The Kings. Past and Present

The reasons Manchester City cannot buy success !

So has the best league in the world now come to the level that it can be bought ? Manchester City and Chelsea are prime examples of the statement. Last sunday Manchester City thrashed Manchester United by 6 goals to 1 in Old Trafford . Did Manchester City buy the victory ? Many believe thats the case . If you analyze the starting XI of City during sundays game only two players were playing for them since before 2008. Or to be precise before the reckless spending phase began . And the cost of the Manchester City team that beat their local rivals was nothing short of a whooping $185 m. City are without doubt the strongest team in the league right now. Chelsea , meanwhile , have spent 222 m in the last four years. But will all this spending help them in the longer run ? Lets find out.

For success in the long term prospect , a club needs to forge a really strong team . All the clubs which are backed by rich Sheikhs or oil oligarchs look to build a team full of superstars . Now the problem is that building a team full of global superstars come at a price . What happens to the players of the youth academy ? Few clubs have a good youth set up and Manchester city is without doubt one of them. The players they have produced in the last few years are Micah Richards , Stephen Ireland and Daniel Sturridge and Dedryck Boyata. While Richards has established himself and Sturridge left for more green pastures , Ireland and Boyata have struggled to make a name in the first team . The same thing happened at Chelsea . After some initial success they decided to put in more money and buy the best available. What happens when they keep on buying new players is that their youth set up becomes a mockery. None of those players are going to get a chance to shine on the top level . And with the rule of home grown players being a must in the squad , they finally decided to spend on the academy . While no notable names have come out of the academy so far , Chelsea need to step up their youth set up.

Secondly , these rich owners have limited knowledge of football and that came to light after Roman Abramovic fired Carlos Ancelotti who led Chelsea to a strong 2^nd after a very disappointing mid season. The rich man at Etihad stadium also fired Mark Hughes just because few results did not go their way. If a club needs success then first they need a strong management. Firing the manager just because of a few bad results will not work. This only puts more pressure on the manager. If that was the case then the world would not have seen the greatness of Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger. If the club needs to stay on top for a longer run , they need to stick to their manager and instill confidence in him no matter what the results are.

The financial restrictions coming into play from the coming season means clubs must break even on a rolling 3 year period or risk a possible ban from UEFA competitions. Now that would put an end to all the big money transfers from all clubs . So what happens when all mega stars get old and retire ? That will be the time clubs like Manchester City will face the problem . So in my opinion big clubs who just spend big and with the thought that money can buy success will not succeed in a long term . All across Europe , the top sides have/had a set of players associated with them . Xavi , Iniesta , Puyol and Messi at Barcelona , Zidane , Figo , Raul , Casilas at Real Madrid , Giggs , Scholes , Neville and Beckham at Manchester United , Henry , Pires , Vieira , Tony Adams at Arsenal , Del Piero at Juventus and the list goes on. But when is comes to Manchester City , no name will spring to the mind. Simply because they just keep shuffling around. They buy the best thats available to them. Thats the key ingridient they are missing. He needn't necessarily be a local guy from Manchester. He needs to be a player who embodies their style and be a leader who works harder and be appreciated for that. Now City may be leading the premier league. And who knows ? They might even win it. But will all this reckless spending and the enormous wages their players receive be an answer to their long term success ? In one simple word the answer is NO .

For many years , the noise that was coming from the City fans was that they were the real local football club of Manchester and that United were now a global brand. They said Manchester United has “sold out” by losing its soul. And now ultimately what City combine to create is a soulless and cultureless team playing for a lot of money. For all the years of the fans talk of being the real “local” club , they have now forgotten what they stood for and they look set to become the least authentic football club in the world.

Arsenal Vs Bolton : Team news

Arsenal yesterday confirmed that Park will definitely start against Bolton on wednesday. Chamakh and Oxlade Chamberlain are also expected to start upfront with Park in a 4-3-3 formation. The midfield will probable consist of Benayoun Frimpong and Diaby , who is fit and will be needing some practice before the Chelsea game on saturday. The defence will need some sorting out as Jenkinson and Gibbs are injured. Djorou will continue at the right back and Santos will be at the left back . The center backs will probably be Squilacci and Miquel .

Starting line up : 4-3-3
Fabianski
Djourou
Miquel
Squilacci
Santos
Diaby
Frimpong
Benayoun
Ox-Chamberlain
Chamakh
Park

Subs:
Rosicky
Ramsey
Myaichi
Gervinho
Coquelin
Watt

Van persie and other major players will probably be rested ahead of the crucial match against Chelsea. A victory against Chelsea on saturday will put the season back on track and we will be surely aiming for more than just a 4th place finish.

COYG !!

Why Wenger is the best man for Arsenal right now ?

The man who led Arsenal to a 49 game unbeaten run , does not become a poor manager all of a sudden. At this moment of crisis , there is no better man to lead Arsenal than the great Wenger himself . No one knows Arsenal FC better than Wenger , David Dein and of course the Arsenal board. And all of them believe Wenger is the right man for the job . Isn't that proof enough ?

