Category: Injuries

Arsenal open talks for Zenit’s Arshavin: Transfer News

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries, Transfers1 Comment

The rumours about Andrei Arshavin coming to Arsenal have been building since the summer, and yesterday Zenit St. Petersburg have confirmed speculation that they are in talks with Arsenal over a transfer for the 27 year old.

Zenit St. Petersburg want £20 mill for him, but the fact that he can buy out his contract soon may mean that we can get him for less, Arsene surely wouldn’t splash £20 mill on him though..

Arshavin – The perfect player for Arsenal’s needs

This guy is perfect for Arsenal; he can play as playmaker, on the wing or upfront.  This means he could cover for Cesc for the next 4 months and turn our injury crisis around, and then play wide right or in the hole when Cesc has recovered. He is experienced, he won the UEFA Cup last year, and is 28 in May – arguably the age when a player is at their peak.

What I’m trying to say is that he ticks all the boxes. We could utilise him anywhere in midfield or upfront, and he is world class, with experience and talent that is ready now, not in 5-10 years.

Dick Advocaat, Zenit manager said this yesterday:

“I am aware that Arsenal are interested but I don’t know any more than that”

“I am expecting Arshavin to leave Zenit for another club. He is a top player and he could play for any team and any of the top teams in England, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool.”

No doubt today we will hear someone at Arsenal come out to deny the claims, so I’m trying to keep my excitement levels down, but really this would be a fantastic piece of business!

More Transfer Rumours

Upson and Laursen rumours are also circulating, as we search for a central defender.  The problems surrounding Gallas and Toure could mean there is some truth in this, but Wenger’s reluctance to buy in this position recently makes me think we might not.

At the moment we don’t have any facts, just rumours, and more rumours – but this is a transfer window, so what do you expect!?

What does 2009 hold for Arsenal?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, FA Cup, Injuries, Transfers3 Comments

The new year is upon us finally, and we can now close the book on 2008, arguably the most painful of “The Wenger Years”.

The most painful part was seeing our hopes of silverware slide away during the early months of 2008, after building up a fantastic team, and playing fantastic football it all went wrong. Dumped out of all competitions, undeservedly, we then lost Hleb, Flamini and Gilberto in the summer, weakening the team, rather than strengthening it.

You all know the story, and aside from highlights such as beating Man Utd and Chelsea, the opening of this season has been poor, compounded by inconsistency, injuries and crisis.

The captaincy issue and Gallas’s behaviour, our woeful defending especially the loss of Toure’s magic touch, plus poor cover in midfield have left the team in tatters. Now Fabregas is injured we really have serious problems. Worse still the boardroom unrest and uncertainty; Lady Nina out, Usmanov’s interest, are contributing to a bad situation.

The focus is now on Arsene Wenger. This man completely changed English football in his time here, and he is worshipped at Arsenal. A lack of trophies has made people question Wenger and there is a huge demand for money to be spent on new players.

I really have no idea about what will happen to Arsenal in 2009, I don’t think anyone does. It doesn’t look great, a threadbare squad, and a race just for 4th place with Villa, which if lost could see the departure of our remaining established players e.g. Fabregas or Ade.

If we invest wisely now then we could reap the rewards. But long term succcess depends on the reaction of the players. So far we have seen very inconsistent displays from this squad, losing to poor teams like Man City. We need midfield players like Nasri, Denilson, Diaby to play to their full potential and stay injury free. With some clever additions we have a great squad. BUT, strengthening and confidence are both desparately needed.

2009 could see Wenger’s Arsenal rise from the ashes of last season. I’m not saying we can win the title, but build some foundations for 09/10 and stay in the Champions League. Otherwise it could be the end of the Arsenal we know. I hope Wenger has the chequebook ready!

Cesc out for 4 months. Is this a bad dream?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries, Transfers5 Comments

The latest news on Cesc is that his medial ligament damage is going to keep him out for up to four months.

This is just about the worst thing that could have happened at this stage of the season. We are already struggling, and losing our best player and captain till April is going to hurt us.

Our inexperienced midfield desparately needs strengthening in January, or 4th place could be very unlikely.

