Arsenal News

Although all eyes have been on a wonderful 2014 World Cup packed with high quality, end-to-end football, every Premier League are working hard behind the scenes to prepare themselves for the upcoming 2014/2015 season.

It could be an important summer for Arsenal who came so close to winning the title last season, but ultimately lacked the quality and durability to sustain their dominance at the summit.

Arsene Wenger has often came under criticism for failing to be active in the transfer market and address Arsenal’s problems, with injuries and suspensions exposing a relatively thin squad.

Qualifying for the Champions League for the 17th consecutive season should be a considerable selling point for Arsenal to attract big name players to the club to remain competitive.

This has become all the more important due to the fact that Arsenal’s closest challengers have already been active in the transfer market, with Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United spending big amounts of money to improve their respective squads.

Acquiring some star players could improve Arsenal’s odds with Betsafe and ensure they continue to compete with the big spenders.

Alexis Sanchez
The Chilean star has enjoyed a wonderful World Cup campaign with performances which further demonstrate the quality he provides for club and country.

An impressive debut season at Barcelona may not be enough for Alexis to remain at the Nou Camp, with many clubs across Europe keepings tabs on his situation as Luis Enrique may look to sell the pacey winger-cum-striker.

Signing Alexis should be seen as a coup for Arsenal who would secure a top quality player that would not only add more pace and creativity going forward, but also offer much-needed support for Olivier Giroud who, alongside Yaya Sanogo, is the only striker currently on the Gunners’ books.

Mathieu Debuchy
Losing Bacary Sagna to Manchester City has created a considerable void at right back which Arsene Wenger must address if Arsenal are to retain their defensive solidity. Although Carl Jenkinson is a dependable defender who has shown impressive progress, he is the only recognised right-back at the club.

Arsenal continues to be strongly linked with a move for Toulouse’s Serge Aurier, but it appears they have turned their attentions to Mathieu Debuchy. Newcastle would loathe losing one of their star assets, with the Frenchman enjoying a good debut season in the North East and is currently keeping Sagna out of the French team during the 2014 World Cup.

Debuchy’s ability to foray forward would fit perfectly into Arsenal’s system, but it may require a considerable transfer fee to persuade Newcastle to sell their star right back.

Mario Balotelli
Mercurial as he is controversial, Mario Balotelli is a livewire on and off the pitch. The Italy and AC Milan star carries a certain persona that may appear arrogant to some, but also symbolises the belief in his own ability as one of the best strikers in Europe.

Barbara Belusconi’s recent comments that Balotelli is not ‘irreplaceable’ have sparked rumours that the striker could be sold by AC Milan following a disappointing season in Serie A.

Arsenal may have to pay a considerable transfer fee to get their man, but Balotelli would represent an excellent signing that could make the all-important difference between finishing fourth and first.

Arsenal have been strongly linked with a move for Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata in recent weeks, with the forward apparently a long-term target for Arsene Wenger.

Madrid think Morata is a big player for the future, despite all the odds, he has not been a regular player for their first-team – and a transfer away in the coming months looks all but certain.

But with Arsenal believed to be his number one choice when he leaves the La Liga club – should Wenger bring him to the Emirates Stadium?

Morata brings power, strength and is a very good finisher, something that will be useful as Arsenal look to win the Premier League title next season.

But manyhave previously said that he is too similar to Olivier Giroud, while Yaya Sanogo and even flop Nicklas Bendtner also have similar qualities, something that the guys at MAB have also echoed within their following, showing that Morata could well split the fans opinion.

Morata is very talented but he would be very expensive – maybe even as much as £25million.

I’m not sure he’s worth that much, but he could be a very exciting option if Arsenal sign him up in the future.

We will see what happens when the transfer window re-opens in the summer but I think Gunners fans are definitely in for an exciting time with new players coming and going.

On-loan Arsenal youngster Joel Campbell has admitted he is desperate to make his mark with the Premier League club despite his goal-scoring heroics for Olympiakos against Manchester United.

The Costa Rican youngster scored a sensational second goal for the Greek side in their Champions League last-16 first leg against Manchester United to shock the Betfair odds, but the young forward wasted little time in admitting he is hoping his form for Olympiakos is enough to catch Wenger’s eye.

The Costa Rica international is playing in his third loan spell since signing with Arsenal in 2011, after Betfair fans began tipping the young forward to make the switch to the Premier League.

After season-long stays with French club Lorient and then Spanish side Real Betis, Campbell has spent this season playing in Greece with Olympiakos. With eight goals to his name for the Greek giants this season, Campbell is now looking to make his mark with his parent club at the Emirates Stadium when his time at Olympiakos ends.

“I am still hopeful of playing for Arsenal but I have not been given the chance yet, I hope to keep working at Olympiakos,” said the youngster.

