Tag: City

Arsenal face THREE way Premier League transfer battle!

Even though Arsenal are now giving Arsene Wenger the financial tools to bring in big players in the transfer windows, and the Frenchman has used it well over the last two years, we are still not able to stand toe-to-toe with the really big hitters like Chelsea, PSG and all.

So despite being one of the best run and most profitable clubs in the world there are still three Premier League clubs able to blow us out of the water when it comes to transfer spending. The bad news for Gooners today is that two of them are after the same transfer target us Arsenal according to the Daily Star.

The paper reports that Manchester City have contacted the French Ligue 1 club Monaco over the transfer of their midfield star Geoffrey Kondogbia and as their city rivals Manchester United are already linked with the young France international, it looks like Wenger is really going to have his work cut out to stand any chance of completing this deal.

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Is Arsenal star fooling himself about big games?

Jack Wilshere is renowned for showing passion for Arsenal Football Club on and off the pitch but this time around I think a few fans may start to question whether he is wise in everything he says.

Arsenal endured defeat to Stoke City at the weekend whilst Chelsea won, making the gap for first now four points away. The Gunners will slip further if Liverpool keep up their winning ways and Manchester City win their two games in hand, which is unfortunately a likely occurrence.

Without sounding too pessimistic, our title challenge hangs by a thread which is such a shock considering our dominance at the top of the league for so many consecutive months. I suppose we really have faltered against the big teams like everyone expected us to and although it is still a shock that we were ever in the position that we were in, many believe that it will unfortunately be 10 years without a league title. However that isn’t the opinion of Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere who persisted to keep up Arsenal’s title talk after the result against Stoke City.

Wilshere was reported by The Mirror saying, “The good thing is that this month we play all the teams at the top. If we win those games, we can be up there. We’ve got to keep going to the end. Anything can happen in this league as you’ve seen this weekend and in previous weeks.”

It’s nice to see we have some stronger believers in the team however I cannot help but see that it is probably being dangled with a touch of hope as well. Arsenal find it difficult enough to beat the big teams when on form so if we come away in a strong position after the period of tough games then you could almost say we fully deserve to be strong title contenders.

The strange thing is is that with Tottenham our next big team in the League to face, we could rebuild our season in similar circumstances to last year, which saw us go undefeated for the remainder of the season. Hopefully a repeat will be awaiting after attaining a positive result against Spurs, but first up an important FA Cup match awaits against Everton.

You have to feel, though, that even an undefeated run in the league will not be enough. Arsenal need to beat either Chelsea or City, possibly both, and that is a very tall order indeed Jack.

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Fabregas urges Arsenal to carry on and capture the title

Arsenal came close to the title on two occasions whilst Cesc Fabregas was still with the club. Once in the 2008 season and the other in 2010. Both times Arsenal challenged for the league for the majority of the season until falling virtually at the final stages of the domestic season.

There were falters in the club system where we just ran out of steam, quality and the injury list grew bigger and bigger. As drastic and desperate as this may sound but Arsenal also probably wouldn’t have slipped up in the League Cup final defeat to Birmingham City, if it hadn’t been for the fact we had so many ‘then first team’ players ruled out. We should have won that trophy anyway, regardless, because even without those players, we were far more capable of achieving a win that day. But Cesc was one of those players to miss the game and his absence was certainly noted.

A few years down the line and Arsenal now stand another great chance of silverware, with the Gunners keeping top spot in the Premier League so far. The Gunners have been in that position for the majority of the season, however a small slip up against Southampton two games ago, gave us all a major fright. It meant Arsenal dropped into second after Manchester City’s victory, however with Chelsea beating the Sky Blues just the other night and an Arsenal win, meant that once again we returned to the top.

In a report from the Mirror he states: “It would be amazing [if they won the league], they need to be very consistent between now and the end of the season. I am very happy how they are playing, they have a strong squad, they are top of the league. I cannot wait to see if they can lift the trophy finally.

