of a motivational kick up the back side.
It's rather amusing to read just how seriously some people are taking certain pre season results, as if they matter far more than the actual performance. I hardly think not winning the Emirates cups matters, it's about as important as winning the groundsman of the year trophy, actually it's not quite that important. The signs are very encouraging for me, the squad is looking very strong, remember the side that played against Juve was a complete reserve eleven. Despite what some say, I think we can get over the mighty set back of not winning the Emirates cup, it will be tough but we can do it.