Many have, of late , said that Mourinho or Guardiola should be replacing Wenger . But how would that solve the problem ? Excluding his days at Porto , Mourinho has had to spend 100s of millions to buy success while Pep Guardiola has had the good fortune of taking over a team that had the best players in the world. At this moment Arsenals confidence is lower than their position in the league table. Ever since I started following/supporting the Gunners there has been just one point where I felt so low. And that was in the 2004 lent season. Arsenal were knocked out of the FA cup by Manchester United in the Semi-finals on saturday . Then on Wednesday , Chelsea knocked Arsenal out of the Champions league Quarter finals . And on Friday Arsenal welcomed Liverpool to Highbury . Honestly I expected them to lose and choke . And they were losing . It was 2-1 at half time and Liverpool were on top. But out came the players after the break and like a phoenix they rose from the ashes and beat Liverpool 4-2 and from then on they never turned back . So if Arsenal can come out of a situation like that (Losing out on a treble in the space of one week) , I think Wenger can easily steer his team to safety with the expectation much lesser now .

Wenger built his team around Cesc Fabregas and in the summer he left to his boyhood club , Barca . Arsenal will take time to recover from that transfer . Give Wenger time till christmas and I will chew my hat if Arsenal dont start winning and start move up the table by then . Arsene Wenger has been Arsenals most successful manager. He has achieved what many have only dreamt of. He is the only manager in the premier league to take his team through an entire season unbeaten . Not even SAF could do it . Many believe Wenger is reluctant to spend. That maybe true. But also consider the fact that he has Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Ox Chamberlain in his current squad. They are all young and yet to hit top form but they are already household names . They are supposed to be the future of English football .What that also means is financial stability. He does not have to give out hige wages . Arsenal's profit keeps increasing and the debts keep decreasing. What other club has this scenario ?

Another reason why Wenger is the right man for the job is his reputation to unearth young and unknown talents . Who knew Eduadro da silva or van Persie or Adebayor or even Cesc Fabregas before they all came to Arsenal ?

Arsene Wenger has never known a darker period in all his time at Arsenal, receiving unprecedented questions as to his ability to deliver results for the club. His past successes, however, will stand him in good stead as he battles to prove why he is still the right man to lead Arsenal to title glory once more.

Wenger has built an incredible infrastructure at the club, one which is envied by the majority of Europe, and because of this he has become the club’s greatest custodian during his 15-year spell in North London.
He is not without criticism, but there are a number of reasons why Arsenal should hang on to Wenger—a manager whom many will say is still the right man for the job.

And one final thing - In Arsene We Trust ! 

Arsene "who?" to Arsene Wenger .

   

 

 On this day exactly 15 years ago , the French professor took up the Arsenal job . And when he signed the paperworks at Highbury the question on everyones lips were "Arsene who ?" . But he erased all doubts as the team finished a healthy second and in his first season incharge he completed the double thereby becoming the first overseas manager in the history of the Premier league to complete the double. He brought in unknown youngsters and transformed them into superstars and mega stars. Patrick Veiera , Nicolas Anelka , Thierry Henry , Cesc Fabregas are just to name a few . The late 1990's and the early 2000's witnessed the rivalry between Manchester United and Arsenal reach an all time high. Every game was intensely fought and his personal rivalry with Sir Alex Ferguson increased . He created the French revolution at London .At one point the first names on the team sheet were Sylvain Wiltord , Thierry Henry , Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires. All French. They revolutionised the way football was played in the premier league and mesmerised everyone . He brought back total football to England . He went to Old trafford and snatched the title away from Manchester United . He went to White Hart lane and sealed the title there . These two stadiums have given Arsenal the frostiest of welcomes and to go there to win the title just shows the mental strength of Wengers team .

Ever since Wenger took over there has not been a single season where Arsenal did not qualify for the Champions league . This feat is bettered only by Manchester united and Real Madrid .

Arsenal went through an entire season unbeaten . And went on a 49 game unbeaten run . That feat wil never be achieved again because "Invincibility was born and buried in highbury " . That statement has a literal meaning to it as Arsenal completed the switch to the Emirates stadium in 2006 and ever since they have never been able to reproduce the football that they used to . They are still contenders but fall in the final hurdle. Ever since moving to the Emirates , Wenger lost his talismans in Henry , Pires , Adebayor and most recently Fabregas and Nasri .

Wenger has come under a lot of criticism this season for not buying major players to boost his squad . And he was forced to go against his policy and made 5 signings on transfer dead line day . To all those who doubt Wengers policy here is an explanation . He lost the man around whom the team was built and it takes a lot of time to recover from it . And Arsenal are no different. In another 2-3 years time Wengers plan will be executed . He , in my opinion , has created a team for the next ten years that will rule the premier league .

Wilshere(19) , Walcott (22) , Alex Oxlade Chamberlain (18) , Frimpong (19) , Jenkinson (19) , Gibbs (19) , Miquel (18) and Szczesney (21) are all looking like household names already . But look at the age of all these players . This is what Wenger has always stressed and his hardwork is going to pay off starting from this season . This team will win something this season and Wenger will lift the trophy with that smile on his face and then again we will repeat " In Arsene We Trust "

From an ardent fan of Arsenal , Wenger and his philosophies !

