Friday, 24 May 2013

Backpage Roundup: Monreal’s Advice for Gunners, Sanchez Wants Barca Stay, Vela Rejects Arsenal Return, Jovetic’s Affinity and More

Nacho-Monreal

Monreal’s Advice for Gunners Nacho Monreal believes that he and his Arsenal teammates should pay no attention to their critics and instead spend all their energies on achieving a top four finish this season. It has been another disappointing season for the Gunners as their trophy-drought is set to cross the eight-year mark at the [...]

Backpage Roundup: Henry Set for another Arsenal Return, Mertesacker Recalls Debut Season Struggles, Gunners Won’t Be Complacent Against Montpellier, Bendtner Unsure About Arsenal Future and More

henryrow

Henry Could Return Again Arsene Wenger has refused to rubbish media speculation that Arsenal legend and New York Red Bulls superstar Thierry Henry could be back playing at Emirates once again in January. Henry, 35, originally left the Gunners for Barcelona in 2006 but returned for a successful short-term loan deal last season and scored [...]

Backpage roundup: Frimpong not fully fit, Gallas disagrees with Wenger, Arsenal losing N’Koulou battle, Szczesny set to return and more

emmanuel-frimpong-arsenal

Frimpong Still Not Fully Fit Emmanuel Frimpong feels that his fitness is not at a level yet where he can play regular football for Arsenal’s senior side and he needs a few more under-21 matches to get back in proper shape. The 20-year-old midfielder has recovered from a serious cruciate ligaments injury that he suffered [...]

Backpage roundup: Arsenal linked With Real’s Benzema, Wilshere stars for U-21s, Wenger targets instant recovery, Santos going nowhere and more

KBenzema

                          Arsenal to Get Benzema If Real Land Falcao Arsenal have been linked with a summer move for French striker Karim Benzema, who could be available at a knockdown price if Los Merengues decide to sign Atletico Madrid goal machine Radamel Falcao. (Metro) [...]

Backpage roundup: Fabregas believes in Wenger, Szczesny remains number one, Vertonghen snub claims, Vermaelen confident, Wilshere return close and more

Cesc Fabregas Arsenal

Fabregas Has Faith in Wenger Cesc Fabregas has hailed Arsene Wenger’s ability to turn talented youngsters into world class players and is confident that the Frenchman will keep Arsenal in the hunt for title glory this season. Despite losing high quality players such as Robin van Persie and Alexandre Song this summer, the Gunners still [...]

No sympathy for Cesc Fabregas

Cesc Fabregas Arsenal

Speaking just for myself and not Arsenal supporters in general, if the rumours are true that Cesc Fabregas wants to come back to the Gunners, I have a couple of choice words for him and they’re not too kind. The way Fabregas left the team was one of the most annoying and distasteful situations in [...]

The ‘Makelele role’ is still important

songy21

On the same day that Arsenal’s main defensive midfielder was confirmed as a Barcelona player, Everton overran Manchester United in a very impressive and fully deserved 1-0 win at Goodison Park. The link here? United had no midfield. Sky called it a 4-3-3 in the pre-match buildup, but it looked more like a 4-2-3-1 with [...]

Constant change harming Arsenal

Alex Song

It struck me yesterday that Arsenal’s starting lineup against Sunderland was almost an entirely different team from even two seasons ago. After years of being fairly quiet in the transfer market (apart from selling the occasional top player and signing the occasional teenager), Arsenal have now gone the other way: last summer saw Clichy, Fabregas [...]

Backpage roundup: Song leaving, Wenger’s FFP warning, Walcott’s new deal and more

songy21

Barcelona Agree Song Fee Arsenal have announced that they have reached an agreement with FC Barcelona for the transfer of defensive midfielder Alexandre Song. The deal, which is subject to Song passing a medical and agreeing personal terms with the La Liga giants, will see the Gunners pocket £15 million. The announcement was made through [...]

Deja vu, all over again

RVP 2012

We’ve been here before, haven’t we? Too many times. Star player…club captain…one-man team…selling club. The words have lost all meaning. Though I have been toughened up by so many recent experiences (or perhaps simly grown numb to the modern running of Arsenal FC) I have to, as ever, express my disappointment at Arsene Wenger and [...]

Chelsea 3rd worst winners ever

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I just want to make it clear quickly, that I’m not being petty here; I’ve got over Chelsea winning the Champions League and this article is not intended to have a dig (I’ve done that more than enough already), merely to have a look at something, admittedly kind of pointless, that interests me. It occurred [...]

