Arsenal transfer rumours, Injury updates and Anniversary celebrations

Although Arsene Wenger played a second string team in last night’s 3-1 defeat at Olympiakos, Arsenal still managed to sustain an injury to one of their first-team players.

Lukas Fabianski was taken off with a cut during the first half, but the only remaining left-back at Arsenal, Andre Santos, was taken off with an ankle injury which leaves the Gunners with some more defensive problems.

Arsene Wenger said after the game: “Fabianski felt a deep cut on the knee and Santos suffered a bad ankle injury. He looks like he will be out for a while. We have Gibbs coming back in two to three weeks. Hopefully Santos will not be too long but, for Saturday against Everton, he looks to be short. We have as well Vermaelen who can play in his position.”

Arsenal fans can only be happy that Vermaelen has returned to fitness, but Wenger will be desperately hoping that Arsenal don’t suffer any more injuries in defence ahead of the busy Christmas period.

 

ANNIVERSARY MOOD

 

Arsenal will unveil statues of Herbert Chapman, Tony Adams and Thierry Henry to mark the club’s 125th anniversary this weekend.

The club have earmarked Friday for the official unveiling of the statues outside the Emirates Stadium as part of the club’s celebrations.

Chapman, who led the club to their first league titles in 1931 and 1933, Adams, who captained Arsenal to five league titles across three decades, and Henry, the club’s record goalscorer with 226, will be the men honoured.

 

INJURY AND HEALTH REPORT

 

Wenger said: “Santos suffered a bad ankle injury. It looks like he will be out for a while. We have (Kieran) Gibbs coming back in two to three weeks.

“Hopefully Santos will not be too long but, for Saturday against Everton, he looks to be struggling.

“I am annoyed because we lost. It’s difficult to single out (individuals).

“Offensively and defensively we were not convincing, we lost many challenges. We came back to 2-1 and it looked more like we could level, but they scored the third.

“The young players have shown good things but, as a team, we missed a bit of maturity to keep the ball when we were under ­pressure.”

Keeper Lukasz Fabianski sustained a cut knee.

With a long injury list depleting our defense, we really need to delve into the January transfer market to get more players if we are serious of mounting any possible challenge.

 

That’s it for today. I hope to write another blog after a day, for the first time. See you in the comments.

 

Be enlightened by some transfer stories. England beat Spain

This is my first time of publishing transfer stories. This week has been an interlull. Thank God our players have represented their national sides unscathed, you know who is the most precious during these times? Thank God Robin Van Persie, Walcott and Koscielny(oh what a debut he had) had roles to play for their countries to continue the momentum and did,t get any silly injuries. We can’t afford any injuries this november. Let’s hope hope that this is the first November in 5 years we have not had injury crises.

TRANSFER NEWS…….

Arsene Wenger is said to be considering a move for Valencia midfielder Daniel Parejo in January.

This rumour has been circulating around for a few months now, as Valencia stated in September that Arsenal scouts were watching Parejo in their 2-2 draw with Barcelona

Wenger will be eager to land a midfielder in the January window as he will lose both Emmanuel Frimpong and Alexander Song to the African Cup of Nations

He only made 18 appearances before being recalled by Real due to injuries to Ruben de la Red and Mahamadou Diarra, but he still rarely featured for Los Blancos.

Parejo would obviously jump at the chance for first-team football at a club like Arsenal, but whether he is what Wenger needs is another matter, he is by no means a regular at Valencia so this could mean that he may take a few games to settle into the pace of the Premier League, a luxury Wenger could ill afford.

AMEN………….

Arsenal will sell defender Sebastien Squillaci in January as Arsene Wenger looks to have a clearout at the club.

The Gunners are ready to offload the 31-year-old on a loan deal or a permanent move for around £2m, according to the Daily Mail.

Marouane Chamakh has also been linked with a move away from the Emirates Stadium.

Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, who is currently on loan at West Ham United, has been told that he can also leave

I think we need a bit of clear out in January to ease finances and make us able to buy appropriate players who would supplement the team. It is up to Wenger and the board to identify their targets.

Congratulations to England for their victry against Spain. They really showed mental strength against the Spaniards who were just trying to arrogantly walk the ball into the net. They are beatable eh? What a Spainful victory! Who would have thunk?

Let me read your comments!

Arsenal are beginning to find form again?

Well well well. It is very essential that Arsenal are beginning to regain form. We have turned the corner recently. We have started showing what we are capable of doing. These few weeks, we have had some decent results and rumours have it that we are 4th place in the EPL form table above Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham.