Jack buys new car to cheer him up !

 Jack Wilshere, who has his leg in plaster due to injury, has bought a new car worth more than 50,000 pounds to relieve his boredom.

The England star has replaced his Range Rover Sport 2.6 HST 4x4 with the Autobiography Edition – and called in legendary car pimper Yianni Charalambous to kit it out.

"Jack has bought the car to cheer himself up because he's fed up with his ankle injury," the Sun quoted a source as saying.

"He's been going mad at home with nothing to do and spent loads of time checking out new cars online ahead of his operation," the source added.

But with his leg in plaster, he won't be able to drive it for six months. But who cares . I would be just satisfied sitting for hours at length just admiring the beauty of the car . 


The match is about to begin in another couple of hours. Wonder if Jack will be at the stadium tonight .

Arsenal vs Olympiakos : Team news .

Diaby , Wilshere and Vermaelan are long term injured players and thus are out of the match . Added to that list are Walcott (Knee ) , Kocielny (Ankle) , Benayoun and Djourou (hamstring) and Gervinho (thigh) are all out . I am thinking that Kocielny and Gervinho are actually fit to play but Wenger is just not going to take the risk of aggravating the injury as they have the big derby weekend . So the final starting 11 should look something like this :

Szczesney
Sagna
Mertesacker
Song
Gibbs
Arteta
Frimpong
Ramsey
Arshavin
Chamakh/Rosicky
Robin van Persie.

Subs :
Fabianski
Santos
Jenkinson
Miquel
Myaichi
Alex Chamberlain
Coquelin

I really want Chamakh to start and Arsenal play a 4-4-2 formation . Its been really long and I think the last time Arsenal played that formation was when Bergkamp and Henry were up front. These two can really support each other and form a formidabble partnership .

All the best Gunners !

Arsenal news round up

Arsenal.com have reported that Jack Wilshere has successfully undergone an ankle operation and will undergo rehab for 4 months. So that means he is going to be out of action till atleast New year . That is definitely not good news for us . Wishing him a speedy recovery .

All media (esp Daily mail ) are reporting that Van Persie wants to leave Arsenal . As an Arsenal fan for the past decade I can assure you that its not going to happen . I know Arsenal and its players too well to say who will leave and who wont . Van Persie loves this club and I cannot seeing him leave without atleast 2 Premier league trophies and definitely not until Arsenal have a replacement ready .

And also we understand that Walcotts injury is not as serious as feared and could make an early return on Wednesday .

And finally $amir Na$ri has used twitter to congratulate our captain on scoring 100 goals , a feat he could never achieve with how much ever money he has got ! He also wished Jack a speedy recovery . (Oh how I wish Jack could soon wish him the same) .

Thats all for today . Will be back with team news and formation for Wednesdays game tomorrow !

Arsenal news round up .

• Walcott injury is just minor. Might even feature against Olympiakos during mid-week.
• Robin van Persie is proud of the achievement .
• Arsenal ladies beat Birmingham 4-1 to lift the continental cup

Thats it for today . Looking ahead for the CL match and of course the derby on sunday . Keep checking my blog for team news for wednesdays game .

Cheers !

Arsenal fans make #RVP100 to trend in twitter

In the wake of Robin van Persie's 100th goal for Arsenal , the fans went crazy and started tweeting about him with a hashtag #RVP100 . Now that hash tag is trending worldwide in Twitter . It was an amazing response from the Arsenal fans on congratulating the Dutch master on his 100th goal . I am glad that I too was responsible for #RVP100 to trend.

Heres wishing RVP all the very best for his next 100 goals . Love you captain fantastic !

History repeats itself !

The master and the apprentice !

Van Persie - 100

Robin van Persie has scored his 100th goal for Arsenal . Captain fantastic . Van Persie scored 2 goals against Bolton the 2nd being his 100th . Amazing achievement .

Wilshere Out for another 3 months

Isnt that great ? Just when we thought things were going up our team decides to drop another bombshell. I now have serious doubts about our clubs medical staff. I think we need to start investing more on that department as well. Day by day they are becoming more like our defence against Blackburn. Ok so I read the Jack is out till christmas and is supposed to undergo surgery on monday . Well atleast we thought we had Benayoun for cover until I found out he too is injured and will miss the next week. The injuries have robbed us of atleast two premier league titles in the last 4 seasons. When will we ever have another full strength squad. And when was the last time all our first team players were available without injuries or suspensions ? I think we have to go a long long way back for that. So the question is "If we had our full strength team at our disposal week in and week out would we win the Premier league ? " My answer is Yes we will cruise to the finish.

Anyways , wishing Jack a speedy recovery from his surgery and come back for the CL knock out stages to knock Barca out of the tournament !

Looking ahead for the game today evening ... Cheers ... !

Arsenal vs Bolton Wanderers : Team news

Arsenal are heading into this weeks match against Bolton at an all time low. 3 defeats in the opening 5 fixtures is not something anyone would have predicted. That being said we had to dig out a hard fought victory over lowly Shrewsbury during the Carling cup midweek match.

