Anderlecht vs Arsenal: Gunners New Explosiveness Will Lead to Big Year

The Arsenal Gunners got a nice distraction from their whirlwind offseason by playing a little football—about 45 minutes of it. 

The Gunners took down Anderlecht 1-0 on Saturday in Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup. The match was only 45 minutes long...by design. They will play Southmapton next.

You can't read too much into this match. Besides being only half a match, Arsenal did not feature many of its top players as they were unavailable following the little matter of the European Championship.  

Also, Arsenal and their fans are still waiting to see who their top players are, which brings us back to the whirlwind offseason. 

Much of the focus on the Gunners this offseason has been on Robin van Persie, and it has looked increasingly inevitable that RVP's time with the Gunners is drawing to a close. 

It is also beginning to look like Theo Walcott could be on his way out as well. This is a lot for any fan base to deal with. But the beat goes on, and for Arsenal, it is pounding just as loud as before. 

With a young and inexperienced squad on the pitch, the Gunners were still able to drum up some nice attacks. They had just one goal to show for it, but they had several chances and good runs. 

Henri Lansbury netted the match's only score. Carl Jenkinson delivered a nice cross to help set up the score, and he was putting in some nice work on the right side all match. Thomas Eisfield gave everyone some glimpses of the future with a few nice touches as well. 

All of this made for a quick and aggressive attack—an attack that will be just fine next year. While Arsenal is likely on the verge of losing some firepower, they have newly acquired Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud to erase the sting of their absence. 

This is going to be an aggressive and effective squad...even if RVP is not a part of it.