Chelsea remain undefeated while Arsenal, West Ham and Bolton all falter. There’s no Korean hangover for Reading though, as they hit six. Meanwhile Villa kick off their pre-season with a win in Toronto and Luke Moore turns up the heat on Harewood and Carew by grabbing a hat-trick. Get all the lineups, scorers and rambling comments here…
Feyenoord 1 Chelsea 1
Chelsea remained unbeaten in pre-season after this draw with Feyonoord but this was by far their stiffest test. Only a Cudicini penalty save prevented them from slipping to defeat. Lampard got the Chelsea goal as Jose went with a 4-3-3 with Cole, Shevchenko and Wright-Phillips playing the attacking roles in the first half. Drogba and Malouda appeared for the second-half while Pizarro made his first appearance in a Chelsea shirt after an hour. Terry missed this game, still suffering from that sore toe, so Ben Haim was employed at centre-back with Johnson and Ferreira occupying he full-back spots.
Chelsea Lineup: Cech (Cudicini 45); Ferreira (Sinclair 78), Carvalho, Ben-Haim, Johnson (Diarra 65); Sidwell (Pizarro 65), Mikel (Hutchinson 67), Lampard; Wright-Phillips, Shevchenko (Drogba 45), J Cole (Malouda 45)
Salzburg 1 Arsenal 0
Arsenal slipped to a defeat in Austria in a match played out on a dreadful surface. Arsenal were without Fabregas, Gilberto and Adebayor but still fielded a strong lineup which included a full debut for Eduardo Da Silva. The Brazilian/Croatian had a few chances, as did Arsenal in general but, like so many occasions last season, they couldn’t find the net. Rosicky was subbed on 31 mintues with a hamstring injury and Wenger later commented that he didn’t feel that this would see the Czech miss the start of the season. Interestingly, Eboue was pushed into midfield when Rosicky went off with Sagna taking the right-back spot.
Arsenal Lineup: Lehmann (Fabianski 46), Eboue, Toure, Traore (Hoyte 46), Gallas, Denilson (Flamini 46), Diaby (Randall 68), Rosicky (Sagna 31), Hleb, Van Persie (Bendtner 46), Da Silva
Hibernian 3 Bolton 0
Bolton returned from their Peace Cup exploits to get a mauling against Hibs although the result was made to look emphatic by two goals in the space of three minutes towards the end. It was far from a full strength lineup for Bolton with the likes of Anelka, Speed, Campo, Nolan and Meite all rested. However with Diouf, Steilios and Helguson making his debut, this was a bitterly disappointing outcome for Sammy Lee’s side after a morale boosting Korean tournament.
Bolton Lineup: Walker, Sinclair, Faye, Michalik, Jamieson, Diouf (Sissons 57), Guthrie (Obadeyi 57), Speed (Cassidy 77), Stelios (Wolfe 45), Helguson (Harsanyi 45), Vaz Te.
Brentford 1 Reading 6
Reading ran riot at Brentford with Shane Long hitting brace. Shorey, Seol, Church and Bikey netted the remaining goals. Shorey, Seol and Kitson all registered assists on the night. Coppell kept faith with the 4-4-2 formation used for previous pre-season games with Oster employed in deep role in midfield, allowing new signing Cisse to bomb forward.
Reading Lineup: Stack, Halls, Shorey (De La Cruz 64), Bikey, Bennett, Cisse, Oster (Ingimarsson 82), Seol, Hunt (Church 67), Long, Kitson
MK Dons 3 West Ham 2
West Ham became the latest Premiership side to suffer pre-season defeat, despite goals from Ephraim and Upson. Boa Morte provided the assists from the left wing on both occasions while Ljungberg made a solid debut for the Hammers. The likes of Gabbidon, Upson and Bellamy all got their first full 90-minutes of the pre-season with Bellamy in particular, looking lively.
West Ham Lineup: Wright; Spector, Collins, Upson, Gabbidon; Ljungberg (Stokes 66), Dailly, Collison, Boa Morte (Jeffery 90); Ephraim, Bellamy
Blackpool 1 Wigan 2
Wigan ran out winners at Blackpool with an own goal and a first half strike from Valencia. Wigan fielded a strong side with Mario Melchiot captain at right back, and a centre-back pairing of Andreas Granqvist and Titus Bramble. Kilbane was again employed at left-back. Cotterill played on the right of midfield with Scharner and Valencia in middle and Koumas on the left. Heskey and Aghahowa formed the pairing up front.
Wigan Lineup: Pollitt, Melchiot, Granqvist (Boyce 58), Bramble (Hall 75), Kilbane, Cotterill, Scharner, Koumas (Baines 58), Valencia, Heskey, Aghahowa (Folan 75)
Toronto 2 Aston Villa 4
Luke Moore hit a hat-trick to get Villa’s pre-season off to a flyer against Toronto with John Carew chipping in after coming on as sub for Harewood in the second-half. Moore bagged the first from a Young through-ball and followed this up by slotting home a rebound from a Harewood shot that was saved. Toronto came back to level things before Carew put Villa back in front from an Agbonlahor assist. Moore then sealed his hat-trick with prodding home from another Agbonlahor pass. The only black mark on the night for Villa was the injury to Keeper Sorensen. He limped off with a hamstring injury 10 minutes before half-time.
Aston Villa Lineup: Sorensen (Taylor 35), Gardner, O’Halloran (Laursen 67), Mellberg (Ridgewell 46), Cahill (Reo-Coker 67), Barry (Berger 46), Stieber (Agbonlahor 67), Moore, Harewood (Carew 70), Young, Petrov (Bouma 46).