Before going into the team news we hear that Jack Wilshere could make a shocking early return to competitive football by mid-october itself. That bit of news will sure rejuvenate any Arsenal fan. We need him . Period.

Team news :
Thomas Rosicky ( Knee) , Jack Wilshere , Thomas Vermaelan , Abou Diaby (ankle) , Seb Squilacci (calf) are out injured. No more suspensions as well. So the probable line up for the weekends game will be as follows :

Szczesney
Sagna
Mertesacker
Koscielny
Santos
Song
Arteta
Ramsey
Gervinho
Arshavin
Van Persie

Subs :
Frimpong
Walcott
Benayoun
Chamakh
Gibbs/Park
Djourou
Fabianski

I would actually prefer Park starting rather than Arshavin . Gervinho and Park can be substituted for Walcott and Arshavin later on in the game as they are known to make immediate impacts.

Hopefully Arsenal will begin to turn things around . The process will be slow. But I am sure Wenger knows what he is doing .

In Arsene we trust !

Borussia Dortmund Vs Arsenal : Team news

Arsenal are still without Wilshere and Vermaelan. They also miss Ramsey and Rosicky through injury .
So the probable line up is as follows

Arsenal : (4-3-3)

Szczesney
Sagna
Koscielny
Mertesacker
Santos
Arteta
Song
Benayoun
Walcott
van Persie
Gervinho

Subs :
Fabianski
Frimpong
Arshavin
Park
Gibbs
Chamakh
Djorou


Looking forward for tonight . Go Arsenal ...

Todays Arsenal news round up.

• Aaron Ramsey is injured and is not in the 18 member squad that is travelling to Germany ahead of the teams first Champions league game against Borussia Dortmund
• The 18 member squad can be viewed here.
• GK Szczesney believes the club can easily finish in the top four .
• Tomas Rosicky will also miss out on the CL opener and a chance to face his former club after his knee injury persists

Tomorrow is the match against Borussia Dortmund . For Indian fans the match is being telecast in Ten action + and the coverage starts at 11 30 IST .
Match can also be streamed live at P2PLive.

Todays Arsenal news round up .

• Per Mertesacker is confident that Arsenal can beat Dortmund on tuesdays Champions league opener . 
• Captain van Persie is pleased with all the new signings Arsenal made in the last two days of the transfer window
• And Jack Wilshere shows off his tattoo on twitter. You can see the image here.

Cheers ! 

Player ratings : Arsenal vs Swansea

Szezesney - 8/10 for a clean sheet and a world class save. Made a mistake during one of the corners of Swansea but thank god the opponent struck high and handsome.

Sagna - 8/10 . Another solid performance from the trusty defender . Made the useful runs down the wings and useful tackles as well.

Mertesacker - 9/10 . An impressive debut for the tall German international. Made quite a few brilliant tackles without being booked .

Koscielny - 9/10. Strong performance from the Kozzer . In the absence of Vermaelan he marshalled the defence perfectly.

Gibbs - 8/10. An able replacement for Clichy . Delivered some good balls to the box and made brilliant runs and assisted the midfielders as well. Will be interesting once Santos is match fit .

Walcott - 6/10. Though he may have unknowingly set up the goal that Arshavin scored he had a poor game. Expecting much more from Walcott at this point of his career .

Ramsey - 6/10 . Like Walcott he had another mediocore game. Sometimes he doesnt know when to pass the pass and where to pass the ball .

Arteta - 9/10. Another debutant. Another impressive performance . Made a lot of contact with the ball and made good passes. Blended in with the team with ease . It looked like he had been playing with this team for a long time. Hopping for more better things from him this season.

Frimpong - 8/10. Had a typical Frimpong game. A good strong midfield performance . Songs starting place looks so much in danger with this youngster putting in good performances.

Arshavin - 10/10 . A brilliant game from the little Russian . Scored the winning goal and looked full of confidencce. Looks like our Russian champion is back to form. Can only mean great things for Arsenal FC .

van Persie - 7/10. An off day but nevertheless played his part. He missed two chances and hit the post once. But he is capable of doing much more than that

Overall it was a good performace from Arsenal. Not great , just good. Good enough to get the 3 points they so badly wanted. Things can only get better with Gervinho and Song coming in for the next game. Wilshere and Vermaelan will be out for atleast one month.

Now to look forward to Tuesday night . Dortmund , here we come ...

Picture : Eboue vs Vermaelan

Taken during a pre-season game some 3 seasons back .Arsenal vs Ajax . It was Eboue who discovered TV5's talent . Maybe he has gone to Galatasaray as a scout .

Todays Arsenal news round up.

• Park is still waiting for his visa , stuck in Paris. Wenger is confident he will make it in time to tomorrows match .
• Arsenals season starts now , according to Theo Walcott and manager Wenger
• Per Mertesacker is confident with the current Arsenal squad and believes they can challenge fot the title.He says that the deadline signings made the squad complete
• Rennes confirms M-villa bid from Arsenal was turned down on deadline day. Arsenal hope to secure his signing next summer after the midfielder told he will definitely leave at the end of the season .

Tomorrows the big day where the "NEW" Arsenal meets Swansea as the EPL is back .