Diaby isn’t up to the task, and Song and Denilson is not a pairing with enough quality to compete at this level. We have so many injury troubles at the moment it is becoming extremely frustrating, Rosicky, Walcott, Fabregas, Eduardo, these are all first team players.

Bringing anyone with a little experience in January would be fantastic, we now need two midfielders in the next window. Wenger must be a little worried today.

“It is more likely but we also have internal solutions and we are not desperate,”

“The news is not good. It will take three to four months, we count four,”

“We will miss him, of course, but how much is difficult to say. We have to find a way and we want to find a way to compensate the fact that he is not on the pitch to give everyone a bit more.

“I’m sure we can deal with it.

“When he comes back he can help us get over the line in the final months. I believe we are able to do it.”

It looks like Wenger will be going into overdrive to sign a midfielder, but I don’t know if I can agree with his positivness.

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Eduardo close to return as Arsenal prepare to host Wigan

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries

This is a guest post by sports writer Thomas Rooney

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that Eduardo could soon be back in first-team action after making a full recovery from the broken leg he suffered in February. The Croatian endured the horrific injury after being challenged by Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor.

However, ten months after the incident, it is thought that Eduardo is closing in on a competitive return. Wenger has said that the striker is ‘joining in full training matches’ and that he will make his first-team return ‘as soon as possible’.

The Arsenal boss wasn’t putting a time frame on when Eduardo will play again, but I imagine that as long as he comes through a couple of reserve team games – we could see him before 2008 is out and that would be a great boost.

During his 31 appearances for Arsenal to date, the Croatian found the back of the net on 12 occasions. There was no doubt that he showed his fantastic finishing ability and the Arsenal fans really began to warm to him before the injury. I just hope he can come back as the same player because ten months out is a long time.

Eduardo will get a heroes reception when he returns though and this should give him a huge confidence lift. He should know that no Arsenal fans expect him to be back to his best straight away. As long as he can start producing some of the quality he showed before the season is out – that would be excellent.

The former Dynamo Zagreb man won’t be involved in tomorrow’s clash against Wigan the Emirates though. The Gunners take on Steve Bruce’s men looking to follow up their previous Premier League victory against Chelsea last weekend. As we all know, it is vital that Arsenal pick up the three points and start to string some results together.

We have said all this before, but this time it is an absolute necessity. The result against Chelsea is worth nothing if the Gunners don’t brush aside Wigan. Even though winning the title is still unlikely, for the sake of the season – in terms of momentum for the FA Cup and the Champions League – Arsenal need to hit some form now.

Wenger agrees with these sentiments by saying that the team ‘cannot afford to drop any more points’ and that they must ‘go for it’ in the coming weeks.

In terms of the team news ahead of this one, the senior players are likely to return to the starting line-up after the midweek Carling Cup defeat at Burnley. Injured duo Emmanuel Eboue and Kolo Toure should be amongst the squad as well.

However, William Gallas will miss out because of a calf injury as Arsenal look to record their first home win in the league since the Manchester United game back in early November.

By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about football betting

Gallas promotes his leadership skills as Arsenal look to close gap on leaders

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries

This is a guest post by sports writer Thomas Rooney

First of all, attention has to be paid to the fantastic week Arsenal have had. Since my post last Friday, the Gunners defeated Manchester United (highlights here) to keep their title hopes alive, then on Wednesday the ‘kids’ proved how talented they are once again as they brushed aside Wigan in the Carling Cup (highlights here).

All in all, it has been a remarkable and pleasing turnaround that could just kick start the season once again. Of course, a lot of hard work would be undone if Arsene Wenger’s side fail to continue their return to form against Aston Villa this weekend – so here’s to another three points!

Speaking ahead of the clash at the Emirates, Arsenal captain William Gallas has hit back at critics that have suggested he doesn’t have the correct attitude to be the club’s skipper. Ever since his bizarre reaction to the 2-2 draw at Birmingham last season, his leadership skills have certainly been under the microscope.

