adminHELSINKI. — Three goals might suggest that Arsenal can do without Luis Suarez but their 3-1 victory over English Premiership soccer rivals Manchestert City in Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday was far less emphatic than the scoreline indicates. Arsene Wenger will know as much as he continues his pursuit of the unhappy Liverpool forward with Arsenal still confident of landing Suarez after failing with an opening bid of £40million.
At least the Gunners showed that they are in decent shape going into the new campaign, despite flattering to deceive at times against Manchester City in what was a final pre-season friendly for both teams.
It was a keenly contested game throughout even though it fell some way short of the “Super Match” billing in Helsinki that attracted a sell-out 39 000 crowd — a record attendance for a football match here.
Arsenal went ahead in the ninth minute when Theo Walcott was more alert to Aaron Ramsey’s angled pass behind the City defence than his former Arsenal teammate Gael Clichy, nicking the ball away from the Frenchman and then beating his England colleague Joe Hart with a neat chip into the top corner.
Bacary Sagna also forced Hart to push the ball against the foot of his left-hand post with a low shot from 25 yards but City should really have ben level before the interval.
New signing Alvaro Negredo beat Wojciech Szczesny to a cross but as the ball looped up he was unable to direct it into the empty net under pressure from Per Mertesacker.
Then Edin Dzeko shrugged off the challenge of Mertesacker to give himself a clear sight of goal 10 yards out but Szczesny did well to block with his legs.
The tackles became progressively stronger as the half wore on with City skipper Vincent Kompany booked for going through the back of Lukas Podolski and Arsenal refusing to put the ball out of play when Laurent Koscielny’s late challenge left Dzeko on the floor.
Neither Podolski nor Dzeko appeared for the second half although that may have been planned with both Wenger and Manuel Pallegrini making three changes at the interval.
Pellegrini sent on Jesus Navas and it took the Spaniard less than 10 minutes to carve out a clear opportunity for his former Sevilla teammate Negredo, slipping a lovely pass in behind the Arsenal defence for the big striker who pulled a low shot wide of substitute goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski but also wide of the far post.
However, it was Arsenal replacement Olivier Giroud who had a more telling impact as the Gunners put the result beyond doubt with two goals in three minutes, somewhat against the run of play.
It was Giroud who set Ramsey free on goal with a well-time pass in the 59th minute, but Hart will be disappointed that the Wales midfielder went around him so easily before placing the ball into an empty net.
Giroud claimed the third himself soon afterwards when he chased Walcott’s long ball forward from the right flank.
It always had Kompany in trouble and the Belgian failed to cut it out with an outstretched leg.
Giroud had no such trouble, controlling it with his first touch and then lobbing Hart with his second. — Mailonline.
Online Reporter