“In one season it’s impossible to win every single game, you will always lose,” he added. “Whether it’s the League Cup, FA Cup, Champions League, there’s so many games. The Premier League is a very tough league. Anyone can beat you. It (City v Chelsea) was a very entertaining game.”

Of course Fabregas has experience of winning trophies with Barcelona since his return to Spain, however considering he never won the Premier League with Arsenal I’m sure he cannot talk too fruitfully about what Arsenal need to do to win arguably Europe’s toughest club competition. We are in for a tough run there is no doubt about that and these next few weeks are the most pivotal of the season but could also define the club’s successes for this year as well as our situation for the next few years as well.

Personally I believe the Gunners can be resilient and as Fabregas states consistency is the key, however as players start to tire and we begin to lose some of the big names, I can unfortunately see the season faltering at the final hurdle just as it has done before. It is certainly going to be close.

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Arsenal must pass Chelsea test to win Premier League

Arsenal have enjoyed being on top of the Premier League, and have been there long enough to get used to it. But barring a monumental cock-up from both Liverpool and Manchester City, the Gunners will probably not be in top spot when they kick-off against Chelsea at the Emirates on Monday.

Liverpool are at home to Cardiff on Saturday and a win will give them one point more than the Gunners. City also play on Saturday, away to Fulham and because of their superior goal difference, a win would take them above us in the table. So come on Fulham and Cardiff, but I am not holding my breath.

I expect Arsenal to be third when Joe Mourinho and his men arrive at the Emirates and I think how the players react to that will tell us a lot about this Arsenal team. I don’t agree with the football pundits who think that you have to beat the big teams to win the title. While our rivals have been dropping points against lower teams, Arsenal have been ruthless and consistent.

The problem for me is, if we fail against Chelsea, the effect it will have on morale and the confidence that we can win the title. A good performance is essential. We were poor against Manchester United and City, suggesting there is a bit of fear factor which we have to disprove against Chelsea. Breaking Arsene Wenger’s poor record against Mourinho would also wipe away a lot of doubts and there has never been a better time to do it.

Even a draw would be okay, but a win would put us clear at the top again for Christmas and that would be a great sign and a real boost for the club. From that, I would feel confident that we can keep up the charge and finally regain the crown of English champions.

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Is Hansen right to dismiss Arsenal Premier League challenge?

For Arsenal, it isn’t often that you will hear of a title challenge, they are about as rare as a positive article in the media about the club, but for once with the season almost rwo and a half months underway, Arsenal currently sit on top of the Premier League table, 2 points clear of both second and third place. Chelsea currently occupy 2nd, whilst Liverpool sit in 3rd and although Chelsea may have been expected to be in that position at this stage of the season, I don’t think anyone would have predicted Liverpool’s good run, just like not many would have predicted the extent of Arsenal’s ambition both on and off the pitch.

When it comes to the media, it isn’t often you will read a positive article about Arsenal and it’s largely down to the fact that the media loves to criticise the years of the club’s downfall and the difference between now and 10 years ago. Like many fans the media seems to be living in the age of the invincibles when it comes to Arsenal, but in reality the game is much different and for the majority of us we recognise the different aspects and expectations about football and especially in the way that the game is played nowadays.

Alan Hansen is one of Britain’s most notable football pundits, being obviously known for his time as a professional and then as a pundit for the BBC and columnist for the Daily Telegraph and it’s in the latter that Hansen is very critical of Arsenal, once again slaughtering the club’s chances of success this season.

Hansen said: “Despite their hugely impressive reaction since losing to Aston Villa on the opening day of the season, which has enabled them to move clear at the top of the table, I still believe that Arsenal will end the campaign in fourth place. Last season’s top three – Manchester United, City and Chelsea – will be there again, but not necessarily in that order, leaving Arsenal to claim fourth. They clearly have an embarrassment of riches in the middle of the pitch and genuinely multi-talented players in Mesut Özil and Aaron Ramsey, but their critical flaw is that they are just not good enough when they do not have the ball.

