Arsenal Pre-Season 2010: Beware The Madness Of Barnet

Two days, that's how far we are away from an Arsenal fixture. The relief is considerable. For the first time in months, it's not going to be "Cesc said that" or "Barcelona said this", or poxy agents using Arsenal's name to raise their client's profiles. It's simply going to be our eleven lads on a field playing football against another club's eleven lads.

I always feel pre-season friendlies are over analyzed, and of no friendly is that more true than the traditional opening game against Barnet. In truth the game carries very little significance whatsoever. The team that plays against Barnet has been back in training for about a week. The game will be, as it always is, sluggish and fairly unappealing to the eye, such is the nature of these games.

Nevertheless, I expect to see Arsenal fans analyzing this weekend's match in minute detail, looking for any sign they can divine from the game about the potential of Chamakh or Koscielny (who seem very likely to feature at some stage), or of prospective tactics for the new season, and absolutely anything could be blown out of proportion and taken as a sign of sure success or doom for the team in the coming season.

The fact is the results, and to a large extent the performances in pre-season friendlies, especially the early ones, are absolutely meaningless. We could lose to Barnet on Saturday (Something which I'm convinced will happen one of these years) and I'm sure there would be much wailing and gnashing of teeth among some Arsenal fans, but in terms of what it would mean for the new season it would be utterly without significance.

Saturday's game will be an exercise in fitness and easing the squad back into a match situation after their holidays. For the fans, it should be a simple relief after barren months with only a dire World Cup to sustain us to have some football to watch.

I read a lot of opinion from Arsenal fans, as you'd imagine, and like all clubs we have our share of idiots among our following. There are some who will be determined to be sensationalist over trivial things on Saturday.

For instance if Jack Wilshere dribbles the length of the field and scores in a Maradona-esque fashion there will be those that howl for him to start against Liverpool next month, equally if Chamakh gets in a goalscoring position and trips over his undone lace instead of finishing the chance there will be those who write off his entire Arsenal career before it's started.

For passionate fans watching your team is only ever close to relaxing in these kinds of games. I would hope that most can simply enjoy having a game of football featuring Arsenal to watch again. However come what may, I'm sure some ridiculous things will be said and written about Saturday's game.

For my part I can only say it is not going to be a competitive game, it will be mostly about players fitness and we may or may not get a few goals to savour. The matches significance however will be about as long lived as a Jonathan Pearce Fan Club.

Which is not to say I'm not looking forward to the game. The last few months have been tough going. Don't get me wrong, I'm not averse to a bit of transfer speculation and discussion, but I'm looking forward to getting some Arsenal football to get my teeth sunk into, and I'm sure there are a lot of people who feel the same way.

It'll be a little while before we see the full team back because of the World Cup exploits of some (although only Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie made it to the latter stages of the tournament), but to see our lads back in Arsenal shirts (hopefully the new home one which I'm looking forward to seeing in an actual game) will be a fine sight.

In terms of transfer news this morning it's all a bit quiet. Did you know there was a question of us bidding for Cristian Zapata? Don't worry, me neither. It's not of any great consequence anyway, as our non- existent interest has been backed up by a non-existant bid. That would be an example of the "agent using our clubs name to raise their players profile" phenomenon I mentioned earlier then. Our need for another centre-half means we are fertile ground for such things at the moment. Hopefully the club will put a stop to that sort of thing by actually signing a defender before too long.

No longer our player I know, but I think I'd be remiss not to mention that Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has made the move Stateside to join the New York Red Bulls in the MLS. I am a little surprised that he's done it at the age of 32, I think he probably could have played in Europe for a few more years and still had the chance to go over there and be a success. The MLS seems to be improving, if the American national team is any gauge of the matter, but having watched a game or two of it in the last year it's still a long way behind any major European league.

If Thierry has any ambitions of playing for France again then he may look to come back to Europe on loan as David Beckham has done in the past during the MLS off-season. If we find ourselves short of a striker at that time, who knows, we may yet see Thierry in an Arsenal shirt again, which would of course be a pleasure.

Hopefully we'll have some developments on the transfer front to discuss tomorrow. Until then, have a good day.