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ARSENAL WANT HIGUAIN

Arsenal have been showing a recent interest in big and established players in order to bring an end to the trophy drought. They are extremely close to bringing in Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain on a deal that will break the current transfer record of the club by a significant margin. Former winger Andrei Arshavin currently holds the record for being the most expensive transfer at Arsenal. He was brought to the club for £ 15 million, but it is expected that the club will be spending close to £ 22 million on Higuain.

There have also been suggestions that Arsenal will not complete their summer purchase with the signing of Higuain alone and they are expected to go after a number of other players. Pepe Reina and Ashley Williams are some of the names continuously linked with Arsenal. Chief executive Ivan Gazidis has said that there is definitely money to spend on the plates of Arsene Wenger, but he is sure that the Frenchman will not be spending money just for the sake of creating a point.

Arsenal have seen the likes of Manchester city and Tottenham go ahead of them in the table as a result of spending huge money. Even though Tottenham have not finished above Arsenal yet, there is a real danger of it happening in the near future.

“The parameters in which he has to operate is to spend what the club can afford and my job is to make that as big as possible and Arsene’s job is to think about which talent he wants to spend that on in the best way possible. If we only find one player that we like, we won’t spend twice as much on him just so we can say we spent all of the money,” said Gazidis.

Arsenal News

FUTURE IS SECURE

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that the club is in good position for a secure future. Pressure has been on the Frenchman to deliver trophies, as it has been eight seasons since the club last lifted a major trophy.

It looks highly unlikely that they will be able to challenge for a trophy in the forthcoming future due to the presence of clubs like Manchester City and Tottenham in the race. The comfortable top four finish of a few seasons ago has vanished for Arsenal, as the club are in danger of missing out on the Champions League group stages for the first time in more than a decade.

WILSHERE RUES INJURIES

England and Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere has suffered a horrible amount of time on the sidelines as a result of ankle injuries in recent years. The player could be set for one more week on the sidelines according to the manager, Wenger. Wilshere has not been part of the Arsenal first team since the 2-1 defeat at the hands of Arsenal a few weeks ago. The ankle injury suffered by the player but then who is expected to keep him out for up to 3 weeks. However, Wenger has revealed that the club are taking cautious measures when it comes to recovering him.

Due to his history when it comes to inflammation of the ankles, Wenger has said that Arsenal are ready to rest him when needed. This will include the one week time that he will spend on the sidelines in order to recuperate. Wilshere’s presence is extremely important for an Arsenal team that looks devoid of ideas. They are four points behind Tottenham, who are their main challenges for the top four positions, with only eight matches remaining in the campaign.

As a result of this latest setback, Wenger has confirmed that the player will not be available for the matches against Reading and West Brom. However, he is expected to be back for the match against Norwich.

“We deferred his rehab and gave him one more week. I believe [he will return] in two weeks. That means not [West Brom], the game after. It is not better, not worse. Because it was an inflammation of the bone and we had such history with him, we are a bit more cautious than you would be with you or with me. We’ll rest him when it’s needed. He has regular scans and as soon as we have an alert we will respect it no matter what is at stake,” said Wenger.

Arsenal News

NEW GENERATION NOT GREAT

There has been suggestions in the last few weeks that the current crop of Arsenal players do not care about the club as much as the previous generation of players, who are regarded as legends after going through an entire season unbeaten.

It was also the famous Arsenal team that consisted of players like Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira. It made them the Invincibles in the English football era for the first time. Even though Arsenal have had several victories in matches since then, they have been unable to lift a single trophy. The trophy drought stretches back to 2005 when they last won the FA Cup.

The 2-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea during the weekend leaves Arsenal in a precarious position whereby even Champions League football is likely to be available next season. Wenger has placed so much stress on qualifying for this European competition on a regular basis, which he regards to be of importance over the prospect of winning cups like the FA cup and the League Cup. As a result, Arsenal have been one of the consistent teams in the Premier league over the last several years. This is also led to suggestions that the current crop of players do not care about club as much as the previous generation did.