Gallas believes that he has always been a decent captain for his side though and insists the criticism he occasionally receives is only after poor results. The Frenchman said that after the Manchester United win ‘everyone was saying my leadership was good’ despite questions over it before the game.

To be honest, I think he has a point here. As we all know, football is a results business. Gallas went on to say that he actually thought he had ‘a better game against Spurs’ which emphasises how much a win means to fans.

As long as the team wins, the criticism will be heavily reduced. That’s why Gallas finished by saying that at the end of the season the only thing that matters is that Arsenal have a trophy because ‘everything else is forgotten’.

So, the Aston Villa game tomorrow. Martin O’Neill’s side have been hailed as the only team capable of breaking the top four places in the Premier League and they certainly have a team of more than capable players. They only sit three points behind the Gunners, so a win is an absolute must for the home team.

As far as team news goes, well the ‘big guns’ are set to return despite the impressive showing in the Carling Cup at the weekend. Emmanuel Adebayor and Manuel Almunia should take their place in the starting line-up, as will the already mentioned Gallas. Robin van Persie is suspended though and Emmanuel Eboue is still suffering with a knee injury.

Arsenal are unbeaten in 19 Premier League matches against Villa, but have failed to beat them in the league at the Emirates as yet. Two 1-1 draws have been produced in the last couple of seasons. This time around though, I expect a confident Arsenal performance against a team that will be rather down after their home defeat to Middlesbrough last weekend.

By Thomas Rooney

Clichy’s inspiration + Rosicky & Van Persie are taking it slow

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries

Morning all, first up, Clichy has been talking about an inspirational talk he had with Dennis Bergkamp, back when he was struggling with injuries and Cole was our first choice:

“I will never forget what Dennis Bergkamp told me. It was in 2005 when I was injured. I had doubts and I didn’t feel fine.

“Bergkamp is a great man that doesn’t talk a lot. One day he came to see me and asked how long it would take for me to recover. I told him I didn’t know.

“He watched Ashley Cole, who was also having a treatment, and finally said: ‘Come back soon, and if you succeed, you will get his position.’

“Dennis and Ashley are friends, but that simple sentence was so good to me. I held on, and then I recovered quickly.”

I rememeber seeing Clichy getting apperances in those days and thinking that he had a lot of promise, he was very unlucky with injuries, but it shows you how wise Bergkamp was. He could see that Clichy had the quality to play first team and his time would come. Had Cole not been a c**t and stayed in North London then it might have taken longer, but Clichy always had the talent to play for us.

In any case, he is much better than Cashley, I would say that he is now one of the most important players in the team – many attacks are based on his runs down the left. His defensive work is amazing, he has pace, and at corners he has made more goal line clearances than I can count!

Meanwhile Tomas Rosicky’s agent has rubbished the claims that he has been in hospital recently:

“What appeared in the press about Tomas being hospitalised in London is complete nonsense. Tomas, as part of his recovery scheme, visits the hospital for various therapies and the same happened last time.

“A sudden setback in his health or some headaches, as I have read about somewhere, have not happened to Tomas.

“Everything is going according to the plan. Tomas’ first comeback was rash, now we are treating the situation more carefully.

This makes sense – I don’t see why people are making such a big deal. The player has very long term problems which have been present almost his whole career. With slow and careful recovery this excellent player may be able to play again. The papers need to portray his hospital visit as an emergency to sell papers.

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Robin Van Persie is another injury ridden player taking it slow:

“After my previous injury, I made the mistake at Arsenal of kicking the ball with all my force in my first training session, I will not make that mistake again. But I do feel very good. I trained hard the last couple of days and all the tests were positive.

“I have been injured a lot lately but whatever the outside world says is not important to me.

“I just want to be fit and play as many games as I can. The entire pre-season went well at Arsenal and in the league too.

“Picking up a hamstring injury can happen to any player at the moment.”

This is positive talk from RVP – a talented player who needs more games desparately. It never seems to go quite right for him – he comes back but then gets injured within a few games. Luckily his latest hamstring problem in training doesn’t seem so seriuos, and he is taking it easier so he can build up his strength first.

Good stuff about three excellent players, hopefully we can see the return of RVP and Rosicky a.s.a.p!