Park Chu Young's First Interview As An Arsenal Player

Mertesackers first interview with Arsenal

No panic buys.

Arsene Wenger has rubbished reports that all his deadline day signings were out of panic.
This is what he had to say "Some of the transfers were linked with players going out like Santos and Park because I knew Bendtner and Traore would go out.

Some of the other players were linked with the fact we have Wilshere out for a long time like Diaby. I knew as well that Vermaelen would have surgery the week before Manchester United so we needed to buy a centre-back.
"The midfield was a bit short because we now go into a time where we have the Champions League and the Carling Cup and we need a big squad.We were not close to signing anybody else. We had other targets but I was never close. Five transfers in the last four days, I must tell you we were busy enough.
I worked very hard after our last game to get the players in because I had to focus on something that was different.
I feel it has given the team a lift because everybody knew we were a bit short of quality and number-wise with the number of players we have lost at the beginning of the season.
Other players have left us too and we were too short to compete on all fronts."

Meanwhile , he also confirmed that Park who is stuck in Paris will get his visa in time and will feature in tomorrows match.

Hope Arsenal thrashes Swansea tomorrow .

Arsenal Vs Swansea : Team news

Injured : Wilshere , Diaby , Vermaelan , Squillaci , Rosicky
Suspended : Gervinho , Jenkinson , Song

Probable line up : (4-5-1)
Szczesney
Sagna
Mertesacker
Koscielny
Gibbs
Walcott
Arteta
Frimpong
Ramsey
Arshavin
van Persie

Subs :
Fabianski
Park
Santos
Benayoun
Alex Chamberlain


Arsenal new signings Mertesacker and Arteta will be making their debuts while Santos who has not played for a while will be benched along with Benayoun and Park. All three are expected to make their debut from the bench on saturday against Swansea. Arsenal may play with a 4-5-1 formation or go along with a tradtional 4-4-2 with Arshavin playing just behind van Persie.

All the best to the "NEW" Arsenal .

Cheers !

Todays Arsenal news round up .

• Alex Chamberlain hopeful of England call up after two impressive performances in the U-21
• Bendtner arrives at Sunderland high on confidence. Says that number "52" is just a random number.
• Arsenal take spanish woman to court since the woman has named her hat shop as "Arsenale"
• And Mertesacker shows his admiration for Tony Adams in his interview with Arsenal.com

To all fellow Gooners from India , I just learnt that the Arsenal vs Swansea match will not be a live telecast on Espn Star. So here is a link to follow the match (and other matches) live :
Click here to see live streaming matches .
If you know any other live streaming site please feel free to share.

Cheers !

Arteta's interview with Arsenal !

I was just going through my blog stats and the post named "First interview with Arteta" has the maximum page views. So here is the actual interview for all those who actually thought that my post contained the video.

Arsenal.com breaks records .

The official Arsenal FC website has had a whopping 70,044,502 visitors with more than 6 million of those visiting in August of 2011 alone. Now we all know that out of the 6 million atleast 60% of that would have visited the site on Aug 31 17:00 to 23:00 checking for new signings. I myself would have visited the page atleasr 100 times per hour for the last 5 hours of the transfer window. Thats how desperate I , along with our fellow gooners were for new signings.

Cheers !

Yossi Benayoun skills

A short youtube compilation of our new signing Benayoun's skills and goals . I was impressed with his performances at Liverpool and always been a fan of him even when he scored those two crucial goals at Anfield against us in that epic 4-4 match .

All the best to Benayoun ...

Cheers !

Todays Arsenal news round up.

• Center back Thomas Vermaelan ruled out of action for atleast 4-6 weeks.
• Frimpong chooses Ghana over England.
• Theo Walcott wants to play as striker for England and Arsenal.
• Englan manager Fabio Capello blames Arsenal for Wilshere injury.
• And finally Arsenal FC submitted their 22 man squad for the premier league earlier today.

Hoping for the speedy recovery of Vermaelan and Wilshere . 

Update on Vermaelan

Arsenal.com have announced on their site that Thoman Vermaelan will be back to training in 4-6 weeks . Meanwhile Thoman Vermaelan himself has just tweeted the following : "Yesterday i had a small procedure to take out my plantaris tendon. Just to prevent it becomes a big problem. Back training in 4 weeks."

Hoping for a speedy recovery !

Now Vermaelan out for two months

Arsenal have been hit by another devastating injury blow after key defender Thomas Vermaelen underwent further surgery on a troublesome ankle injury last night.

The Belgian stopper spent the majority of last season on the sidelines after having surgery on his left ankle, and it seems the problem has once again flared up. Vermaelen received a knock during the Champions League tie with Udinese and subsequently missed the 8-2 defeat to Man Utd but it was hoped it was only a minor setback and he would return after the international break.

However, reports say he had surgery in Stockholm last night and is now facing 2 months out. It must be said at this point these are un-confirmed reports but evidence is gathering pace by the minute and it does seems as though there is substance in these stories.

This news will put added pressure on summer signing Per Mertesacker to hit the ground running and settle quickly in to life in the premier league.

Arsene Wenger will be cursing his bad luck after Jack Wilshere was also ruled out for 2-3 months with an ankle injury last week.