“Of course. They care as much, if not more. People have the right to criticise when the games don’t go as well as you want but I can show you games of the players you spoke about [and] I can tell you some bad starts [from them] as well, believe me. I can show you some goals where you can see where they were not completely untouchable. That happened to them as well,” said Wenger ahead of the FA Cup match with Brighton.

Arsenal News

A BETTER YEAR

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that he hopes that the New Year will be much better for the club. Arsene Wenger has seen his team go seventh seasons without lifting the trophy. Despite facing a lot of troubles in 2012, Arsenal finished the calendar year on a strong note after the 7-3 victory over Newcastle.

This was the fourth consecutive win for Arsenal in the league, which helped them move up to the fifth position just three points behind their arch rivals Tottenham. However, Arsenal do have a game in hand over their rivals.

Wenger has said that he hopes that the current run of form for the club will be continued in 2013 as well. Aside from the race for the fourth position, Arsenal also have the Champions league match against Bayern Munich to look forward as well.

This last 16 stage of the competition will see the Premier league club are pitted against the German giants, who finished as the runners up in the competition last time around. Arsenal recently managed to secure the future of their British talent like Jack Wilshere and Jenkinson. Wenger is also hoping to tie the 23-year-old winger Theo Walcott on a new contract as well.

“My hopes are that the win over Newcastle will give even more confidence, desire and ambition to our team, and that 2013 will confirm we are a great team. I like the fact Theo can play through the middle because it gives us more opportunities to do that and more possibilities to change from game to game. I will do it again,” said Arsene Wenger after the Newcastle match. Theo Walcott scored a stunning hat-trick in the match, which prompted calls for the club to offer him a new contract as soon as possible.

Arsenal News

WENGER WANTS ZAHA

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has for the first time publicly revealed that he is interested in signing the Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha in the January transfer window. He is expected to start with an opening bid of £ 9 million, although Crystal Palace are looking for a transfer fee in the region of £ 20 million for the 20-year-old. Wilfried Zaha has been thought to be the biggest thing to come from the Crystal Palace youth academy since the days of Ian Wright, who went on to play for Arsenal and become a legend for the club.

Arsene Wenger has not shied away from signing highly talented English talent in recent seasons, as he has brought the likes of Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey. Given the fact that the future of the 23-year-old winger Theo Walcott is in a major doubt, Wenger is already looking at other options. It has been thought for some time that Arsenal have made Wilfried Zaha the number one transfer target for the January transfer window, but Wenger has been reluctant to confirm publicly. However, with only a few weeks remaining before the opening of the transfer window, he has said that the Crystal Palace winger is someone who interests him a lot.

“We are looking at every player who could strengthen our squad – but he is not more on the list than anyone else. He has two-and-a-half years left – that’s quite a long time. We have built a team [where] we have a lot of young English players, or British players like Gibbs, Chamberlain, Wilshere. We still have the case of [Theo] Walcott, Aaron Ramsey,” said Wenger when asked about the possibility of signing Zaha in January. Arsenal are currently fighting to be in the top four spot by the end of the season.

Arsenal News

GUNNERS BEAT HAMMERS

Arsenal has defeated West Ham United in a Premier League match played at Boleyn Ground on Saturday. Arsenal won the match by 3-1. This was the third win for the Gunners in the ongoing Premier League. With this victory, Arsenal has moved up to no. 7 in the Premier League points table with 12 points in seven matches. On the other hand, after losing this match, West Ham has moved down to no. 8. West Ham has 11 points in 7 matches.

Arsenal was defeated by Chelsea in its previous Premier League match by 2-1.But, in this match, the Gunners were clinical in their approach. The coordination between them was wonderful.

The Arsenal players started well and showed attacking instincts right from the first minute. But, it was the West Ham team which took the lead in the 21st minute against the run of play. Mohammad Diame was the one who opened the scoring for West Ham by latching on the opportunity created by George McCartney. But, that was the only goal to be scored by the West Ham team in the match. After that, it was all about Arsenal.