Robin Van Persie, Djourou and Gallas injury update

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries

Robin Van Persie is hopefully now off our injury list. He injured himself during training for Holland ahead of Saturday’s 2-0 win over Iceland, apparently it was his hamstring again.

Now RVP has declared himself fit for the game on Wednesday against Norway. This is good news, it was the same international break last year where he got injured and was out for most of the season.

He has been on form this season, I hope he doesn’t play against Norway though, it will only tire him out and give him more chance of another injury, ideally as a Gooner I’d like to see him only play for Arsenal!

Anyway that’s some good news. Gallas is probably out for Saturday’s game against Everton, as is Djourou, so SIlvestre is highly likely to play, which is great. The press are trying to cast doom and gloom over the matter, but the defence, especially Gallas, haven’t been performing brilliantly so a change could work wonders. It would be nice to see how Silvestre does.

What do you think? Should Silvestre start?

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Van Persie injured yet again + Keane is jealous of Arsenal’s youth system

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries, Transfers

The news breaking last night was that RVP has yet again picked up a hamstring injury in training ahead of Holland’s game against Iceland. People are saying it might be 4-6 weeks before he is fit or it might be next Wednesday.

I have no idea, it was this time last year he picked up the injury that put him out all season. I have a feeling that this might happen again. RVP is plagued by injuries and like Rosicky, there seems to be no end to his problems. He has scored 5 in 6 games for us so it’s a bit of a blow, just when I thought he was getting a good run under his belt.

Apart from that, Roy Keane has been slating the Arsenal youth system, obviously with a bit of envy.

“The word on the street is they have a group of kids coming through that will be absolutely outstanding. But you go on about the kids coming through but a lot of them have been bought from other clubs, not through the academy at Arsenal. It’s the same with Chelsea.”

Keane has a motive – his main problem seems to be that because we are in the South East and have a large population within our radius we have a much larger resource base.

“We have tough battles up here in terms of signing young players and are restricted in terms of our location. You can only bring in kids from a certain radius and a lot of our radius is in the water. Any good fish out there?

Sorry Roy – it’s not our fault Sunderland is on the coast! We just stick to the rules and try to find the best quality young players we can get. How many top quality players will come through having played for one academy their whole youth?? I think this is just a case of jealousy from Roy, he wouldn’t be complaining if he was in our position!

Wenger – changes and ‘Champions League focus’ – pre-Porto

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, Injuries

Arsene Wenger spoke on a large range of issues in the press conference ahead of the Champions League game against Porto.

It has been widely expected that there will be changes in the line-up that lost to Hull City, but a knee-jerk reaction will not be the correct one.

The BBC has the video of Arsene Wenger’s pre-match press conference.

Wenger said there would be changes:

“There will be changes, certainly,” the Arsenal manager said. “I will see how many, but there will be changes.

“There were enough ingredients (in the Hull game) to make me physically sick.

“What we delivered was not good enough and we know that. I believe that is more down to the mental side than anything technical.”

“What is important now is to recover and prepare for the next game,”

He then calmed speculation that the changes were being made as punishment through demotion to the bench:

“Punishment? No, you know sometimes you make changes because you consider the other team, you consider the balance of your team, sometimes because one player is not at his best,”

“If a player or two do not play tomorrow it is not a punishment, it is just because of a rotation in the side. You cannot play every single game with the same 11 players.”

“I believe the goal we conceded where we are less guilty is the corner against Hull because it was a well-taken chance,” he said. “[Hull’s Daniel] Cousin is very tall and very good in the air. It was a perfect header and that can happen to anybody.

“You gain experience through the games. At the back is where we have experience because you cannot say with Clichy and Sagna and Kolo and Gallas that we lack experience. Will Kolo play in midfield? No, not at all.

“As for Vela, it’s difficult to go into any individual case. I believe Carlos Vela is a player of the squad and the whole squad will be used over the season. You cannot go from one team to the other and change 11 players because we just lost one game.

“I believe what is happening is that players have shown quality behind the first team and that is very interesting for the future of the Club.”