Todays Arsenal news round up .

• Cesc : " I would be nobody without Arsene Wenger".
• Uefa rejects Wengers appeal against his ban .
• Losing Nasri and Cesc was "catostrophic" admits Arshavin.
• And finally all those who were waiting to see Mikael Arteta in his new Arsenal jersey , the pictures were released in the official site today.

First interview with Arteta

New signing Mikael Arteta will be having his first interview in Arsenal colours. Fans who need to ask him anything can tweet their question to @arsenal.com .

Here is the link : http://twitter.com/#!/Arsenal

Waiting for interesting questions from fans and more interesting answers from him.

Cheers !

Walcott's delight

Theo Walcott is delighted with the signings Arsenal made on deadline day.

"I have never seen Arsenal do that in all the years I have been there." said Walcott.
"A lot of teams leave it until last minute so it was interesting to see. We got rid of two great players but we've brought a few in and I look forward to seeing them on Wednesday.
"New faces tend to get everyone bubbling. We all have to lift our spirits and hopefully those new signings will do the job.
"They've had so much experience. Arteta in particular is a fantastic player. He can definitely spot a pass and I am looking forward to playing with him."

Although the Gunners chief felt he had enough quality in his side to ride out the disturbance created by Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri leaving for Barcelona and Manchester City respectively, the old Trafford result suggested otherwise.

"I'm not worried about the future at Arsenal at all," said Walcott.
However, he did concede the visitors' dressing room was a depressing place to be at Old Trafford, as the Gunners tried to analyse their worst defeat since the 19th century.
"It was completely dead afterwards," Walcott revealed. "It is hard to recover from that result and it could hurt a lot of players. But you can't do anything about it. You can't sulk.
There are younger players you have to help out. We had Alex Chamberlain making his debut in that game. Carl Jenkinson got sent off.
"Arsenal are a big club. You have to be able to react to those sort of moments.
"There's no point sitting and sulking about what you could have done better. The better team won on the day. A lot of people dropped their heads as soon as that fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth goals went in.
"I wouldn't say we gave up. We tried our best. But Manchester United were very strong and scored some great goals.
"Maybe the organisation wasn't quite there either. We are just going to have to catch up in our results."

Barcelona claim they got Cesc on the cheap .

Barcelona vice-president Josep Maria Bartomeu believes that Arsenal were correct in their initial valuation of Cesc Fabregas at €60m (£53m), having seen the midfielder's impact at the Nou Camp.

Barcelona signed Arsenal's captain last month after weeks of negotiation, in a deal worth £35m. The Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, said that it was a "reduced fee", and Bartomeu agrees that the midfielder was worth more.

Bartomeu told Catalan newspaper Sport that Fabregas's performances so far have justified the initial Arsenal price tag. "After seeing the work he's done since his arrival it is true that Cesc meets the €60m valuation Arsenal initially demanded," he said.

"The kid is demonstrating a high level and quality in three weeks of training. The transfer was very good. In a market that is so open Cesc is worth a lot of money. It was complicated to close the deal. The negotiations were very hard."

Fabregas joined for a basic fee of €29m (£25.6m), with a £4m pay-off waived by Fabregas, as well as £4.4m of further add-ons contingent on Barcelona winning more trophies. There is also a 50 per cent sell-on clause, should the Spanish club offload him in the future, and a buy-back option for Arsenal. Barcelona have also given up any claims to youngsters Jon Miquel Toral and Hector Bellerin, who left them to join Arsenal in the summer. Soon after the deal was reached, Wenger said that the club sold Fabregas for a "reduced fee", and that an auction for him would have brought more money in.

"If he was on the market to any club we would have got more money but we did want to get a decent fee," said Wenger last month. "That's what I'm paid for. You cannot say because you want to get the deal done as quickly as possible: 'Just take him and give us what you want'. You have to fight for your rights. If Cesc is for sale and you can make an auction between Real Madrid, Chelsea, Man City, you will certainly get more money but he just wanted to go to Barcelona."

Wilshere is out for 3 months

Jack Wilshere will be out of action for at least another two months due to an ankle injury, the England international said on Sunday.
"I can confirm I will be out for around 2-3 months. I am working hard in the gym to stay fit and I am gutted but I will be back stronger," Wilshere wrote on Twitter.
The 19-year-old sustained the injury during Arsenal's pre-season tour and missed the first three Premier League matches of the season from which the London club gathered only one point.
Arsenal sold midfielders Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri before the end of the last transfer window and, although they signed Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun, Wilshere's prolonged absence is another serious blow for beleaguered manager Arsene Wenger.

Later he tweeted this " Hear a lot of people giving our Medical team stick? I can assure I am in very safe hands and we have top class physio's and masseurs! #AFC " .

Hoping for the best .

Arsenal players on twitter .