“And with Arsenal now entering a run of fixtures in which they face Liverpool and United in the league, followed by games against City and Chelsea in December, the weaknesses that opponents have not exploited so far will come under much greater scrutiny. Arsenal have started well and given themselves a chance, but only now, when they start to face the big teams, will their true credentials be borne out.”

To be honest I both agree and disagree with Hansen. As a professional he obviously knows about football and I think his criticism of the club is fair, because everyone is entitled to an opinion. Its whether you agree or not with that opinion is what makes the difference and in response to Hansen’s criticism about Arsenal’s game, I’d say he has a point in that we will really see where we lie when we face the big teams but to say that we won’t challenge at all is where is disagree.

I definitely think Arsenal have the ability to challenge and be a major contender for the Premier League this season, however I’m not too sure if we have the capabilities to win the title this year. The main issue is that it’s far too early to say who’s likely to win it because the game of football can change in an instant and for Arsenal, that’s something that has happened so many times before. Hansen was badly wrong when he told Manchester United all those years ago that you can’t win things with kids. Can the Gunners make him look stupid again?

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Arteta quietly optimistic about Arsenal’s title chances

Arsenal’s stance at the top of the table remained for yet another week, meaning we have now been on top of the table for the longest period since the 2004/05 season and things are looking very promising for the Gunners this year. The season may be only two months underway, but take into account that we have had an international break, as well as another one this weekend, and then a cup game in-between, so the Premier League season is still relatively early on for this campaign.

Arsene Wenger has already made it clear that talk of the title at this stage of the season, is ridiculous and I completely agree, hoping that nobody here is getting TOO carried away with the fact we are on top. Of course it’s great to see Arsenal performing and dominating how we used to, however let’s remain realistic for the time being because this league is certainly more of a marathon, rather than a sprint.

Mikel Arteta has too spoken about Arsenal’s chances this season, and although he thinks this is Arsenal’s greatest chance in many years, it’s clear that the whole team is remaining professional and making sure the job is done, because at the end of the day anything can change in football.

Arteta said: “After 10 games most of the teams have played against most of the teams. You know where you are and you know your level. You have played against teams at the top and teams at the bottom as well. But at the moment the league looks good. It’s going to be tough. There are five or six teams challenging to win it so you are not depending on one or two results. That’s what makes this league the most entertaining in Europe so we know how tough it’s going to be. But we are on a good run and we are confident with the players we have.”

At 10 games in, the season is still less than a third of the way through, however certainly at this point there is a much clearer understanding of the team’s chances because by the time this stage arrives, teams have travelled across the country and faced all abilities of teams. Although I don’t think the League is as strong as expected this season, I still expect the likes of Chelsea and City to compete, whilst I don’t think Spurs and Liverpool will have enough to succeed, despite good starts to the season.

It’s exciting times for Arsenal and although we may not have picked up all three points against West Brom at the weekend, the Hawthorns has proved to be a tough place to go and so we shouldn’t be left disappointed, just be thankful that our unbeaten run continues. Now we go into another international break before returning to Premier League action with Norwich City.

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First rule of Arsenal title challenge is you don’t talk about it…

Just when Arsenal fans were beginning to getting excited about the prospect of possibly challenging for our first Premier league title in years, Arsene Wenger has knocked us all back down in our place by announcing he thinks all the title talk is ‘ridiculous’.

Arsenal have endured a brilliant start to this year’s campaign, winning five games out of a possible six, with the only loss coming against Aston Villa on the opening day of the season at the Emirates Stadium. That game really put things into perspective, however Arsenal managed to turn the corner and become a side that looks like it could dominate in England.

After the 3-1 defeat to Villa, Arsenal fans certainly weren’t expecting to be in the position we are now, sitting at the top of the table in first place on 15 points. Whilst our most likely challengers of Manchester City and Chelsea sit back on 11 points and then rather surprisingly Manchester United all the way back on 7 points! But despite leading both Liverpool and Tottenham by 2 points, Wenger has remained reluctant to talk of any title challenge, stating that talk of the title is ridiculous at such an early stage.

