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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.”

After the dream, inevitably, comes the awakening. The tangerine hordes of Blackpool gathered at the Emirates Stadium with a sense of trepidation but sung and celebrated throughout, never allowing the details of the scoreline and an early sending-off to spoil their day out.

Yet this was the reality check they feared. When Arsenal were 5-0 up with 30 minutes to play, they brought on Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie, which is as dispiriting as it must get for any opposition team. While not every club will be able to boast such reserves, Arsenal provided a more authentic welcome to the Premier League than Wigan last week.

‘They were absolute class,’ acknowledged Blackpool boss Ian Holloway. ‘If my team play like that one day I’d be delighted. The ball hardly left the grass, the pace and movement were terrific and it’s a joy to watch. It shook us that we couldn’t play our natural game and it was an absolute education. We have to learn quickly.
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Before you start any task, define the goal, the objective, the target, the line you must reach in order to feel successful.

Otherwise how are you going to know how to feel at the end?

However when Arsène Wenger was asked for his definition of success at his first pre-match press conference of the campaign, the Frenchman’s answer was more specific than you might have expected.

Despite that famous five-year stretch without a trophy, there was no waffle, no flannel and no fudge - just the title.

“Success is to improve from last year,” he explained, “and that is to win the League - it is the only benchmark.

“You cannot finish third and then say the season after, you want to finish behind that. We are a young side and the improvement is natural - the ambition is there, we are hungry for success. (continue reading…)

ARSENAL have told Barcelona: You can have Cesc Fabregas for £50million.

And Arsene Wenger has already held talks with Joe Cole over filling the gap left in the Gunners midfield.

Arsenal insisted skipper Fabregas, 23, was not for sale when they dismissed Barca’s opening bid last week.

But the Nou Camp’s top brass now claim Arsenal say they will sell… if Barca double their offer.

The Catalan giants are not prepared to do that but the fact Arsenal have named a price suggests there is now room for negotiation.

A Nou Camp source said: “This is the news the men in charge at Barca wanted.

“They now see the possibility of Arsenal cracking and are determined to get their man.

“They hope they can get an agreement at around the £35m mark.”

Chelsea star Cole met Gunners boss Wenger before jetting out to South Africa with England last week.

The former West Ham ace, 28, is out of contract and set to quit Stamford Bridge after seven years.

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has not given up hope of keeping Cole.

Assistant boss Ray Wilkins admitted: “Carlo and myself would love Joe to stay. But it’s down now to the club to see what we can do.”

CESC FABREGAS has told Arsenal he wants to join Barcelona this summer.

The Gunners’ skipper broke the news to boss Arsene Wenger yesterday morning.

His decision left Wenger upset and shell-shocked.

Fabregas, 23, now hopes Arsenal can strike a swift £30million deal with the Catalan giants so he can focus on helping Spain win the World Cup.
A source said: “It’s a sad day for Arsenal but not unexpected.

“Cesc loves the club, yet after seven years of great service has realised it’s time to move on.

“Barcelona is the only club for which he would leave Arsenal. And don’t forget it is the team he has supported since he was a child.”

Barca are likely to begin talks tomorrow.

A friend of Fabregas confirmed: “Cesc has demanded of Arsenal that they accept the sale if Barcelona present a formal offer.”

Barcelona, who won their second La Liga on the trot last Sunday, also expect to complete the capture of Valencia striker David Villa by Friday - for £42.5m.

Villa, the second-top Spain goalscorer after Raul, has already passed a club medical.

For a man whose moods can often be measured by his state of undress, you could almost have forgiven Arsene Wenger for stripping naked and running around the DW Stadium in front of his shattered players.

Seven years ago down the road at Bolton, it was the crisp club tie yanked from around his neck that signalled the end of Arsenal’s title challenge after they had given up a two-goal lead.

In maddeningly similar circumstances at Wigan, the tell-tale sign was a suit jacket slung angrily towards the away bench when calamity keeper Lukasz Fabianski spilled a corner in the 90th minute and allowed Titus Bramble to head Wigan level. This time, however, it was about to get worse for the Frenchman. Much worse.

Four minutes of added time had just been announced when Hugo Rodallega slipped a pass infield to Charles N’Zogbia. The Wigan winger took the ball away from Arsenal’s ageing central defenders Sol Campbell and Mikael Silvestre, and sent a wonderful left-foot shot swerving inside Fabianski’s right-hand post. (continue reading…)

Another memorable performance from Leo Messi destroyed Arsenal and put Barca through to another Champions League semi final. Messi scored all four goals as Barca swept aside the Londoners to win 6-3 on aggregate.

Barca stride on towards the final in the Bernabeu and tonight’s breathtaking display from the World Player of the Year, whose first half hat trick came after Arsenal had gone ahead, is bound to strike awe and admiration into the remaining teams in the competition. Guardiola’s choice of Milito and Marquez to replace the unavailable Puyol and Pique proved more than enough to keep any threat from Arsenal at bay and Bojan also played his part up front as Barca dominated and rounded off a great night with Messi’s late fourth goal to reach the semi finals for the third season on the run. (continue reading…)

Barcelona will still be strong on Tuesday night according to Arsène Wenger, despite being without three key players.

Centre-back duo Carlos Puyol and Gerald Pique are both suspended while Zlatan Ibrahimovic is injured.

However, Wenger does not believe that will make Arsenal’s task any easier in the Champions League Quarter-Final second leg.

“I don’t think they have any reason to speculate on any weakness when you look at the opportunities and possibilities they have to get over the suspensions,” he said.

“They have plenty of opportunities, plenty of centre-backs still available. I believe it is more important to focus on our side and how well we want to play.”

Ibrahimovic sustained a calf injury during the warm-up ahead of Barcelona’s 4-1 win over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday and has been ruled out of Tuesday’s match.

That could mean Thierry Henry plays a larger part in the second leg than he did in last week’s 2-2 draw at Emirates Stadium. (continue reading…)