The Gunners managed to equalize the scores in the 41st minute with the goal of Olivier Giroud. Podolski set up the goal and Giroud easily beat the West Ham goalkeeper. It was a flat shot by the Frenchman from a distance of six yards.
Arsenal got ahead in the 77th minute of the match when Theo Walcott found the back of the net. Giroud was the one who assisted the goal. His pass was perfectly placed and Walcott only had to get into a good position to strike the ball past West Ham goalkeeper and the experienced Englishman did exactly that.
Just a few minutes later, the score became 3-1 in the favour of Arsenal when Santi Cazorla put the ball into the top corner of the goal post with a brilliant left footed shot.

The West Ham team didn’t manage to level the scores in the remaining seven minutes and lost the match. Arsenal will take on Norwich City in its next match on 20th of October at the Carrow Road.

Arsenal News

WENGER UNHAPPY WITH JUVE

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has criticised the negotiations tactics of the Italian club are Juventus who were one of the favourites to secure the signature of the striker Robin van Persie.

The Italian champions were unable to match a fee with Arsenal for the striker. Arsenal ended up selling the player to Manchester United for £ 24 million, which is an extraordinary amount of business given that the player had only one season left on his deal. Juventus recently spoke about the disappointment of not being able to sign the player, but Wenger said that he was extremely disappointed with the offer given by Juventus.

Even though Arsene Wenger failed to disclose the exact amount offered by Juventus, his first appeared to indicate that the figure was in the region of £ 8 million.

However, Arsenal managed to sell the player for £ 24 million. Wenger has said that whenever Juventus players are linked with other clubs, they demand extraordinary transfer fees in the region of more than £ 50 million. However, there are not prepared to offer less than 10 percentage of that amount to other players for bringing into the club. As a result, they had themselves to blame for not securing Robin van Persie.

“Juventus can’t think about selling their players for €70 million and then buying new ones for a tenth of that amount. That would be too easy – it’s not possible in today’s football. Van Persie would have been a free agent in the summer of 2013 but we decided to sell only after Manchester United made a great offer,” said Arsene Wenger. His comments come after the Juventus Chief executive made comments that he felt that Robin van Persie was hugely expensive for the Italian club both in terms of wages and the transfer fees.

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Arsenal News

WHO WON THIS SUMMER?

The football transfer window always has winners and losers; some teams come out the other side with a lesser squad than when they went in, some overspend on questionable talent, and some fail to spend at all. This season Man United and Chelsea seem to be the big winners with Arsenal possibly squandering their chances of progression by selling Van Persie.

When Man United secured the signing of Van Persie, they not only got one of the Premier League’s best players, they deprived one of their nearest rivals of his services.

ALMUNIA LEAVES DISAPPOINTED

Former Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia has said that he is extremely disappointed to have left the club are without any major trophies to his name. The Spanish goalkeeper was recently released from his contract by the Premier league club.

He came extremely close to challenging for first-team spot after the departure of Jens Lehman. However, the impressive form of the current Arsenal goalkeeper has meant that Manuel Almunia did not get enough opportunities at the club to play alongside the likes of Cesc Fabregas, despite being the most experienced player. He has now left the club, but has expressed his disappointment that he was not able to win more trophies with his time at the club.

Manuel Almunia spent a long time on the bench as the understudy to the German international Lehman. After the departure of the German international a few seasons ago, Manuel Almunia was made the undisputed number one by the Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. However, he made numerous mistakes during his short tenure as the Arsenal number one, which related to Arsene Wenger losing his faith in the player. The manager subsequently decided not to extend his contract after it came to an end this season. The former Arsenal player, who has since signed for Championship club Watford, has spoken about his Arsenal days.

“As a player at Arsenal, it is hard to see the best players go to other clubs every year. They have missed a lot of great players in the last few years. The first year I came to England, I thought ‘Oh, I’m going to win a lot of things with Arsenal’ but the change then started. The club has been changing every year. One of these years, everything has to come together and be perfect, and now is the time for Arsenal. They’ve signed some good players this year, Santi Cazorla is fantastic,” Almunia said in a recent interview.