Burgenland XI 2 Arsenal 10
Arsenal completed their pre-season tour of Austria this evening with a 10-2 demolition of Burgenland XI in Ritzing. Nicklas Bendtner scored four, Carlos Vela grabbed a hat-trick, Jack Wilshere got two whilst Theo Walcott added a 10th in the second half.
Arsene Wenger made just one change from last week, bringing in Armand Traore for Theo Walcott, who dropped to the bench. This meant that Jack Wilshere started on the right and Vela played just behind Bendtner up-front. Francis Coquelin missed out through injury.
————————-Almunia—————————–
–Sagna——G.Hoyte——————-J.Hoyte——–Clichy
–Wilshere—-Ramsey——————-Denilson——-Traore
—————————————-Vela—————-
———————-Bendtner———————————
subs: Mannone, Simpson, Randall, Walcott, Lansbury.
The scoreline was hardly suprising considering that the Burgenland XI was made up of several different players from local sides, meaning there was no team chemistry and Arsenal could exploit them easily.
Having been held to a 1-1 draw by Szombatheyli Haladas last Tuesday, a few Arsenal fans were concerned that this game wasn’t going to be a walkover. How wrong they were. With just 47 seconds on the clock, the Gunners took the lead when Traore broke down the left and fed a neat ball into Wilshere who slotted it home via a deflection of a Burgenland defender. You could tell instantly that this was going to be much easier than anyone expected it to be.
Carlos Vela had a penalty claim turned down with nine minutes gone, but his time to shine was yet to come.
The first-half belonged to Nicklas Bendtner. After a poor start where he seemed lazy and squandered a couple of chances, it seemed as if he was going to put in a repeat of his poor performance against Barnet. However, he proved his class on 14 minutes by smashing home a powerful drive to make it 2-0.
He grabbed his second and Arsenal’s third six minutes later after he latched onto one of Jack Wilshere’s trademark through balls and showed good composure to finish. He could have grabbed his hat-trick moments later when played through by Traore but narrowly missed.
Vela was keen to impress the on-watching Arsene Wenger and after Gavin Hoyte showed good vision to spot the Mexican’s clever run, Carlos continued running and slotted home his first Arsenal goal.
Nicklas Bendtner made it 5-0 on the half-hour mark and in doing so grabbed his hat-trick, finishing off a neat move with a cool finish.
Two minutes later, the tall Dane turned provider for Vela’s second and the Mexican slotted home his second of the game after the ball evaded Wilshere.
Arsenal weren’t going to stop there, though, and Burgenland ‘keeper Lerner did well to deny both Ramsey and Wilshere in quick succession.
On 37 minutes, Bendtner scored his fourth and Arsenal’s 7th after Wilshere played him in. Nicklas showed good ball control skills and then fired home once more.
Wilshere was denied again by Lerner and then on 39 minutes Arsenal made their first substitution of the game:
Lansbury for Traore
The new-look midfield looked like this:
—–Lansbury—–Ramsey———-Denilson——Wilshere—–
The referee then blew the half-time whistle to put Burgenland out of their misery with Arsenal seven goals to the good.
Half time- Burgenland XI 0 Arsenal 7
The start of the second half saw the remaining substitutes come on as follows
Mannone for Almunia
Simpson for Bendtner
Randall for Denilson
Walcott for Clichy
The changed side looked like this:
————————Mannone———————-
–Lansbury—G.Hoyte—————-Sagna——-J.Hoyte
–Walcott—-Randall—————–Ramsey——Wilshere
————–Simpson—————Vela——————
Burgenland changed their whole XI at the break.
After Walcott and Randall missed chances, Vela completed his hat-trick on 52 minutes after being played through by Walcott and showed good composure to score.
Jay Simpson had four good opportunities in the second half but failed to take any of them. Some of the misses weren’t really his fault as they were difficult chances and you can’t help but think that he should have scored at least one.
On 64 minutes, Wilshere was brought down in the area and a penalty was awarded. He stepped up to take it himself and scored, sending the ‘keeper the wrong way.
Walcott got the tenth on 69 minutes after some neat interchanges between Wilshere and Simpson.
Burgenland grabbed a couple of consolation goals towards the end but it hardly mattered, the game was won early in the first half.
You can’t take too much from the result given the opposition but there were some added positives. Bendtner and Vela’s goals of course added to Jack Wilshere’s continuing development. In addition, Gavin Hoyte seemed much more composed and comfortable on the ball although Henri Lansbury still looks a little rusty.
Arsenal face a much tougher test on Wednesday in the form of Stuttgart, Jens Lehmann’s new club. Some of the youngsters will be hoping to be involved again for that one and the match will also see some first-team regulars return to the fold.
Full time- Burgenland XI 2 Arsenal 10