On the last CL game against Dynamo Kiev he defended the team:

“The side we played against Dynamo Kiev was very young. Theo Walcott is 19, Alexandre Song is 21, Denilson is 20 and even Cesc Fabregas is only 21,”

“It is not easy to win away in the Champions League with such a lack of experience.”

“This group is tougher than in previous years. It is definitely the most even group we have had because there are no easy games.

“That makes the match with Porto more important. We know in the Champions League you qualify with 10 points, so if we win our home games we are through.

“If we can do well, then the other teams will take all the points off each other and that is why I think even draws from our away games could prove good results because all the teams will drop points.

“There is no obvious weakest team, so every game will be very important and we will have to be at a high level for every game.”

He believes that we need to regain a ‘Champions League focus’ for every game:

“I believe the Champions League is a different game,”

“We have learned from the Hull match that you need a Champions League focus in every game.

“If we are guilty of something it is that we couldn’t get our focus to the right level to take our chances.

“The analysis of the game shows that we had enough opportunities to win. On the other hand, they made 100 per cent of the few chances they had. So credit to them and damage to us.

“You have not to make too much of it. We lost a game we did not want to lose but we have enough strength inside the Club and inside the team to deal with that. It can happen but it cannot be repeated.

“I don’t think we needed to be woken up but it was a big disappointment because we felt that we had enough quality to win the game.”

On injuries the main news is that Nasri is back:

“Song has still not recovered, I had him on the bench on Saturday but he did not feel comfortable and he had a little setback.

“Nasri is fit and is in the squad.”

Gallas echoed Wenger’s comments talking about how he wants to prepare:

“What we delivered against Hull was not good enough, we know that, so the important thing now is not how many games we can lose this season, but preparing well for Tuesday night.”

All in all you can tell that the team are very dissappointed about the Hull result. Losing at home is never pleasant, and especially not against teams like Hull.

It is very, very worrying that we have lost for a second time this season to ‘smaller teams’, and that we conceded from a corner yet again – we look extremely weak when defending set pieces.

All I can hope is that the team can recover and be back to their best for the Porto match, or we will be in trouble in the CL, and pressure will build from the media and fans.

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Arsenal Injury Update: Rosicky, Eduardo plus Nasri, Diaby, Silvestre

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries

Here’s the latest injury news at the Arse:

Tomas Rosicky may be playing matches by Christmas says Wenger.

Tomas has been out with hamstring problems since January, and had surgery in May. He was training and expected to return sooner, but according to the Czech international coach he had suffered some ‘set-backs’.

Wenger told the press:

“The recovery process is slower than we expected at the start. It doesn’t look worrying but the delay is longer than expected.

“He had a re-attached tendon that was loose in his hamstring, and that demands a lot of time to re-coordinate the movements of the hamstring. That makes it very difficult to predict exactly one week more or less how much time it will take.

“But I am optimistic that before Christmas you will see him in a good shape.”

Rosicky said:

“Everything went well, according to the schedule. When I was running long distances, it [the hamstring] gave me no problems at all.

“But when I started on the ball and tried to change directions of running and changed pace, the knee reacted badly. So far it does not allow me to go on in the recovery so it has stopped my training for some time. I am not resting completely, though.

“I can lift weights and do other exercises. The knee simply must get down. It does not mean at all though that I have to end my career.

“Every such treatment can bring unexpected problems with it. That is what has happened now so my return will be delayed.”

So it sounds like there are still problems, but nothing which can’t be fixed. It would be great to see Rosicky get a good run of games and come into some form. He really adds a different dimesion to our game when he’s on the pitch.

Also Wenger says Eduardo is a little ahead of schedule in his recovery, he sounded optimistic, so we may see Eddy back sooner than was expected!

Nasri, Diaby and Silvestre are all still out too, but we have no new injuries, Wenger commented:

“For Diaby, I would say two more weeks [until he is fit], Silvestre and Nasri should be available for Hull [at Emirates Stadium on September 27].”

So if all goes to plan we should have something resembling a full squad in within the next week. But no-one will be back for Bolton away tomorrow, expect a few players to be rested for that game.