Parking the bus – why does it work?

parkingthebuschelsea

We’ve seen it so many times in recent years – inferior teams go to difficult games (at Barcelona and Arsenal in particular) with the sole intention of ‘parking the bus’ in front of their goal. Ironically, this term was coined by the master of this tactic, Jose Mourinho, when Spurs came to Stamford Bridge and [...]

Arsenal need to get their act together

Champions_League_trophy (1)

There are few sicker sights I’ve seen in football than that of Chelsea’s Champions League celebrations last night. They are the first London team to bring home the European Cup. It should have been us. We are London’s biggest club. Chelsea were nothing before 2005 when Roman Abramovich’s millions and Jose Mourinho’s dull, defensive football [...]

There’s a talented player in there somewhere

Alex Song

I have to admit that I naively raised an eyebrow yesterday when Roberto Mancini, chasing a much-needed win at Newcastle, took off attacking midfielder Samir Nasri for defensive midfielder Nigel De Jong. In the end, this turned out to be the masterstroke that won City the game, and possibly the league title. Having been largely [...]

EXCLUSIVE: Guardiola won’t replace Wenger at Arsenal, says Parlour

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Arsenal will miss out on snaring Pep Guardiola as a new manager because he will take over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. That is the belief of former Gunners midfielder Ray Parlour, who accepts that Guardiola’s footballing philosophy – he and Arsenal have been cited as a good fit  by supporters and pundits [...]

Backpage Roundup: Barca Not Interested In RVP, Denilson’s Return and More

RobinvanPersie

Fiorentina Ace Linked With Arsenal Move According to Metro’s website, Fiorentina’s midfield playmaker Adem Ljajic is a summer transfer target for Arsenal FC. Ljajic is a highly technical player and young enough to fit in the Gunners manager Arsene Wenger’s plans. He is equally adept at playing in both the midfield and at the wings, [...]

The curse of being too good

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You can’t win the league and the Champions League every year. Five out of the last six of those isn’t bad, with a few other smaller trophies thrown in and the possibility of another Copa del Rey still to come this season. However, second in the league and a semi-final exit to an inferior team [...]

Chelsea’s win makes third place more valuable than ever for Arsenal

champions-league-trophy

Chelsea’s unlikely draw at Barcelona and their advancement to the Champions League Final means a third place finish in the English Premier League could be essential for Arsenal if they’re to make the Champions League next season. There’s now a 50 per cent chance that Chelsea will lift the trophy on May 19 in Munich’s [...]

The Di Matteo effect

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Roberto Di Matteo has taken Chelsea back to basics. With his only previous Premier League management experience being his time as the manager of West Brom, he knows what it means to be in the results business. When you get a team promoted from the Championship to the top flight, it’s often all about getting [...]

Arsenal Captaincy Hasn’t Changed Me, Says Robin Van Persie

RobinvanPersie

Since being given the club captaincy, Arsenal striker Robin van Persie’s performances and injury record has certainly improved a great deal, but he says that the responsibility of leading the Gunners hasn’t forced him to change his style of play at all. In an interview with Arsenal.com, van Persie said that he was extremely proud [...]

Bilbao give a great advert for La Liga

afcvAC

Since Barcelona and Real Madrid started regularly thrashing everyone and Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo would fight it out every week for who can score the most hat-tricks, it has become a widely accepted norm among English fans and pundits that the Spanish league is just weaker than our own. Barca and Real are great [...]

RVP will leave Arsenal to play for Barcelona

RVP will leave Arsenal to play for Barcelona

I hope like me everyone had a goodnight relaxed, in the knowledge that we do not have to play again until next Tuesday night. In a game where I thought during the first half especially Liverpool,  could have put at least a couple of goals past us. The hero of the match for me was [...]

Arshavin departure leaves yet more questions

AndreyArshavin

Arsenal announced today that they have chosen to loan out Andrey Arshavin back to his former club Zenit St Petersburg for the rest of the season. A marquee signing when he joined in January 2009, the captain of the Russian international team proved an instant success, lifting the team to a 4th place finish almost [...]

Arsenal to be cautious with signings

Arsenal to be cautious with signing’s

Here we are in the January transfer window, and we are all excited over the new stars that will be coming to the Emirates. There is talk of this one, and talk of that one. Yet behind all the hype in the press you have Wenger telling us what I am afraid is going to [...]

Now Arsenal No.1 Szczesny hints at Barcelona move

Szczesnynew

Wojciech Szczesny has refused to rule out following former captain Cesc Fabregas and switching from Arsenal to Barcelona. But Szczesny admits any future move to the current European Champions would not be motivated by money. The Metro this morning reports that the 21-year-old described the club as ‘his second home’ in an interview with the [...]