Youngsters denied victory by Sevilla but still on course to retain Amsterdam Tournament trophy

A young Arsenal side took the lead against Sevilla thanks to an early Carlos Vela strike, but a late goal from Sevilla’s Chevanton meant that it ended in a draw at the Amsterdam ArenA.

Jack Wilshere, Mark Randall, Kieran Gibbs and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas were all handed starting berths, whilst Philippe Senderos captained the side.

————————Fabianski————————
—J.Hoyte–Djourou——————–Senderos (c)—Gibbs

—Wilshere-Randall——————–Ramsey——-Thomas

———–Bendtner——————Vela——————

subs: Almunia, Sagna, Walcott, Denilson, Clichy, Adebayor, Eboue.

Arsenal started off the brightest with Wilshere, playing on the right-wing, found Bendtner who forced a corner, whilst Jay Thomas also showed some good early touches.

Within three minutes, the youngsters were ahead after Vela capitalised on some poor defending and showed good physical strength to shrug off his markers before slotting a cool finish into the back of the net for his fifth goal of pre-season.

Sevilla looked to respond and most of their first-half chances fell to Luis Fabiano who failed to convert any of them although he did come close on a couple of occasions.

Jay Thomas was helping out at the back and eventually swapped positions with Gibbs, which meant he operated at left-back with Kieran in a more advanced role just ahead of him.

Arsenal were looking for a second and Ramsey smashed a low shot straight at the ‘keeper and in truth the Welshman had a decent first-half, making some good passes.

Senderos was then booked for an alleged foul on Kone and Gibbs switched wings with Wilshere which meant that Jack was now operating on the left flank. Wilshere was also on corner duty for Arsenal and saw his set-piece headed over by Djourou.

Sevilla were growing into the game and making it a nervous end to the first half for Arsenal. The Spanish side had a penalty claim when Randall was alleged to have brought down Jesus Navas in the box but nothing was given. Djourou made some good blocks, hurting himself in the process and Fabianski made a decent save.

Another interesting development of the first-half was that it was revealed that Middlesbrough’s chief scout was present at the Amsterdam Arena, no doubt casting an eye on right-back Justin Hoyte.

Arsenal went into the break 1-0 up and seemingly 45 minutes away from reclaiming their Amsterdam Tournament crown.

Half time- Arsenal 1 Sevilla 0

The start of the second half saw Wilshere return to the right-flank, whilst Gibbs went back over to the left. Sevilla continued where they had left off in the first half and Randall was booked for a challenge on Diego Capel as the Spanish side continued to press.

Fabianski was proving Arsenal’s saving grace, producing countless spectacular stops but he could only watch on as Randall almost scored an own goal after heading over from a Sevilla cross.

Arsenal’s Polish stopper then tipped over a powerful effort from Chevanton before Navas wasted a good chance.

Wilshere was showing good strength on the few occasions that he did get the ball but at the moment it was all about Sevilla, who seemed more and more like scoring.

Fabianski made another good stop from Romaric and then again to deny Navas from close range.

Randall’s tactics of winding up the opposition players (Diego Capel in particular) seemed to be working, whilst Arsenal took the opporunity to make two changes bringing Sagna on for Djourou and Denilson replacing Emmanuel-Thomas, who no doubt will have learnt a lot from this game.

Gibbs then switched to left-back, with Randall operating on the left flank.

Fabianski denied Squillaci from close range and Arsenal then opted to bring on Walcott for Wilshere with 12 minutes remaining.

Then, the inevitable happened. Sevilla finally scored after the ball was played through the legs of Gibbs and Chevanton slotted it in for 1-1. They could have won it as well but Capel and Romaric failed to take their chances. Navas hit the post from an acute angle and in the end Arsenal were lucky to escape with a draw even though they were leading for the majority of the game.

Full time- Arsenal 1 Sevilla 1

Arsenal now have eight points and must wait on the result of the Ajax-Inter clash to see whether they will retain the Amsterdam Tournament.