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Posts Tagged ‘Arsenal’

by. Cruiser

MANCHESTER UNITED

Manchester United will host Arsenal on Monday night, knowing a win would take them to the top of the table. As it stands, they lie 3rd, behind Manchester City and their opponents, who are top, but with games in hand, that could all change very quickly. Chelsea failed to do much on Sunday, drawing 1-1 with Tottenham.

Patrice Evra has been mouthing off a fair bit in the build-up to this one, writing off Arsenal as a training ground blah blah, which would be amusing to United supporters and infuriating to Gooners, because Arsenal have indeed won nothing in the last 5 years, although coming infuriatingly close in the League and the Champions League since.

I’d say the comments were stupid and classless, coming at a time when United manager Alex Ferguson himself is being quiet and actually trying to get supporters to stop behaving like scum in singing disgusting songs. But then again, Evra is a man who led his national side to embarrassment during the World Cup and still had no shame, so I guess it is to be expected. At least the journalists are happy.

Man United have not played in the league since spanking Blackburn 7-1, but I really will not read too much into that as it is the Blackburn Family after all, and they are not very good, especially away from home. The match with Blackpool was postponed, and Valencia almost beat United since, with the match ultimately ending 1-1.

The head to head record shows that Arsenal have not won here in the last 3 visits, but they did get a draw, and they have in that time beaten United 2-1 at the Emirates, with some chap named Nasri grabbing the headlines… Read the rest of this entry »

Arsenal

Arsene Wenger might just be thinking that all of his beliefs are about to reap rewards this season as his Arsenal side remain firmly in the hunt for the Premier League title this season. However, he is also sure to be well aware that his side cannot afford to take their foot off the gas and must improve on results at home.

Arsenal are 2nd in the Premier League and had a superb weekend last time out as they closed the gap on Chelsea to just 2 points as both the Blues and Manchester United failed to win. The Gunners have 26 points this season, but surprisingly have picked up more points away from the Emirates Stadium than they have at home. They are 4-0-2 at home, scoring 15 goals and conceding 6.

It was a surprise 0-1 defeat here to Newcastle that had the doubters out in force again, but back to back away wins at tough venues has once again put the Gunners back in contention. Arsenal had won 3 games in a row in all competitions at home before losing to the Magpies, but they have just 1 clean sheet in their last 5 at the Emirates. Read the rest of this entry »

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has praised the improvement Theo Walcott has made since the start of the season.
A comedy goal and a controversial effort helped Arsenal into the Carling Cup last eight at Newcastle’s expense.

An attempted nodded clearance from Ryan Taylor hit his own keeper Tim Krul before going into the Magpies net to give Arsenal the lead.

Theo Walcott raced through and dinked in a second after Nicklas Bendtner appeared to block a Magpies defender as he came back from an offside position.

Bendtner then curled in a shot and Walcott slotted in Arsenal’s fourth.

A weakened Newcastle showed plenty of commitment and valiantly tried to get back into the game at 2-0 down but the visitors punished them with some ruthless counter-attacking play.
Ultimately, it was a convincing win for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s side, which had an unusually strong look to it compared to the line-ups the Frenchman has chosen to field in previous Carling Cup campaigns. Read the rest of this entry »

Eduardo can be forgiven his mixed feelings in returning to Arsenal, the club where he endured a horrific injury, as his new club Shakhtar Donetsk arrive on Champions League business tonight.

The 27-year-old Brazilian-born Croatian striker spent three years as a Gunner from 2007. Broadly speaking, the first was spent establishing himself, the second in recovery from the double leg break sustained against Birmingham in February 2008, and the third trying to re-establish himself. Then he was shipped out for a fee of around £6m to Shakhtar to make way in the summer for Marouane Chamakh.

“It was the hardest decision of my career to leave,” he said last night. “When you spend three years at a club you have great moments but some problems, [like for me] when I was injured. But I’m nearly 28 and I think I made a good decision to play for Shakhtar.” Read the rest of this entry »

Arsenal’s chances of signing Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz could founder on Barcelona’s search for back-up to Victor Valdes.

The Gunners’ Spanish scouts have been impressed with Iraizoz’s consistent displays as Arsene Wenger mulls his troublesome goalkeeping situation.