Robin van Persie : http://twitter.com/#!/Persie_Official
Jack Wilshere : http://twitter.com/#!/JackWilshere
Thomas Vermaelan : http://twitter.com/#!/T_Vermaelen05
Bacary Sagna : http://twitter.com/#!/Sagnaofficial
Per Mertesacker : http://twitter.com/#!/mertesacker29
Yossi Benayoun : http://twitter.com/#!/YossiBenayoun15
Andres Santos : http://twitter.com/#!/Andre_Santos27
Emmanuel Frimpong : http://twitter.com/#!/EmmanuelF4
Ben Glasgow : http://twitter.com/#!/BLGlasgow
Szczesney : http://twitter.com/#!/13Szczesny13
Conor Henderson : http://twitter.com/#!/Henderson_91
Gavin Hoyte : http://twitter.com/#!/gh_28
Craig Eastmond : http://twitter.com/#!/craigleastmond
Johan Djourou : http://twitter.com/#!/JohanDjourou

Arsenal : http://twitter.com/#!/Arsenal
Denilson : http://twitter.com/#!/_denilson15
Fabregas :  http://twitter.com/#!/cesc4official

Arsenal Vs Swansea

Venue : Emirates Stadium
Date : 10th September 2011

Team Line ups will be announced soon !

The moves that will resseruct Arsenal's season !

What a difference 80 hrs can make. We were beaten , we were down and we looked lost. Enter Wenger and Gazidis . They each grabbed a basket and entered the transfer market. They bought players of experience and quality and yet they did not exceed the budget. Believe it or not. Arsenal FC bought 5 new players in the last two days of the transfer market. 

Mikel Arteta

Signed in the last few hours of the window for £10million, on a 4 year deal – only after forcing through the move himself. He will wear the number 8 shirt, vacated by
Nasri
$asri, and will fill the void left by Cesc Fabregas. If he can stay fit, he could arguably be the star signing of the window. According to Opta stats “Only five players have created more chances per 90 mins in the Premier League since 06/07 than Mikel Arteta.” These players are / were Lampard, Nani, Malouda, Giggs and Fabregas – Fabregas, statistical the best with 3.5 chances per 90minutes. If he can keep these figures up and educate Ramsey and Fabregas, its been a very good deal indeed. You also have to bear in mind, he played in an Everton team which had far less of the ball than Arsenal. It’s also slightly funny he looks very similar to Fabregas in my view!

Yossi Benayoun

Signed on a one year loan from Chelsea. We had the option to buy him out right for £2million but refused, due to his injury record. He’s 31, so represents a very old head for Wenger to bring into the team, yet this doesn’t take away from his quality. He plays the same role that Arteta will and as neither player can play every game he will fill the role when need be. Both arguably could play in the same team, if we use the system with 1 defensive midfielder instead of two.

Per Mertesacker 

Per Mertesacker joined Arsenal  on a long term deal from Werder Bremen for a fee believed to be in the region of around £8million. He brings some much needed experience to the Arsenal back-line, and lets hope he can build a solid partnership with Thomas Vermaelen.
On his arrival yesterday Mertesacker said, “I had a great time at Werder, and owe them a lot, but the move to London is a wish come true. The English Premier League has for me always represented an interesting challenge.”

Andres Santos 

The 28-year-old international joins the Gunners from Super Lig champions Fenerbahce, for whom he has played since 2009. Santos supplanted Roberto Carlos as the team’s first-choice left-back in his first season in Turkey and went on to make 52 league appearances, scoring 10 times.

Sao Paulo born Santos’ career also includes a campaign with Brazilian giants Corinthians and a three-year spell with Figueirense, from where he took in loans with Flamengo and Atletico Miniero

Upon completing his move, Santos said: "I am delighted to have signed for Arsenal. It was one of my dreams to play for a major European football club and I have accomplished this. I am very happy to be part of this team. All the Brazilians who came to this club spoke wonders about it and I am delighted to be part of the Arsenal family."



Chu  Young Park 

The 26-year-old South Korea captain scored 25 times in 91 appearances for the French club during three seasons in Ligue 1.


Chu Young Park said: "I am very honoured and I feel very happy to be at Arsenal. It is a dream to be here and I am really proud to be an Arsenal player. Now I just want to show how good I am and prove myself.

"In my opinion this is a great club, now I have to show what I can do on the pitch. I will do my best, I will never give up, I will show heart, I will give everything and I hope [the fans] will support me."

The deal is subject to the completion of formal registration processes.

Chu Young Park will wear the No 9 shirt at Arsenal. The striker prefers to be known as 'Ju' and will therefore have J. Y. Park as his shirt name.

New Arsenal signing - Andre Santos

Santos arrives !

Andres Santos has completed his move to Arsenal .

The 28-year-old international joins the Gunners from Super Lig champions Fenerbahce, for whom he has played since 2009. Santos supplanted Roberto Carlos as the team’s first-choice left-back in his first season in Turkey and went on to make 52 league appearances, scoring 10 times. 

Sao Paulo born Santos’ career also includes a campaign with Brazilian giants Corinthians and a three-year spell with Figueirense, from where he took in loans with Flamengo and Atletico Miniero.

He received his first senior cap for Brazil in the 2009 Confederations Cup, helping them to victory in the tournament, and has so far represented his country on 22 occasions.

