Wenger confirms that The Ox will play against Aston Villa (and he wants to win the FA Cup!)
Arsene Wenger has today confirmed that there is nothing wrong with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s calf (although the Arsenal boss still insists that he was suffering from fatigue when he took him off last week) and the 18 year-old will definitely be playing a part in this weekends FA Cup match against Aston Villa.
Wenger said: “He is alright, it was just fatigue. His calf was not gone or anything like that, he just started to tire a little bit. It is normal for a guy who plays a game at that intensity. But health-wise he has no problem. He will be involved on Sunday.”
Other than the bad news about Jack Wilshere, Wenger was upbeat about the other injured Arsenal players that could return to the squad. He says that Coquelin, Henry, Sagna and Arteta will also be fit enough to rejoin the squad, but he also admitted that he would be cautious ahead of Wednesdays (much more important?) League game against Bolton on Wednesday.
He said: “At the moment, many players are on their way back. I will have to decide on Saturday, I have to look at them and see how much of a gamble I can take because we play again on Wednesday. Gibbs will certainly not be involved at all on Sunday, but the others could be involved. That will be decided tomorrow.”
Although it is unlikely that Le Prof will play his very best team against Villa, or overly risk the ones returning from injury, he still insists that the FA Cup remains a priority. He said: “If you look at my record, you will see the FA Cup is important for me,”
“If you look at the record of all the other teams, I think our record is better than all of them over the past 15 years.
“Even last year we went for four trophies. How many teams go for four trophies this season? Nobody.
“I think we always try to go for everything and for a long, long time last year we went for trophies late in the season. Still we will try to do the same and try to win the FA Cup.”
I really hope you do mean that Arsene, as we are extremely unlikely to win anything else!
Walcott Blames The Players. Shouldn’t He Only Blame Himself?
Arsenal’s out of form winger Theo Walcott thinks that the players must take responsibility, but really, he’s the one who should take the most because his late appearances have simply been below par.
‘The manager will take all the stick,’ he told the Daily Telegraph. ‘He looks after us. He believes in us.
‘As players we need to look at ourselves. We need to take responsibility. The last few games haven’t been good enough.
‘The worst thing is we have a lot of regrets. There are games we could have won. When you go to Swansea and score two goals you should win.’
‘We always like to reflect on the game in the dressing room, even at half-time, sharing our feelings on the game,’ he said.
‘Robin is a great captain who wants to win. He believes in the team and knows the team can do better.’
The problem is that Wenger can’t replace Walcott with anybody better at this time, and perhaps that’s why he can afford to play so badly. Arshavin is also playing poor, Park is not Arsenal material, Chamakh and Gervinho are away for the African Nations Cup and that just leaves Oxlade-Chamberlain to take over, but he’s much more needed than Arshavin so he has to take the Russian’s spot. How do you think would Wenger be able to solve things?
Arsenal Close To Having A Full-back
Arsenal’s critical situation is about to come to an end soon as team full-back Backary Sagna has returned to full training and thus completes his recuperation.
The Frenchman get back in time to catch the most of the second part of the season and have enough games played to secure his place in France’s Euro 2012 squad. At Arsenal he will be returning to the pitch as soon as he will be able to return to full form and all doubts of a possible new setback will be cleared by the medical staff.
Sagna has been missing since the home leg against Tottenham Hotspur when Assou-Ekotto tackled him and broke his leg, but he seems set to come back in time for the second leg against Tottenham from the end of the month.
He is seen as the savior at Arsenal where Wenger can’t do with so many full-back injuries and had to play quite a lot with 4 center-backs in the back line which proved to be faulty against top teams like Manchester City or Manchester United who managed to open their defense eventually and score.
Is Samba trying to force a move to Arsenal?
The big Blackburn defender Christopher Samba has often been lauded as exactly the type of player that Arsenal need to shore up the shaky defence, and he has been linked with the Gunners for over a year now.
He tried to persuade Rovers to let him leave in the summer, but once Phil Jones joined Man Utd, Samba became a neccesity for Steve Kean. But now Samba is pulling out all the stops to persuade Blackburn to let him go this week.
Samba recently threatened to go on strike, and today he has made it clear that he will never again be committed to the club. He said: “Force me to stay and I’ll never be able to give 100 percent to you again’.
“When a couple don’t get on they get a divorce — and that’s what me and Blackburn have to do.”
“Blackburn need players who are 100 per cent for the club — and I’m not.
“The only way to solve this is for them to let me go. It will be very difficult for me to play for this team again.
“I’m at the end of the road here. I’m not going to change so, for their good and mine, they must sell me now.”
Samba was linked with QPR, but they have since brought in Onoahu and Taiwo, and probably don’t match Samba’s ambitions anyway. This leaves Arsenal and Tottenham as possible buyers. Both Redknapp and Wenger have stated they will NOT buy a defender this month, but it is surely time for Wenger to panic-buy right now, and Samba would be a brilliant addition to the team.
Surely Samba wouldn’t be so forceful with Blackburn unless he knew exactly where he was going. But is it to Arsenal?
Is Arsenal’s Academy As Good As Some Think?
In the past years Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger keeps telling himself and the club’s fans that the future is big for the Gunners and that the academy will soon become the engine of the team. This setup is supposed to provide so many talents that the team won’t be able to carry them all, but after 15 years of having Wenger at the club, we see ourselves not much farther ahead right now.
The Academy striker Sanchez Watt has just signed a loan move with Crawley until the end of the season and is due to join the club soon.
“Sanchez Watt is a player we have monitored and admired for some time now and we are absolutely thrilled that a player of his quality is coming to Crawley.
“He had several offers to go to Championship and League One clubs but he likes the idea of playing for a club who are challenging for promotion.
