The Arsenal Blog

This summer is set to be a very different one for Arsenal and for positive reasons. For the first time in what seems like an eternity, they are set to build on their squad rather than trying to rebuild one.

It was Robin Van Persie last year and Cesc Fabregas the year before that. Too often, the Gunners have gone into the close season with a cloud hanging over the future of a key player.

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Success focuses around many aspects of the footballing game. Some people say that it focuses around a game plan, the managerial tactics and the way the club is managed. Although all those factors are important to the success of the team, once you forget the figures, the statuses and the big names, you need to remember at the end of the day that there are 11 men out on the field that have the potential to go out and win a trophy. As long as you have the individual talent and the belief you can win then anything is possible. This is exactly what Arsenal need!  ...........Read more

Can Arsenal accommodate two big, powerful strikers in the squad? We might be able to find out, if Arsene Wenger reacts to the words of Christian Benteke. The Aston Villa and Belgium forward has hinted that he could leave his current club and has previously stated that his `dream` was to play for Arsenal.

He said, “If Aston Villa say I must stay, I won’t necessarily accept that.”

You could say that Olivier Giroud is not the typical Arsenal striker, at least under Arsene Wenger, but the manager seems to be very happy with the contribution Giroud has made this season and I’m sure he has looked on with admiration at the job Benteke has done for Paul Lambert at Villa.  ...........Read more

Juventus have halted Arsenal’s transfer plans yet again. This time they have stolen Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain from us.

Reports have been circling around the press for the last week that Arsenal had Higuain in the bag and it was just up to the player to agree the deal. Arsenal had apparently had a bid worth around £20 Million accepted from Real Madrid and it was all a done deal.

Juventus have now popped in and offered a tiny bit more than Arsenal and their offer was made the priority. Higuain himself has said that he would prefer a move to Juventus showing that once again Arsenal are victims of their own success (joke).  ...........Read more

Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board will be hoping to get their transfer business done and dusted nice and early this summer, in order to avoid any panic buying towards the closing of the window. It will also give the Frenchman abd his coaching staff plenty of time to get the new players and the current squad settled in and working well together as a team.

The Italian champions Juventus, however, are making things difficult and threatening to seriously undermine Wenger’s plans. This may be punishment for sending Nicklas Bendtner to Turin, so I suppose you cannot blame them, but they are being linked with both of the strikers that Wenger apparently want. They may only want either Stevan Jovetic or Gonzalo Higuain, but the club’s general director has mentioned both publicly.  ...........Read more

The chief executive of Arsenal Football Club has made a statement about the finance and future goals of the Gunners and it sounds great. A lot of Gooners will be less than over the moon about his words, though, because we have had our hopes dashed before.

“It is important to reiterate that for everyone at the club, qualification for the Champions League is not our ultimate ambition,” Ivan Gazidis told Arsenal.com.

“Our majority owner Mr. Kroenke has made it clear that, while it’s an achievement to make the Champions League, our ultimate objective is to win the major trophies.  ...........Read more

The internet and newspapers are full of transfer rumours at the minute, which is normal at the end of the season. Arsenal are always linked with a multitude of possible transfer targets and there are usually lots of rumours about who will leave the club as well.

This summer promises to be a little different for Arsenal fans. For once, we can look at the transfer window without a cold feeling of dread, but instead can look forward to some signings that will give us hope for next season. The Real Madrid and Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain is certainly of that calibre and it is beginning to llok like he really could be at the Emirates next season.  ...........Read more

Today is a great day for Arsenal fans. We can finally relax after another tense season ended in the Gunners finishing in the Champions League (again) and above Tottenham (again). So we can happily taunt the spuds while looking forward to bigger and better things at the Emirates, can’t we?

The crippling debt is out of the way, so we are told, and Wenger will have a big transfer war chest to spend, so it is rumoured. So why have a got a small kernel of concern inside me? Arsene Wenger didn’t help in his post-match interview. He was asked about whether the club would now kick on and spend the money on the quality players needed to challenge for the title again and the Frenchman was a little less enthusiastic than he should have been.  ...........Read more

When thinking about who have been the best players for Arsenal this season, there are quite a few candidates, but over the last two months there can be only one winner, Laurent Koscielny. The French international saved the Gunners at both ends again yesterday and without him we would not even have been in the position going in to the game. As the interviewer said after the game, his goal was worth around £30 million to the club.  ...........Read more

Arsenal have fought back from a seven-point deficit behind Tottenham to end up going into the final match of the season with a one-point advantage, needing just one more win to secure their accustomed place in the Champions League next season.

Obviously they are under extreme pressure to get another three points at Newcastle this afternoon, but Wenger is happy to be in this position especially if you consider the alternative!

“The pressure is big, of course,” said Wenger. “But I always said the worst, in my job, is to play games without any pressure.  ...........Read more