Yesterday’s game against the much dreaded long-ball playing dirty Stoke City was a mixed game. I’m sure you must have read the game reports over and over again(I’m just a bit lazy to write it), so I needn’t bother you with more. Ramsey gave a Cesc-like chip pass to Gervinho, which the Ivorian trapped and cooly finished. But he gave away a foul on Peter Crouch which resulted to free kick; I’m sure Tony Pulis’ mouth was watering on the thought of scoring against us in a set piece . Stoke latched the ball unto Ryan Shawcross and he headed across our shaky defense only for Crouch to slot home the equalizer. Hence we tipped and tapped and passed sideways. We bacame poor all of a sudden.

The second 45 was boring from the beginning until Chamakh was subbed to be replaced by Robin Van Persie. He made an impact when he received a ball from Gervinho from the right wing; he slotted home what looked like a potential winner. Towards the end Gervinho made yet another assist for Van Persie to score the third goal for Arsenal.

I think it is high time we introduced Park Chu Yung in the mix. He can’t be that bad. I deeply wonder why Arsene has not featured him regularly. And I hope that Chamakh will be sold in the next transfer window. He has nothing to offer again. I heard somewhere that Arsene thinks Loic Remy plays like Thierry Henry. Why don’t you go and get him now? Do not hesitate?

It is good that we are gaining form again, but the team seriously lacks creativity and cohesive play. We have not been used to seeing sloppy passes and cheap losing of the ball at the Emirates for a long time and I hope that RVP stays super healthy this year , because he is the only player who has been saving us. It would be good for the team to start playing for one another on the pitch. I do not mind taking 1 nil victories from now till Christmas as long as we are consolidating a sensible position in the league. What a weekend of football and surprises everywhere. There were stunning results, even Barca struggled and we won. I’m also tired of these 6-1 jokes(just kidding, tell more!!!!). Now let’s kick off our 25 unbeaten run!!!!

Gervinho was unlucky. The perfomance was bad.

Hello y’all.
The match yesterday got me moping and hoping something extra-ordinary could come out of it. I just got what I didn’t deserve; dissapointment.
In the first half we created a couple of chances(typical Arsenal way) but lacked a bit of cutting edge. We pressed Newcastle from time to time but could not make a bold statement. Rosicky was looking impressive with his twist and turns and dribbles and razor-sharp passes but once we got the ball in the midfield, we passed sideways to either wings. If you have noticed, in the last seasons whenever we passed sideways, we either didn’t know what to do with the ball and just tipped and tapped around the opposition’s box. It even resulted to legendary counterattacks. This season, I thought that the system would have been revised, but it was the same old boring tippy tappy tactics from our glorious leader. Playing that sort of football will never get us anywhere. Any clairvoyant fan won’t argue this fact with me. Hasn’t Wenger noticed that the EPL has become more competitive, pacy and direct than it was. It is no longer a league where opponents get wooed and mesmerized by your silky and deft-touchy football. Has he not been seeing this for the past 5 years? Here is hoping that the sale of Cesc would lead us to revising our playing system. If it means that we could acquire a player or new players who are more direct and could offer us more pace, strength and tenacity in the midfield and even change to a traditional Arsenal 442 which implies a swift, brisk, efficacious counterattacking footballing style, it would obviously please me. I hope we make these amendments sooner rather than later. Much ado about nothing describes our philosophy at the moment.

Gervinho talk……

As if the match wasn’t a borefest, the sending off of Gervinho rubbed a large amount of Mexican chilli on the bleeding wound. Joey Barton, whom is a player some of our fans wanted to be in our team tried his best to get one of our players sent off, just like in the corresponding fixture last season. He succeeded! He accused Gervinho of blatantly diving, the referee waved play-on, only for Barton to start a fight with Gervinho, he held him on the neck, squeezed his neck continually , then the referee and Steven Taylor had to intervene. Red card it was for Gervinho. Poor lad, wasn’t he educated on Barton’s behaviour during matches? I hope he learns from this incident. That means he won’t be available for the next two games against the bindippers and the Mancs. Well, I hope we cope.

Up next at the Emirates is the Champions’s League qualifier against Italian side, Udinese. I just hope we really get something good out of this match.

Now Arsene must go out there and spend some flipping money, because he still has a chance. The squad we have rarely fills me with confidence. Two defenders , a defensive midfielder, one attacking midfielder, a central midfielder and a striker. Could these be possible? Well let’s fold our hands and see.

Cheer up guys!

Finally, we sign a player. Is the timing good?

Uhmmm…. Not quite.
I am delighted that we have signed a good English player who has been linked with us since March this year. After a long saga, we finally sealed the signature of Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain from Southampton for a fee in the region of 15 million pounds. That is very good money!
Chamberlain has been praised by the English media and league one pundits and was even tipped to be greater( is he even great yet?) than Theo Walcott. He had always received high praises from his father to go on to be a world beater.
Forget my bad manners, I didn’t even describe his style of play and his favorite positions on the pitch. Chamberlain could play as an attacking midfielder which is his secondary role. His primary role is as a winger on both sides of the pitch. He passes the ball effectively which is a “great” attribute one must possess to be regarded highly by Arsene Wenger. He is quick, direct and agile while on the pitch, little wonder United, City and Liverpool were also after him, but it was good that he came to us.

