Arsenal coming Down Under - matchdays on Thu 13 Jul & Sat 15 Jul: Page 14 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Arsenal coming Down Under - matchdays on Thu 13 Jul & Sat 15 Jul

Rohit

We have numbers in midfield but not sure if we have the required quality in depth.

Chamberlain, Walcott, Welbeck and Coquelin, all have their strengths but are severely limited technically. Their touches at times are just so hard to watch.

Rohit

We really need to keep Giroud, even against his wishes. First choice or not, when he comes on, he will give his all, this is World Cup year.

Need to watch more to Kolasinac.

Anfield1884

Class Giroud finish. Great movement and fantastic finish.

Qwiss

Hope to see these youngsters again this season in the league cup and early in the Europa. Willock looks like he could be a real player.

lorddulaarsenal

He does. Shades of Yaya about him

Gazza M

it was funny to see first hand how quiet our players are on the pitch. i was sat 3 rows from the front, right on the halfway line. xhaka is the most vocal player we have, then probably nacho. and maybe olly when someone fouls him

flobaba

That's no good

Qwiss

Its pre-season, they're not exactly fired up.

invisibleman18

Haven't had a chance to get on here today so just briefly, was another awesome experience last night and was in seats a lot closer so easier to work out who was who. In the same corner as Thursday so luckily the end all the goals were scored at, but row 14 instead of 50. Back to Wellington tomorrow morning so will post in more depth once back home. Was well worth the trip and hopefully get to see Arsenal live again one day.

flobaba

Qwiss! wrote:
Its pre-season, they're not exactly fired up.

I guess. But communication is always crucial. If the only voices heard are those of the few usual suspects it implies many of the other players are yet to feel fully comfortable on the pitch, or with their roles as leaders.

Naturally having quite a few new, younger faces will have an effect, but I hope the team isn't normally this quiet.

Asterix

Saturday night was great fun again. As Gaz said it was packed in around the stadium with an AFL match on at the smaller ground next door and Disney on Ice at the 15,000 seat indoor arena also next door. But as the place was built to handle 500,000 for the Olympics the crowds were manageable. They have plenty of street food stalls and entertainment set up outside the ground.

We were in row 22 behind the goal where nothing happened, so were a long way from the key action points. Some more random thoughts:

as a Wanderers fan as well I was pleased to see we gave a more committed and attacking performance than Sydney FC, and the Wanderers fans were great as usual, singing non stop for the entire 90 minutes. We heard them fine from the other end of the ground.
didn't hang around much afterwards Gaz but the players left the ground pretty quickly after the game, after displaying their thank you banner
got to take my Dad to an Arsenal game, to pay him back for taking me to Highbury when I was a youngster. With my son there as well we had 3 generations of Gooners.
Giroud finished his goal well. His planted foot was perfectly positioned. He is a big unit too in the flesh.
We missed Ozil's creativity until he came on. but when he did he should have shot on a couple of occasions rather than pass.
Lacazette was a bit quieter.
The Ox has real spark, but as someone else said he tends to shine in pre-season. Not sure if any subsequent drop off is down to him not getting consistent game time, or him being a flat track bully.

All in all it was great to see them here in the flesh. The turnout was fantastic and the whole experience overwhelmingly positive.

invisibleman18

Sorry to bump this up again, but hadn't got around to posting since getting home. Was an awesome experience. Was sitting in the corner at the end all the goals were scored at which was good. Ramsey's goal was pretty awesome to see live and was a better atmosphere than at the first game. Possibly due to sitting a lot lower down and closer to the pitch and perhaps also as we were close to the vocal group of WSW fans. Was also a bit weird having everyone cheer for Arsenal, then the same people cheering when WSW scored, so guess there were loads of fans of both clubs.

Awesome stadium experience again. So much better organised than in NZ and couldn't believe how little queuing there was. Even with 83,000 people, it was no trouble to get out at half time to go to the toilet and get a drink and make it back in time for kick off which is a struggle to do at the average Wellington Phoenix game with 5,000 people in a 30,000 seater stadium. Took longer to get on the train than after the Thursday game as the AFL crowd were leaving at the same time but still quicker than trying to get out of a concert in Auckland with half the people. And as Asterix said earlier, the whole place was built to handle several hundred thousand people for the Olympics so easily managed this crowd. It's a bit of a way out of the city and (we were staying on the North Shore which was cheaper but further) but easy to get to as the train stops right outside.

Only previous time I had been there was in early 2000 before the Olympics. Went on a trip to Sydney with my Mum and we did a tour of the whole Olympic village before any events had been held and got to go in the stadium, but had never been to an actual event there.

Only disappointment overall was missing out on a photo with the FA Cup and Invincibles trophies. Queue wasn't that long on the Thursday but as we'd spent a bit of time outside the ground having a drink and some food, by the time we saw it I just wanted to get inside and see the players warming up and figured we'd get another chance. At the fan day on Friday they didn't do it, then before the Saturday game the queue stretched for miles. Got there a couple of hours before kickoff so stood in line for over an hour but then security cut the line off as we wouldn't have made it in time. Did manage to get a photo with Gunnersaurus though which was cool.

Anyway amazing experience and well worth the trip. Bank account looking a a bit sad now but the memories were worth it.

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