“There are many things I can improve on though, I am 21 and I have to keep working. I am making sure that I take this opportunity.”

While this season would have been too early for Campbell to have made much of an impression at Arsenal, that’s not to say the 21-year old won’t be ready to make an impact on the first team next season.

The Betfair odds indicate Arsenal will be active in the transfer market this summer, but Campbell will be hoping to have done enough in his latest loan spell to warrant being given a chance by Wenger next season.

 

 

 

You can’t deny that Arsenal are enjoying a good season – regardless of whether they actually end up winning the Premier League title or not. The team seems more united, they are enjoying playing together and, for the first time in a while, the defence has been sorted out, which is giving us real chances in games.

However, as we enter the business end of the campaign, although the team is well settled, I think it’s time we made a change to our attack – by giving Serge Gnabry more of a chance in matches. The German has shown flashes of real quality in his fleeting appearances so far, along with matches in the Under-21 league. But I’d like to see him more, especially with Theo Walcott out injured.

We’re lacking real pace in matches when he’s not present and Gnabry’s game is based about speed and energy. Many punters would have used their Sports Betting Dime to tip Arsenal to fizzle out in the closing stages of the campaign, but the winger can change all of that.

He’s got fresh legs, spirit, energy and desire, and could give the team something a little different. Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere have been shifted to the wing in the past, while Tomas Rosicky and Santi Cazorla can also play there, but Gnabry is a natural wideman and he could do a better job.

It remains to be seen whether Arsene Wenger agrees. He probably doesn’t, thinking Gnabry is more a play for 18 months time, when he’s had a loan spells, possibly in the Premier League, but Serge has what it takes to step up now.

But forget experience, sometimes a raw, exciting player can give something special and that’s what we’re talking about here. Only time will tell, but the decision could help fire the club to glory this term, and that’s the best possible reason we could give as to why Serge Gnabry could be given more of a run in the Arsenal first-team between now and the end of the season.

Saturday’s 6-3 defeat to Manchester City showed exactly where Arsenal are lacking, especially against the big guns and also demonstrated how much hard work needs to be done if the Gunners are going to go on and upset the Titan Bet football betting odds by winning the title this season.

At 1-1 just before the break, the game was finely poised before Laurent Koscielny was taken off injured while trying to stop Alvaro Negredo’s scoring City’s second and the Frenchman now looks set for a spell on the sidelines after picking-up a nasty gash on his knee.

The news means Thomas Vermaelen is likely to get a run in the side but he is a man who currently looks a shadow of his former self. When he first arrived from Ajax the Belgian was magnificent and looked like one of the best defenders in the league, if not Europe.

However, the skipper has struggled in the last 12 months, losing his place in the starting XI and now appears to be a shadow of his former self, often being found off the pace, while also seeming to lack the same composure that he previously possessed.

We are already short in central defence and you feel that with Koscielny struggling, Wenger must add reinforcements in January.

The other area where there is a glaring need for a fresh face and an area which is being focused on in the transfer betting speculation is up front, where once again Olivier Giroud looked tired against City, while Nicklas Bendtner still appears some way off being an adequate understudy.

Bendtner did find the net at the Etihad, only for his effort to be ruled out but he still lacks the urgency and motivation needed to play at the highest level.

Real Madrid youngster Alavaro Morata has been mentioned as a possible loan signing in January and although the player has denied the rumours, he would fit the mould nicely as his physique will mean he has no issues adjusting to life in the Premier League

Arsenal still sit two points clear at the top of the table but if we don’t add in the New Year our dreams of claiming the title could be over sooner than we know it.

It’s the question on every Arsenal fan’s lips, and no doubt on the players and staff’s minds too: can the Gunners hold their nerve and make it to the Champions’ League knockout stages?

The state of play

At this very moment, things are looking good. Arsenal are sitting pretty at the top of a Group F which is anything but lacking in quality. On 9 points, we currently beat Napoli into second thanks to our goal difference of +3, compared to their total of just +1, whilst German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund lie third on six points after going down 1-0 to our boys in red and white. Meanwhile, whipping boys Marseille have yet to break their duck, on zero points four matches into the tournament. Sacre bleu…

This state of play puts us within touching distance of the Champions’ League 2014 group stages – just one win from the two remaining matches would surely do the trick. With only an out-of-their-depth Marseille and a manageable Napoli left to play, it’s hard to see how we could fail to qualify, provided we can replicate our peerless Premier League form. If we take down Marseille in our next clash (we’re odds on at 3/10 to do so), then whatever the result in the game between Napoli and Borussia Dortmund, there’ll be no catching us.

Can we win it?

It’s still early days to be talking about silverware, but it’s impossible not to start asking the even bigger question of just how far Arsenal can go in this tournament if we get through the group stages as expected. Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp reckons we can go the distance – if we avoid drawing Bayern Munich early in the knockout stages – and many of us seem to agree, with a significant 32 per cent of respondents to a recent Sky Sports poll predicting a semi-final appearance for the Gunners.

