If you missed the game against Barnet then this compilation of Emmanuel Frimpong is a must watch. And those who did watch the game will surely have enjoyed it enough to give it a second look.
There are many aspects to his play that we can appreciate. The initial moments of the video have some sideways and backward passes but that’s understandable given the nature of his role. Then we can see him press really high up, make runs down the left and right channels, and tracking back.
His tackling skills look really good and he seems to be one of those guys who isn’t afraid of “sticking his foot in”. The tackle at 2:05 or so is the one I referred to as breathtaking in the post match analysis.
I’m impressed with his physical presence and speed. Also by the fact that he looks comfortable on the pitch (Eastmond looked a little nervous last year although to be fair to him that was in some big games). The way he turns and controls the ball gives me a feeling that I’m watching a natural footballer.
I don’t like comparing youngsters to established stars but there are genuine shades of Michael Essien in Frimpong. The box-to-box midfielder is an abused term in my opinion but Frimpong has the talent and physical attributes required to develop as one.
Of course, we need to keep in mind that this was just a friendly against a weak team that is just beginning its preparations. The speed, strength, and skill level required at the Premier League level is far higher and to expect Frimpong to make the cut immediately would be highly unfair on the kid.
I’m just hoping he gets a lot more chances in pre-season and then gets a good loan spell at a club in the Premiership or higher levels of the Championship. For his part, Frimpong needs to understand that this is just the beginning and life will get tougher as he moves higher. He needs to maintain his desire, hard work, and focus on improving with each passing day. His time will surely come.
Desi Gunner 
shades of patrick viera, me likes
Will be great if he can gain another two, three inches in height.
Damn, I don’t remember him being that good when I watched him live!!
Sometimes youtube is better than being on the ground 😛
Emmanuel Frimpong is the New Essian hopefully minus injury habits. Hopefully he should avoid playboy lifestyle and bling bling cars until he win something big. Arsenal looked 21 carat almost everyone looked good wonder why is it cause Barnet have to roll over for us every year in return for healthy profit.
Well, Barnet have a new manager and if I heard the commentator right they signed 11 new players so we can’t really expect them to be in top form so early in pre-season.
Frimpong was very impressive, especially his tackling and then his pace surprised me. However, it’s worth remembering, before people start calling for his inclusion into the 1st team squad that he was playing with better players around him who i noticed covered for a lot of his inexperience. On numerous occasions he was way out of position and playing more as a box to box when in our set up the dm, if we are using just 1, he has to be disciplined. I’d put this down to eagerness to further impress once he’s made an impressive start so basically his immaturity showed there. If it wasn’t for Rosicky dropping back regularly and Vermaelen having a blinder, plus the poor opposition, i swear the dm position would have looked vacant at times.
I’m just pointing this out because people seem to hype up performances like these and go over the top. He had a great game tho and showed his talents and that will have been noticed by le boss, but he still lacks experience of playing competitive football so a good stint in the cup games and after a 6 month loan we’ll see a more capable player.
Hey, thats my comment from another blog yesterday. Glad you liked it so much you had to rip it.
There is no doubt he was eager to impress. Can’t really fault him for being out of position as the opposition barely threatened. We must give him the benefit here, if the opposition had been stronger he’d have been more disciplined.
Completely agree that we should not hype him up.
hey guys!
he’s only 18 with alot to learn, hopefully wenger will protect him till he develops.
still i never wish for arsenal to sign mad melo anyway. now eastmond is facing competition as backup for alex song which is a good thing.
What if he plays as the 2nd cm/dm along side a more disciplined dm?
Like i just said on another blog (cough pato) he is like a whippet/bull mastiff and would be excellent at just harrassing the opposition into losing the ball without having to worry about leaving the dm position open.
yeah we already score enough goals and the third cm role atm is where we have no consistency. diaby is very inconsistent and not usually very defensive and denilson divides opinion. i think we need a dedicated second dm, whether it’s frimpong or someone else is another matter. but having a cm like denilson or diaby isn’t good when we concede so many goals.
if frimpong is one of those harrassing types who is happy to defend (looks like he’s made for it) i’d much rather see us have two of those types of players in the team at the same time with cesc ahead. that way cesc is freer and can contribute less defensively and worry more about creating goals and we’d have less instances where we concede stupid goals because our 3rd cm (denilson or diaby) was too far forward or not physical enough to make the difference.
the only thing better than having one alex song in the team would be having two 😀
No wonder frimpong is a ghanaian,ghana always produce talented midfielders the likes of annan,essien,asamoah,badu,derek boateng of getafe no wonder they are the best team in africa. Frimpong is now a man and giving this guy a chance at senior level oh good things
I’m surprised some of the stars from Ghana haven’t made it to the bigger clubs.
Very impressive this lad actually has more of a Gilberto, the invisible wall ie tackle and pass or ly off to someone behind him. His ability to break up play will make him invaluable. Roll on Carling Cup….
It’s his relentless energy that i like most. Why can’t Denilson put that much effort in? I mean seriously WHY?
I think Denilson has a good work rate but he doesn’t have that ability to make many lung bursting sprints and those are the ones that catch the eye.
It’s worth remembering that he knows he’s only going to play 45 minutes so is not holding anything back for the 2nd half. However it has to be said that his fitness level is already very good and could probably sprint the 2nd half as well (:
Good point about 45 mins. Even Wenger said some players were tired. There is good reason why we control the game time at the start of preseason.
what we’re looking at here is a future arsenal box to box midfielder, believe guys let him play some let the the coaches discipline him and teach him his role, then give him some carling cup games, next send him out on role and you will see what we have here… I agree with you Zubi ghanaian players are very very talented but this boy is a diamond in the sand ready to be polished WELCOME FRIMPONG!
yeah the tackle at 2:04 or so was AMAZING.
left me gaping when I saw it live.
would be interested to know how many fouls he commited, because these are his highlights, it naturally wont show many fouls.
He looks very impressive and made some pretty fair, but strong tackles, but let’s not get too carried away, song had a fantastic season!
Good point about fouls. From what I remember not many, and hardly any bad one.
I think he gave away just 1 foul, but i was for nothing. Maybe the barnet players became so frustrated that he wouldn’t let them play with the ball they started crying and throwing their arms in the air.
In fact apart from 1 bad foul on Nordtveit (i think) and then 3 or 4 other minor fouls it was very kindergarden the whole affair.
I hope all our preseason fixtures have the kindergarten style. Really sick of players getting injured before the season even starts.
Send him defo to a newcastle or blackpool let him play that box to box which them teams so need! and get that valuable expeience he so needs.. or arsene could do a ramsey. i remember we let rmsey come in slowly gave him 30 mins here and there, and he was turning into a raw talent then at stoke set us back. mabe ever way frimpong goes he will blossom and because he wont be hyped up as much maybe that could be our defensive mid worrys out the window and he home grown so thats killing to birds with one stone.
but he was brilliant same as jack, ashavin, thamas whilsere, chamakah who i thought was defo what we need a better lead role. nasri, walcott beat his man a few times needs to get better crosses in doe. but my player was johan, i cant even remember who was beside him, but from a long term injury to be running around cleaning up like that was a wonderful sight. oh and simpson. i would like to no how come we dont give him his chance, he always going to score goals reminds me of wright a lil bit.
His formidable figure makes sure everyone else on the pitch is aware of his presence but what’s more exciting to see is the way he goes into tackles minus any fear. Note that although he won the ball on most occasions, none of the tackles were from the Shawcross School of Tackling. His box-to-box running reminds me of a certain Mathieu Flamini who had an incredible engine in his legs. While tackling he looks more like Song but when going forward he’s better than the Cameroonian.