The Arsenal Blog

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

There is a piece of Arsenal transfer news doing the rounds today which suggests that Arsene Wenger has given up his transfer pursuit of a top quality defensive midfielder, even though it was previously thought that the manager was looking to sign either Sami Khedira, Lars Bender or Morgan Schneiderlin.

The story goes that Wenger is going to rely on what he has already got in Arteta, Flamini and Diaby, while also getting Jack Wilshere to drop back and take on a more disciplined role in the Arsenal team. I don’t really see this happening, because it is the attacking and creative side of the game where Wilshere is best.  ...........Read more

It is par for the course when you are a big club like Arsenal, fighting for the English Premier League, Champions League and two domestic cup competitions every season, that you need a big squad with lots of strength in depth. But there is a flipside to that as well.

With Arsene Wenger’s commitment to the Arsenal academy as well as the need to have a strong squad, you do get situations like the one with Carl Jenkinson in the last couple of years, when a promising player finds it tough to get the regular game time he needs to really push on and progress his football.  ...........Read more

It was not very long ago at all that Arsenal fans could really stick it to our Premier League rivals on the red side of Liverpool. It was funny to hear the fans and former players from Anfield moaning about why the brilliant Chile international Alexis Sanchez snubbed them and decided he wanted to join Arsenal from La Liga giants Barcelona.  ...........Read more

Since Patrick Viera left for Juventus in 2005, Arsenal fans have always wished for someone of his stature to protect our back four. Over the years, Arsenal has been linked with countless defensive midfielders. It was almost as if every single decent defensive midfielder was linked with a move to Arsenal.

That is how pressing the issue was as Arsenal were repeatedly exposed to quick counter attacking opposition. The fact that Arsenal were a team that is usually on the offense just made us more vulnerable to the counter attack.  ...........Read more

It will take a string of events to go the right way for Arsenal, but the amazing transfer of Karim Benzema from Real Madrid could actually be back on soon. I really hope it happens, because with Alexis Sanchez already signed, the arrival of the France international would surely give Arsenal the single most deadly strike force in the Premier League. And with our talented midfield and miserly defence, that would probably see us Gooners celebrating the Premier League title next May, if not a double.  ...........Read more

There is good news for the young Arsenal forward Joel Campbell, who has now joined up with his new team mates as the Gunners continue their pre-season preparations with a trip to America and a game against New York Red Bulls, with our favourite son Thierry Henry, on Saturday night.

We already know that the young Costa Rica international has talent and a strong self belief, but he must have been having some doubts about just how much, if at all, he would be able to feature in the Arsenal first team this season. Arsene Wenger said that he would be coming for pre-season, but he stopped short of saying there was definitely a place for him in the Arsenal squad after that.  ...........Read more

The last time that Abou Diaby was fit and able to make a decent contribution to the Arsenal cause, was nearly two years ago, at the start of the 2012-13 season. The Frenchman started all three of the Gunners opening games and bagged himself a Man of the Match award as we beat Liverpool at Anfield.

But therein lay part of the problem for Diaby and Arsenal, because the lack of options in midfield forced Arsene Wenger to rely too heavily on the Frenchman and that caused his injury problems to flare up again. The 28-year old’s luck then deserted him again with a cruciate ligament injury that kept him out for over a year, making his only appearance as a sub in the final Premier League game.  ...........Read more

We all know that Arsene Wenger likes to keep the Arsenal transfer business firmly under wraps until the deal is done and ready to be announced. You can’t blame him because things can change at the last minute and you end up with egg on your face.

So to hear the Prof say on Saturday, in a report on Arsenal.com after the first pre-season game against Boreham Wood, that he would definitely be signing a new keeper this summer, says to me that he is close to sealing the deal for a stopper to replace Lukasz Fabianski. It might seem a bit thin, but Wenger refused to be drawn on which other positions would be strengthened.  ...........Read more

As Arsenal fans, we have had to get used to seeing some of our best players leave the club in recent years, for one reason or another. Some, like Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie, have turned instantly from hero to villain because of their reasons for leaving and the way they did it. Others, like Thierry Henry, will always be remembered as club legends.

The Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas used to fall into the second category, even though he forced his way out and left Arsenal with a huge hole in the team. We understood, I think, because he was going back to his boyhood club, Barcelona, who just happened to be on top of the world at the time.  ...........Read more