Wenger said: “We want the right balance between ambition and humility. To speak about the title today is ridiculous. People forgot we were on a very long run, since March we had not lost a game and if you put that in perspective, the Villa game was just one single game we have lost in 21 now. The ‘crisis’ was a combination of factors; we had not bought anyone, have not won the championship for a long time and the fact we lost the game, all this together made the situation explosive, but it was an accident and we have responded.”

Although I agree that a few Arsenal fans may have got carried away with the possibility of Arsenal’s good run of form, the majority of us have remained realistic and recognise that this season will certainly be a long run campaign. I personally think we have a chance and remain optimistic that Arsenal can challenge along with the big boys this season for the league title. However we should no way be thinking that it’s certain! I suppose it’s good to have confidence though and right now that’s all us Arsenal fans can give the team as they walk out on the pitch each week, hopefully gunning for glory!

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Arsenal and Wenger can’t blame modern football – Deal with it!

After what was a disastrous weekend for the Arsenal, many of those defending Wenger and the board have used the argument of “Football has gone mad and it’s not Wenger and Gazidis’ fault that we can’t keep up with the ludicrous spending”. However, I feel that argument is a poor one and can certainly be seen as hypocritical.

Football has exploded with ridiculous transfer fees and ridiculous wages. It has been extremely difficult for Arsenal to compete, partly because of the introduction of Oligarchs who have bought the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, PSG etc. I completely understand that it’s been difficult for Arsenal in this period of time but we’ve exacerbated the problem certainly.

We have one of the highest ticket prices in world football and this is something definitely associated with the inflation of modern football. Even though we have one of the highest, we hardly have a squad that could compete on a domestic level, let alone a European level. It would be fine if this money was breaking us even but it’s not – we have around £180m cash balance.

We have also exploited the commercial side of the game and now have some of the biggest sponsorship deals in world football. We have used the increase in Premier league interest and the increased competition at the top to get massive sponsorship deals.

Finally, Wenger admitted to Al Jazeera that he suggested the current owners of PSG (apparently good friends of his) buy the club. He has directly helped the inflation of football with that recommendation. It’s hypocritical of him to sit on his high horse when he’s happy to help and suggest take overs by Oligarchs.

I deeply respect Wenger and what he’s done for the club but it is wrong to defend him by referring to the apparent madness of football especially when the man himself has assisted some of it as well as the club happily exploiting it.

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Were Nasri and RvP right about Arsenal all along?

Has it ever occurred to you that those players that have left Arsenal over the last few years, when the club was on the brink of regaining success, were perhaps right in what they said about the club upon their departure, and ultimately were right to leave this football club – That is if it is still called Arsenal Football Club and not Arsenal Financial Company.

Without looking at the long list of players that have left Arsenal over the last 5 years or so, because honestly it would be extremely long and probably play on your emotions so much you wouldn’t be able to complete this list, let’s just pick out a few key players. Robin Van Persie, Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Alexander Hleb, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor are the players we are going to look at because they all had a say on the club after their departure.

Firstly Fabregas is a player that I’m not particularly angered by leaving. He had always said he wanted to return to Barcelona one day and ultimately when the chance come he took it, after delaying the move for several years. I respect his decision and it’s more a feeling of anger knowing we lost one of our best players in the turn of the decade rather than he left us when we needed him most.

Then we come onto the Manchester City boys. Two of them have since departed from Manchester to join the likes of Liverpool and Spurs, but Nasri, Toure, Adebayor and Clichy all left for money. They were drawn in by the millions on offer, and honestly who would turn that down? We also must realise that they also went there because they knew they had a greater chance of success. City were building something special and aside from Adebayor, they have all gone on to gain glory.

Hleb is a player that regretted his move away from Arsenal and has spoken on several different occasions that he feels it’s one of his biggest mistakes, but aside from that he too was successful after moving away from Arsenal. He was even part of the Birmingham squad that won the Carling Cup against us! Hleb’s move was probably based around the dream of the club that is Barcelona and although he regrets it now, I’m sure he was probably right in the moment.