Fulham No 1 Mark Schwarzer looks most likely to sign on at the Emirates Stadium in January, but the Craven Cottage hierarchy resisted all bids in the summer and may dig their heels in again when the transfer window reopens.

Iraizoz, 29, is in the final year of his contract and could be available for a knockdown fee, which has also attracted Barca.

There is concern at the Nou Camp that the only quality cover for Valdes is 34-year-old Jose Manuel Pinto, whose days at the club are numbered.

The champions of Spain are interested in brilliant Atletico Madrid goalkeeper David de Gea, but a deal for the 19-year-old would be expensive and competition comes in the shape of Manchester United.

Rather than buying a direct rival for 28-year-old Valdes, reports in Spain say Barca will instead turn to either Iraizoz or Real Sociedad’s Chile international Claudio Bravo as back-up for their first choice.

Arsene Wenger has insisted Arsenal’s achievements should never be directly compared to Chelsea’s because of the Roman Abramovich factor.

Wenger celebrated 14 years at the Gunners on Friday as details of Manchester City’s £121million losses stirred up old feelings of resentment ahead of Sunday’s derby at Stamford Bridge.

The Frenchman has been among the fiercest critics of the way Abramovich has bankrolled Chelsea’s rise by lending millions and then cancelling the debt.

Arsenal have won seven major trophies under Wenger, while Chelsea have lifted 12 in that period (including one European Cup-Winners’ Cup), eight since the Russian billionaire bought the club in 2003.

‘The biggest pride of a club is to achieve the maximum with the resources available,’ said Wenger. ‘That is what we try to achieve and the situation is not really comparable to what Chelsea has done. The resources are different.

‘We do the best we can. We have our own way to run our club. Every time we don’t win a game, everyone tells me I have to buy a player. Read the rest of this entry »

It would be nice to announce that Arsenal were irresistibly stunning on Wednesday night and that no team could have withstood their onslaught, but this would be a lie. Arsenal were just … Arsenal.

They passed beautifully, thought inventively, attacked imaginatively, as they do almost every week. Sometimes in the Premier League they do all this and still lose; on other occasions they are made to scrap until the last minute. Against the lamentable Braga of Portugal, however, it proved more than enough.

Arsenal went through them like the proverbial warm knife through dairy products. Butter might have put up more resistance actually, certainly had it been left a long time in the fridge. Milk would have turned quicker than many of Braga’s defenders.
So how easy was it? Well, in the 54th minute, Cesc Fabregas won the ball in the heart of the Portuguese defence and laid it out to Andrey Arshavin on the right. Read the rest of this entry »

Arsenal striker Robin van Persie will be sidelined for “at least a few weeks” with an ankle injury, according to the Dutch Football Association.

The 27-year-old suffered the injury during Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Blackburn in the Premier League on Saturday.

Van Persie will miss Netherlands’ European Championship qualifiers against San Marino and Finland.

He missed five months last season after damaging ankle ligaments while on international duty.

In Van Persie’s absence, Hamburg’s former Manchester United and Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has been called up by the national team for the first time in two years.

After missing much of last season through injury, Van Persie was an ever present as the Netherlands reached the World Cup final, but he has had a frustrating start to the current campaign.

Lacking full match fitness, he made only brief appearances in Arsenal’s opening fixtures against Liverpool and Blackpool before his first start of the campaign was curtailed by injury after 35 minutes on Saturday.

Marouane Chamakh, who led the line after replacing Van Persie on Saturday, is likely to continue to play as Arsenal’s sole forward with Denmark international Nicklas Bendtner also unavailable because of a groin injury.

On Thursday evening, Arsenal were handed Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga and Partizan Belgrade in Group H. To many observers it was a decent draw. The Ukrainian champions had never reached the knockout phase of the competition while the other two teams could muster one Champions League campaign between them.

However, speaking exclusively to Arsenal.com on Friday morning, Wenger was more circumspect.

“I think it is more difficult than it looks because we have Shakhtar Donetsk and Braga who are two very good teams. Also there is a lot of travel too. We will be favourites but we start one week after the internationals when the players will have been away.

“We have more experience than the other teams but Shakhtar have some experience themselves and people forget Braga knocked out Sevilla by winning both games [in the Play-Offs].

“I am very confident of course and I am sure we will come out of it. But I don’t think we have an easy group. We’ll need to be on our toes.”