But wait! Inasmuch as it good to have signed him, we ought to have bought a couple of defenders alongside him too. Rumours have it that Per Mertesacker is close to agreeing terms to switch to Arsenal from Werder Bremen. Who thinks we need a disciplined German defender in our ranks? I do. Gary Cahill whom is a regular name on the rumour mill is rumoured to be on the verge of undergoing a medical prior to signing for the club. I keep my fingers crossed these will happen. If they don’t , my confidence for the coming term will diminish. Defense is our priority right now and the sooner we get things done to address this issue, the faster things would improve.
We could also do well by adding another top class striker who is selfish and only cares about him scoring goals and nothing else. He must be less off-form and injury-prone too because we have the usual suspects in a dozen so we do not want additional stock of that category.

Do the business this way, Arsene and we will start trusting you again!

Do not hesitate to comment on my post!

Where are the defensive signings? JD and Squillaci are not cutting it?

Howdy everybody
It has reached that period of the season or summer when our hopes are killed again. They say hope is a quintessential delusion and it is true , believe me. We keep on hoping that our transfer dealings would be done ‘sharpish’, but everything is as slow as a 19th century locomotive, well that would be a faster object . What about a slug?

I won’t bother talking about the match highlights but will focus on the glaring deficiencies we have in the squad.
Yet again, we were found out in the defence. After leading by two goals , we once again bottled a chance just like we almost did against Cologne the other weeekend. How can two defenders who surrender a two goal lead against a team from the Argentine league be considered to play for our great club? Those performances put out there, especially the defensive aspect were just weak and effortless. That showed how little we learnt from last season. For me I won’t be having any false hopes about the upcoming season, because our defence will not take us anywhere. I mean Boca Juniors? We have not met the Chavs, Barca, Spurs or Everton yet. That hardly fills me with hope.

Yesterday, I was elated by the news that we had agreed terms to Sign Juan Mata, only to wake up and realise that our glorious leader had not even bid for him. Zzzzzzzz! Boring days. Just like we heard recently that Gary Cahill had not been contacted for any transfers to Arsenal and rumours have it that he has been told to focus on the club and their ongoing preseason. Isn’t that the kind of statement we should be making to Barca regarding Cesc. I don’t even want to go there now. Gary Cahill is the upcoming defender we need. Upcoming, in terms of stardom and quality but has the Premiership experience in opulence. Right now, he , alongside another good defender in the mould of Jan Vertonghen of Ajax would make me brag once again, because having Djourou and Squillaci in your ranks is not worth bragging about

What if we put some tweaks in our coaching, eh? Like introducing new defensive tactics and even getting a defensive coach. Wouldn’t things get better? Whoever was responsible for our great European run in 2006 , I wonder why he is not here with us!

Things are getting slower and worse.

Do not give up being a Gooner! Although, it might be tempting nowadays.

Comment on my post!

Okay, okay. Let’s put the recent slump behind us today!

Hello Gooners! I am back to blogging ways once again. I have been absent for a while. I hope to always keep some news on the table for you .

Has it become a tradition that our season starts to take a clumsy shape after we play Birmingham? Those guys must be sent from hell if so. Arsenal have not been sharp and crisp( if I may use the word) following the League cup final loss to them. Then came Barca too, it was a shame actually, but what  is the best thing to do? Move on I say!

We go to Old Trafford, Manchester today for a classic FA cup tie against Manchester United. The last time we met, our season ended in their hands after that unforgettable defeat. This time , I don’t think it’s gonna be easy for them, because they are missing a couple of their stars , but don’t we? If we play with determination and show the mental strength(hmmm), we will nick it, but remember, it a’int gonna be easy ..

Song is still out as well as Fabregas . Vermaelen( who I suspect is going to do a Rosicky ) is a longterm absentee. Our next best goalkeeper Szczensny is out for the rest of the season as well, so we are left with ;

Almunia

Sagna     Djourou           Koscielny             Clichy

Diaby

Wilshere                                   Nasri

Bendtner                    Van persie                      Arshavin

I think this will be a good squad for today’s fixture.

Some of the workers of the media are already writing us out of this tie. I hope this gives the players the extra motivation into this game. Arsene Wenger has to tell them to prove a point. I wonder whether he still has the motivational skills ….

The Mirror says we are 25-1 to get zero shots in this match. What Absolute contempt for the Arsenal!

Alan Thompson, a gambling specialist bets we are going to lose today.

Let us hope for the best , because I don’t believe in gambling. Support the team today! Light up your spirits. Come on you Gooners!

Do not forget to pray for Japan. This must be one the greatest earthquakes that has occured over there!

Au revoir!