Stevenage 1 Arsenal 6: Off we go then....

Last updated : 17 July 2002 By Chris Parry

The first thing you noticed was who was not there....Seaman, Lauren, Keown, Sol, Cole, Ljungberg, Pires, Vieira, Gio, Pennant, Wiltord, Henry, Kanu ....but do not despair as the quality of players in the reserves and coming through is superb......you can really see the schooling of playing the right way coming to fruition from the Brady academy up......every player is comfortable on the ball and is always looking to pass and move the ball......firstly players who stuck out:

Bergkamp: Simply Dennis Bergkamp, looked lean, hungry and his touch was superb throughout.

Edu: Looked stronger than I remember and his touch and range of passing was displayed throughout, also scored a great 20-25yd goal.

Juan: Little diamond, very skilful and reminds me of Kenny Sansom in way he moves around, more than adequate cover for Cole as an attacking full back, though was not tested defensively really

Cygan: does what it says on tin...big, strong and alot more mobile than I expected. Also showed good awareness in passing, I think I counted one stray pass.

Svard: looked very comfortable next to Edu in first half. Broke play up and distributed sensibly throughout.

Parlour: Typical industrious Ray....

Noble: Fan of Noble, played only half an hour but he demands ball and his passing is always probing and accurate.

Sidwell: A lot stronger and just breaks stuff up and moves it on.

Aliadiere: Good touch but lacked in final pass/shot, made some good runs but missed a one on one with their keeper.

Upson: Looked solid and unfuffled

Tavlaridis: Like him a lot, very motivated and hassles in a Keown-like way.

Also run outs for Barrett (who took his goals well) Jermaine Brown (lively and tricky but final ball lacked), Paulihno and Chilvers.

Now lets put it into perspective: It's the first game with basically reserves/youth against a conference side in early season build up.....but one thing that sticks out totally is the quality on ball throughout the depth of reserves and youth...Arsene Wenger's stamp is all over every player now..... years ago I remember one or two setting themselves apart, but having seen some reserve and youth games in 2000 through to now and seeing tonight, most if not all can REALLY play football......final note Jeffers did not feature tonight, wasn't there from what I could gather.