The Arsenal Blog

After bursting on to the scene at Arsenal and becoming the youngest Gunner ever to play in the Premier League, about three months before his 17th birthday, Jack Wilshere quickly became a darling of the football media, with Arsenal and England fans alike rubbing our hands at the thought of how good he would become.

Wilshere is now 22-years old and, according to some critics like former England midfielder Paul Scholes, there has been little or no improvement in the intervening years. Whether you accept that as true or not, there have certainly been plenty of injury problems to frustrate Jack and stop him being able to play as he wants, but as long as he stays reasonably injury-free this season, I think he is set to make those critics eat their words.  ...........Read more

We know that pre-season friendly games are more about preparation and fitness than anything, but at the same time it is never nice to lose a game, which is what happened to Arsenal last night in America.

The New York Red Bulls team featuring our former golden buy Thierry Henry do not have the same season as the Premier League, so we expected them to be more match sharp, but with Arsenal fielding the likes of Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky, you could still have hoped for more from us.  ...........Read more

I definitely think that Arsene Wenger has done the right thing with the latest Arsenal transfer news, bringing in the 25-year old David Ospina from the French club Nice. The Colombia international was one of the outstanding performers between the sticks at the World Cup finals, not just with eye catching saves, but a great all round game.

There were Arsenal transfer rumours linking us with a possible free move for the Spain and Real Madrid star Iker Casillas, but the Madrid captain apparently wanted around £100,000 a week. And looking at the stats comparison on Squawka.com between them, Wenger certainly made the right choice. In fact, not only does Ospina come out better than Casillas, he beats our own Wojciech Szczesny as well.  ...........Read more

The turnaround in form and fortunes of Aaron Ramsey and Arsenal has been remarkable in the last 18 months or so. And anyone who thinks the two things are not connected must have been living on another planet. And if Arsene Wenger can just work similar magic on another young central midfielder, Jack Wilshere, then the Gunners would be ready to blow everyone to bits.

The young Welshman and the way he has improved is not the be all and end all, of course, because at the same time, we saw a resurgence from our number one Wojciech Szczesny, while the partnership at the back between Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny really started to flourish, but it is Rambo, super Rambo who has been the most remarkable story at Arsenal.  ...........Read more

I don’t know what the hold-up has been, as the reports about David Ospina and his transfer to Arsenal from Nice have been around for a while. It may have been something to do with these Arsenal transfer rumours from Spain about the Real Madrid keeper Iker Casillas, but if there was ever any chance of Arsenal getting the 33-year old Spain international this summer, they seem to be over.

Because, as reported by the Daily Mail, Arsene Wenger has revealed the the Colombia number one Ospina will be playing for the Gunners in the season ahead. Even though the transfer is yet to be announced on the official Arsenal website, the Frenchman would not be talking about the 25-year old World Cup star unless the deal was sealed.  ...........Read more

Although it has not been announced on the official Arsenal website yet, it appears that Arsene Wenger has wrapped up another first team transfer for the Gunners. The player who will soon be joining Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy in moving to the Emirates, is 19-year old Calum Chambers from Southampton, in a deal that will cost Arsenal around £7 million according to a report in The Mirror.

The reason I wonder whether Arsenal have gone for the right man from the Saints, is that the teenager is mainly known as a right back and there are at least two of his team mates at Southampton that I think would have been better signings for Arsenal.  ...........Read more

The loyalty of Tomas Rosicky has never been a question. Signed from Dortmund in the summer of 2006, Rosicky has been one of Arsenal’s most shrewd signing of all time. Rosicky’s style of play is what represent’s Arsenal in a nutshell. Fearless, unselfish, quick, the little Mozart has given Arsenal many goals to remember. His goals against Sunderland, Hamburg and the brace against Liverpool is just Tomas Rosicky at his best. When everybody left, he stayed with the club. He was finally rewarded last season with the FA cup triumph.  ...........Read more

The fourth place finish is becoming increasingly familiar to many Arsenal fans in recent seasons, considering how Arsenal have performed in the league in the past couple of editions. Many would argue that Arsenal are trying to pay off our new stadium debt. Thus, we did not have the financial capability to compete with the other teams.

While the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City have relied on their available riches to bring in the silverware, Arsenal have stuck to our philosophy and brought in Champions League finishes season after season. Now, our debt is almost cleared off, we have the capability to compete with the rest, as seen from our signings of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. However, what if even with these signings, we end up with a fourth place finish again?  ...........Read more

It is safe to say that Arsenal has the widest and largest array of offensive talents in midfield in the Premier league. Some might even say Arsenal may have the best amongst the world, with only Bayern Munich close to us. Ozil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla, Rosicky, Arteta and rumours of Khedira or Bender joining, it must be a huge headache for Arsene to decide who should start. Also, it is important to note that all these players are extremely talented and would easily grace the starting lineup of any premier league team. Thus, it is vital to ensure that all these players get enough playing time. Otherwise, they would not be satisfied and may start to look for a move away from Arsenal.  ...........Read more

I thought that Arsenal would have announced the transfer of the Colombia international number one David Ospina by now, as it was reported that we had a greed a fee of around £3 million with his French club Nice and had sorted out the personal terms of his contract with the Gunners.

But still no announcement from Arsenal and it looks like the reason could be the captain of Spain and Real Madrid, Iker Casillas. The news from Spain, picked up by various media sources like Metro, is that the 33-year old is ready to quit his La Liga club as they close in on another World Cup keeper, Keylor Navas of Costa Rica.  ...........Read more