Lastly on to RVP, and he has turned into the most hated footballer and rightly so. Surprisingly he didn’t leave for money as he turned down City, although I’m sure he is still on a big wage package, but most importantly he did leave for trophies and look what he got. A Premier league title in his first season just goes to show that although he is wrong to force a move to a rival, he got success and that is all that’s important to him. Loyalty is nothing and as a professional you want to win trophies.

Were all these players right about what they said, with Arsenal lacking ambition and so it was best for them to move on? Although I don’t condone what they did you have to admit they were right. It’s a sad fact to admit, especially with RVP after carrying him and Nasri for creating him but seriously you can see why they left, Arsenal just don’t seem to have ambition. Even now we have money to spend, we are dithering and haggling over prices while City continue to snap up talent. Please prove me wrong Wenger!

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Why Fabregas to Arsenal is so complicated yet so important!!

The time of Arsenal’s summer transfers has come and with it, who would have guessed only two years ago, another Fabregas saga. We all remember him going back home, carrying all of his Barcelona DNA with him. What comes as a surprise is that apparently he didn’t so much want to return for the sake of Barcelona but for the sake of playing for Guardiola. So now he has gone, Cesc became unsettled (isn’t it great to finally see players of other teams getting unsettled too)?

I myself would love to see him back at the Emirates. If the information about Barca still owing us huge amounts of money is true, instead of waiting for that money to come our way (which I guess wont be happening any time soon, since they owe another 50 mil for Neymar), just take the player back and pay the extra they want for him. But I wonder about the numbers being correct – I highly doubt Barca selling Cesc for only 25 millions. That would actually mean we could get him for about 10 million in cash and everything else could be scratched off their debt to us. Theoretically. Since my guess would be, when it actually comes to the selling of the player, the price would get extremely inflated. I can just see Jose offering 40 million to Barcelona just for the sake of inflating the price and in the end making sure Arsenal lose more money or not get the player (same applies for Pellegrini and the rest of them).

And now I come to the reason I started to type. Is it possible for El Capitan to return to North London? My guess would be, if he changes the club again, he would prefer coming to Arsenal instead of Chelsea or City. Although, with him being a friend with another of our former captains who now plays for United, I wouldn’t say it’s impossible for Fabregas to land there. I know he said he’s not gonna go there, but seriously, after all the players kissing the badge, telling how they’re part of Arsenal and how they love the club, and leaving the same club a few days later, I’m prepared for the worst scenario.

Anyway, as the rumours say, Arsenal has the right of the first choice. Basically, if we want him, and hes for sale, we can have him (what a briliant piece of business by the old man, putting that into the contract, by the way). So, if we don’t get him, it’s our fault. What I mean by that is – I have always been a Wenger man, and can’t really imagine the club without him and have never gone onto the wenger-be-gone bandwagon. BUT…If we actually get the chance of getting Cesc and don’t take it (and him) and he ends up at United or some other Prem club, well, I will start screaming Wenger out as loud as possible. To see him play against us in the league, when we actually could have had him, unforgivable.

So, my favourite version would be him joining us, but if that doesn’t happen I’d prefer him staying where he is.

Now, if we do actually obtain the player, it could be a problem playing all of them – Jack, Cesc, Santi, Rosicky. Hell, City has 4 top strikers and somehow none of them complain (ok, Džeko does a bit) for playing too little. Its called rotation. The VERY wrong thing to do would be selling Santi to City, as we know him and Pellegrini go a long way back. Hopefully the joy of welcoming Cesc back, would not be marred by the fact our no. 1 player last season will go to the competition (and wenger saying-we have so many players now in the same position, bla bla bla…) It would be a complete nonsense especially as Rosicky isn’t getting any younger and Jack cant seem to get a full season in.

That would be my first few short lines on the site, looking forward to the coments

Blaž from Ljubljana

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