Arsenal Put Seven Goals Past Vietnam

Arsenal's tour of Asia continued yesterday with a game against the Vietnamese national side. Having beaten an Indonesian Dream team 7-0 on Sunday they were expected to face a tougher task in this game. Arsene Wenger seemed to keep that in mind with his team selection as he picked a team with a lot of quality and experience.

The game got off to a good start for Arsenal with a goal in the fifth minute from Olivier Giroud and he went on to score a hat trick before half time. With the rumours of at least one more striker arriving at the club this season Giroud is doing all he can to show how good he is in front of goal. The quality of the opposition may not have been of the highest order, but five goals in two half games is good by any standard.

The other Arsenal goals came from Chuba Akpom with a brace, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ignasi Miquel. They managed to score seven goals yet again as they had on Sunday, but this time their opponents at least managed to pull a goal back. Vietnam got their reward for some occasional good play with just over 10 minutes to go when they pulled a goal bak to leave the final score at 7-1 to Arsenal.

Next up Arsenal are off to Japan where they will play Wenger's former team Nagoya Grampus. That game will take place next Monday afternoon and on Friday of next week they play Urawa Red Diamonds in Japan again in their last game of the tour. After that it's back home for the Emirates Cuo and games against Napoli and Galatasary.I can't say I'm overly happy with the choice of opponents for the Emirates Cuo games but it will be good for the Arsenal fans to see them play again.

So far the team have got a magnificent reception in both Indonesia and Vietnam and the tour seems to have been a great success. Hopefully the Arsenal fans in those countries will have been delighted to have seen their team and there will be an even bigger Arsenal support there in years to come. It's important for the club to expand their international appeal and tours like this one are a huge part of doing just that.

There's still nothing concrete on the transfer front and patience seems to be the order of the day. It's a little frustrating to see other clubs so active while Arsenal are apparently keeping their powder dry. With just over four weeks to the start of the season there's still plenty of time to go, but a high profile transfer would be a massive boost for both the fans and players.

Both Mikael Arteta and Jack Wilshere have recently spoken about their hopes of seeing some quality players arriving. According to them the players are discussing the various names linked with Arsenal in training and looking forward to some arrivals. It would seem everyone knows the team/squad needs some real strengthening and hopefully it just a matter of time now before that happens.

As I've said before I'd much prefer to see Gonzalo Higuain arrive instead of Luis Suarez, but the bottom line is Arsenal need a top class goalscorer. In midfield Marouane Fellaini and Lars Bendtner have been linked and either player would be a good purchase in my opinion. The question mark would seem to be in defence where a central defender is surely needed even if Ignasi Miquel makes the step up to the first team squad.

There has been very little mention of any defenders arriving and hopefully one will arrive in under the radar like Nacho Monreal did in January. The boss was famous for such deals a few years ago with deals like the one for Eduardo seemingly coming out of nowhere. At the moment I think three such deals for top quality players are needed and I have my fingers crossed they will happen very soon.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.