Arsène Wenger said: “Santos is a quality player, with the ability to both defend well and get forward and help with attacks. He has experience in the Champions League and for Brazil and has proven he can deliver at the highest level. We welcome Santos to the Club and look forward to him having a big impact for us.”

Upon completing his move, Santos said: "I am delighted to have signed for Arsenal. It was one of my dreams to play for a major European football club and I have accomplished this. I am very happy to be part of this team. All the Brazilians who came to this club spoke wonders about it and I am delighted to be part of the Arsenal family."

Andre Santos will wear the No 11 at Arsenal and will have A.Santos on the back of his shirt.

Mystery midfielder

Just 8 hours and 30 minutes to go till the transfer window shuts ans we still have not finalised any deals yet. Is this a reason to worry ? After so much of promise yesterday , today turns out to be a disappointing day . Japanese midfielder Honda was reportedly in London to seal a move to Arsenal but that rumours was rubbished by his agents. Joe Cole has completed his move to Lille. So this mught actually free up Hazards transfer to Arsenal . But Lille immediately responded that Hazard is going no where and that no team have contacted them about the 20 year old Belgian playmaker . Benayoun mean while IS in London and has tweeted that he is definitely moving out of Chelsea today . Arsenal and Spurs are likely destinations .


Hoping for some good news soon !

Our new number 9 !

Arsenal complete signing of Park Chu Young

Chu-Young, 26, looked set to leave Monaco for Lille this summer only for Arsenal to swoop late for the striker's services. He has now agreed personal terms with the club and completed a medical.
Arsene Wenger said: "We are delighted to have signed Chu. He will add true quality to our attacking forces and will be a valuable addition to the squad."
Chu-Young said: "I am very honoured and I feel very happy to be at Arsenal. It is a dream to be here and I am really proud to be an Arsenal player. Now I just want to show how good I am and prove myself.
"In my opinion this is a great club, now I have to show what I can do on the pitch. I will do my best, I will never give up, I will show heart, I will give everything and I hope [the fans] will support me."
The deal is subject to the completion of formal registration processes.

Hypocritc Bolton !

New Arsenal signing Per Mertesacker has played 75 games for Germany , 49 games in Europe and 217 games in the Bundesliga. And we got him for around 9 m . We placed a bid for Cahill around the same region and it has been rejected twice. Cahill meanwhile has played 3 games for England , 0 games in Europe and 114 games in the EPL. What logic are Bolton following here ? They are demanding 15m+ for a player who has no experience in Europe whatsoever . And most importantly Cahill has just a year left in his contract . So he can join Arsenal for free next year .

Mertesacker deal done !

Arsenal have completed the signing of German international Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen , Wikipedia claims.

Arsenal have reportedly signed Per Mertesacker .

L’Equipe are reporting this morning that Arsenal are signing German defender Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen.
The 26 year old has 75 international caps and due to the fact he’s in the final year of his contract will cost Arsenal around £6m.

 

Possible transfers

Over the past two months we have been linked with well over a 100 players . But so far we have managed to bring in only 5, out of which only one has some proven calibre. So with just two days left we definitely need to bring atleast 3 more players. We need to strengthen out defence and midfield. I believe we have already completed the signing of Park Chu Young . Wenger is probably waiting to introduce his 3 new signings together. Another player who has almost completed his move to the Emirates is Andre Santos , the Brazilian left back. He will be the replacement for Gael Clichy . The third player will be Arsenal's marquee signing of the transfer window . Eden Hazard. But yesterday Hazard stated that he is happy at Lille and that the rumours must stop now. Wenger will no doubt be disheartened by that comment but there is nothing that 30m cant do in todays world. What worries me is that our captain was worth only 35m and now we got to pay 30m for Eden Hazard. The idea is that by now every club knows Arsenal is in need of players and thus they are raising the selling price knowing very well that Arsenal will HAVE to pay that amount.

 I also read that the Chelsea trio of Alex , Benayoun and Malouda are linked with a move to Arsenal. It would no doubt be great to bring in any of the three players . They have the winning mentality and have all won something in their career unlike the current Arsenal aquad.

So come August 31st , we will know if Arsenal can do something to salvage this season or if they will fight for a Europa league position .

In Arsene we trust !

Reasons amidst humiliation !

I started writing this blog just to express my opinions and views about Arsenal FC . I am sick and tired of all the jokes and mockery of my club after the humiliating defeat at Manchester. Yes Arsenal played a poor game . No denying that. But all those fools who keep mocking Arsenal , if at all you are a football fan get this up your head . Arsenal lost their talisman around whom the team was built for the past 5 years. And the recovery was hit by another heavy loss in the form of  money hungry Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy leaving the club. These three were without doubt our most influential and experienced players. And to add to that we lost our new signing Gervinho through suspension. Frimpong and Song also missed out through suspension. And in the eve of the match we lost Sagna and Vermaelan to injuries. Most importantly we had Wilshere (replacement for Cesc) injures. So we lost around 8 players through suspension and injuries. If we had a full strength team then maybe , just maybe , things would have been different. Or imagine Van Persie had converted the penalty and Arshavin had scored that sitter. Things would not have turned out the way it had. So all those who are picking on Arsenal now , please get a life. In Arsene we trust and he will deliver !