“I think he can make a really big difference to what is already a very talented squad. I cannot remember being as excited about a signing for some time.”
Now, the question is, isn’t Watt supposed, like a lot more others, to be highly admired at the age of 20 years old by much bigger clubs? We all know how good Walcott was at 20 and look at Chamberlain at 19, and they didn’t have the expenses and class of the Arsenal academy at their fingertips now did they? Shouldn’t we be worrying that perhaps Wenger’s scouting team isn’t quite as amazing as first thought?
Wenger Ready For Changes As He Attacks FA Rules
Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger seems to be frustrated about the fact that several big Premiership clubs are reinforcing some smaller clubs and thus creating an advantage for themselves.
According to the manager football players over the age of 21 shouldn’t be allowed to be loaned out.
“What I would like to see in the Premier League is that you are not allowed to loan players over the age of 21.”
“At the moment it is an opportunity for some clubs to reinforce other teams, without losing ownership of the player.
“For example, if a big club sends a big player to another club in the Premier League on loan, they only have benefits.
“That player cannot face his own club, yet he could win games against their rivals.
“Therefore, I think it would be better if players over 21 didn’t go on loan in the top league.”
Wenger defended himself about the Benayoun situation, saying that he had no alternative than this and that it’s not entirely the same things.
“It’s true that I haven’t done that often. But we were on the last day of the transfer window. We knew that Jack Wilshere would need surgery.
“So we were short in midfield at that point and to find two players so late was nearly impossible for us without using a loan.
“At that time, the most important thing was just to sign him.”
Arsene Wenger should really think about bringing some real midfield talent either now or in the summer. Yossi is a good player but if Arsenal wants to fight for the title they can’t afford to loan players from top Premiership competitors in an attempt to do this.
Should Wenger play Arshavin against Aston Villa?
Andrei Arshavin must have been devastated by the reaction of the Arsenal fans when he was brought on against Man Utd, which was compounded by the way he let Danny Welbeck walk past him to set up United’s winning goal.
His confidence was low before the incident but what will it be like now? So with the axiom that “If you fall off your bike, you have to get straight back on” then Wenger will surely have to try and restore his confidence by putting him back on the pitch quickly against Aston Villa this weekend.
The game is being played at the Emirates but hopefully it will be a more forgiving crowd for an FA Cup game, and the fans must realise that they have a big part to play in trying to restore confidence in the beleagured Arsenal squad.
Obviously Arsenal fans want Wenger to put out a strong team against Villa as the FA Cup is probably our only real chance of winning a trophy this season, but if YOU were the manager would you have Arshavin down as a starter?
Would Wenger Be Able To Replace Mourinho?
Life got a funny twist for Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger as the Frenchman might receive yet another offer to leave the Emirates Stadium even though the club is not at an all time high.
This would not be the first time that Wenger received an offer to leave the Gunners, but even though the temptations have been high at times, he managed to stay with the club for over 15 years now.
According to reports the Frenchman has snubbed previous offers from the French national squad and even Barcelona who have made an inquiry for him before Josep Guardiola took over the club.
Even though Arsenal’s fans are highly judging Wenger’s abilities lately, a departure is highly unlikely as the history of the two parties is now merged together. Wenger is well known for being one of the most important managers in the club’s history, and the Gunners have known their biggest success while under the management of the Frenchman. Even though he just recently hit the 15 year mark, Wenger dismissed the possibility to leave the club in the future if things continue heading in the right direction.
Arsenal Transfer Rumour Roundup. What Strikers Should They Bring?
Arsenal’s situation aggravates itself and with only 5 days to go now until the January transfer window will close, the Gunners must still transfer a striker to make sure that they will have a back-up for Robin Van Persie after Henry will leave in February.
With Walcott and Arshavin completely out of form, Wenger doesn’t really have an option other than Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Chamakh and Gervinho are gone for the African Nations Cup and an injury sustained by Robin Van Persie now would be the fatal blow to an already weak Arsenal club.
The Gunners have been linked with the possible transfer of German striker Lukas Podolski earlier this year, but even though he agreed that a move to Arsenal would interest him, Wenger didn’t make a move for him yet.
Almost the same is the situation with France’s top scorer Olivier Giroud. The French international has been highly linked with a move to Arsenal or Newcastle and he stated that he’s interested in moving to the Premiership, but Newcastle’s offers have been snubbed and Arsenal haven’t made a move yet.
The third on the list, and the most recent, is Turkish striker Burak Yilmaz who has been currently linked with a move to Arsenal after he became the top scorer in the Turkish league and leads the rankings with an amazing record of 22 goals in 21 games. Tranzbonspor’s striker publically announced that he would like a move to Arsenal and that he wouldn’t move away from his club to join some other club in the Turkish league.
Wenger chasing giant free-agent defender
It is being reported this morning that Arsene Wenger has got his eye on the giant Brazilian defender Douglas Franco Teixeira, who currently plys his trade at FC Twente in Holland.
The ex-England manager Steve McClaren has just returned to the Eredvisie side where he won the Dutch Championship in his last spell, and he is hoping to persuade the 6ft 4in centre-back to stay in Holland.
But with just six months left on his contract Douglas is now free to talk to foreign sides about a Bosman summer move so it is little surprise that Wenger is taking an interest.
Sebastien Squillaci is expected to leave the Emirates very shortly leaving space for another top defender, and Douglas is rated one of the best in Holland at the moment.
Although Douglas hasn’t played for the Brazil national side, he is now free to play anywhere in Europe having just acquired a Dutch passport a few months ago, and he can expect a much better wage at Arsenal if he arrives on a free transfer in the summer.
