Cool customer: Marouane Chamakh (left) shakes off
the attentions of Luca Antonini to beat keeper Christian
Abbiati
Marouane Chamakh made
himself an immediate hit with Arsenal fans after scoring on a home
debut full of class.
Whether the Moroccan can go on
to become a goalscoring legend in mould of Ian Wright and Thierry
Henry - the type of consistent marksmen Arsenal surely need to make
a serious title challenge - remains to be seen.
But the first impression of
the close-season signing from Bordeaux were all good.
When he was
substituted after 73 minutes, Chamakh was given a standing ovation
having scored a goal, set up a glorious opening for Andrey Arshavin
with an impudent piece of skill and led the line with strength and
purpose.
The free transfer
looked a very good player. With £10million central defender Laurent
Koscielny giving a composed performance, Arsene Wenger had reason
to believe that his summer signings can prove excellent value as he
looks for some much-needed strength at both ends of the
pitch.
Although Arsenal, lacking Cesc
Fabregas and Robin Van Persie, irritatingly for their fans, failed
to complete an Emirates Cup victory that should be been theirs but
for some old failings in front of goal, there were plenty of
promising signs.
Caught napping: Alexandre Pato (third right)
pounces on slapdash defending by Thomas Vermaelen (floored) to
glance Clarence Seedorf's free-kick beyond Lukasz
Fabianski
In the early stages
Arsenal went close to finding a way through from a familiar source
- when their attack is struggling for a breakthrough - as centre
back Thomas Vermaelen twice threatened.
The Belgium international,
captain for the day in the absence of Fabregas, who has yet to
return from his post-World Cup holiday, showed his heading power in
reaching a corner from Samir Nasri which brought an outstanding
save from Christian Abbiati.
Soon afterwards the defender
powered in a downward header which left Abbiati flat-footed but the
ball flew narrowly wide.
As the two sides probed for
the early breakthrough ex-Gunner Mathieu Flamini had a chance to
show his former colleagues how it should be done.
Little magician: Samir Nasri bamboozles Mario
Yepes
The Frenchman, better
known for his hard-working defensive qualities during his time in
north London, displayed some deft footwork to race through and fire
a deflected 20-yarder against a post with Lukasz Fabianski
beaten.
Moments later Flamini, harshly
booed by a section of the crowd from the start, again danced his
way into a shooting position and saw another worthy effort
deflected wide.
Then Chamakh struck. In truth,
the goal was set up for the new arrival by a thrilling run by
Arshavin, but the way the lofty Moroccan timed his run, kept his
cool and rolled the ball into the corner of the net augured well
for the forthcoming season.
Family day out: David Beckham and sons Romeo and
Brooklyn watch his erstwhile teammates at the Emirates
Arshavin almost
doubled the lead after Chamakh had set him up, substitute Theo
Walcott had a shot saved and it was against the run of play when
Pato headed in Clarence Seedorf's free-kick in the 76th
minute.
After substitute Mark Randall
had wasted two chances to put Arsenal ahead again, Gianluca
Zambrotta almost snatched victory for Milan with a late shot
against the bar.
Typical frustrating Arsenal.
But at least there's plenty of time to sort things out.