We’re dark horses alright, but we’re slowly creeping up towards the shorter odds of the Champions’ League contenders for outright victory. Our recent Premier League setback at Man U was a knock to our confidence, but on the basis of the great potential we’ve shown throughout the lion’s share of the season, you could do worse than place a bet on us to win outright the next time you’re playing online roulette or betting on the gee gees.

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Five points clear, a stellar midfield, in-form striker and a settled defence – this is the season to be cheerful for Gunners’ fans. But ask pretty much any of them and they’ll firmly shake their head when asked the question ‘So Arsenal, going to win the league this season?’ And that pessimism is backed up by the bookies.

There are two main external reasons for all this doom and gloom, spelled C-H-E-L-S-E-A and M-A-N C-I-T-Y respectively. And there’s an even larger internal one – Arsenal haven’t looked like a title-winning side since Patrick Vieira loped off into the sunset and they don’t look like one now.

Why? Here’s five reasons.

Injuries

Ah…the Arsenal defence. It’s good this season, thanks to the partnership between Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker at its heart. Throw in the under-rated and understated Kieran Gibbs and a resurgent Bacary Sagna and you’ve got a back four that’s finally working as a unit.

Koscielny has put in some excellent performances for Arsenal over the last couple of years. Just never many in a row. He’s consistent now and in Mertesacker he has a colleague who has finally found his feet in the Premiership, ie he’s stayed on them rather than frequently introducing his backside to the turf as in previous seasons.

But if either of them spend any kind of stretch on the treatment table, their replacements are not made of inspiring stuff.

Thomas Vermaelen used to be The One. Now he’s second choice and second-rate – the cruel result of too many injuries and a catastrophic dip in confidence.

And then there’s..erm, er, Sagna filling in? Or Isaac Hayden? Eighteen years old and unproven, he’s a boy for the future, not a man to slot seamlessly into a well-drilled unit.

When – not if, but when – either of the first choice centre halves gets injured, Arsenal’s defence will be as confused and exposed as they’ve been for many a long year.

More Injuries

Olivier Giroud – man mountain with a deft touch, scorer of headers and tap-ins, one-on-ones and dramatic left foot curlers. He’s the fulcrum of the Arsenal attack, with the strength to hold the ball up and just enough pace to get round the back.

He’s made Arsenal’s previously one-dimensional attack of ‘pass the ball into the net or nothing’ into a 3D offensive goalarama involving team goals, offside-bustng breaks and, finally, crosses into the box.

And if he gets injured…oh dear.

There’s Theo. When he’s fit. Pace galore but no more crosses or hold-up play.

And then there’s Lucas Podolski. When he’s fit. Best out wide and not the most consistent of performers.

And then there’s Nicklas Bendtner. The poor man’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic. A legend in his own head, a busted flush everywhere else.

Giroud had a perfectly decent first season in the Premiership and is enjoying a cracking second one.

He gives Arsenal options, he gives Arsenal goals. Without him, both of these things could dry up speedier than a sponge in the Sahara.

Midweek Misery

Arsenal’s Champions League group is a thing of horror. It’s tougher than a cheap steak and Arsenal’s home defeat to Borussia Dortmund was just as unpalatable.

A brilliant win away in Dortmund has left a much nicer taste – and led to a surprising claim by the German’s manager –  but their chances of making the knock-out stages are still not guaranteed, even if they beat group whipping boys Marseille at The Emirates next up.

A third-paced finish would leave the Gunners in a real mess. They’d have to play in the Europa League for starters, so fixture congestion would continue but for less glory and even less money.

And the effect on the squad’s confidence cannot be overstated.

The last time the Gunners failed to make the last 16, Tony Blair was still in power, people had MySpace pages and Jimmy Savile was a weird but harmless national treasure.

Exit at the group stages this season will undo all of the feel-good factor that Mesut Ozil’s signing created. The players will believe in themselves, and the club, that little bit less. And that’s all it will take for the nasty big boys at Chelsea, Man City et al to bully their way past the Gunners through winter and into the spring.

A Shattered Window

What a difference one signing makes.

One minute, Wenger’s insistence on not buying anyone costing more than a couple of packets of Pickled Onion Monster Munch was consigning the Gunners to another season competing for fourth place, the next Ozil had arrived!

Suddenly, Arsenal were a team to be reckoned with, not least among the players themselves.

Their mix of graft and goals in midfield is the most balanced in the league, so no need for any January additions there.

But United will be spending this New Year. Man City and Chelsea might well dip into their owners’ deep, deep pockets too.

And Wenger must react to all of that.

The squad is, at the very least, two defenders and another target man away from looking properly well-rounded.

The manager has been surprisingly bold in the January window recently, albeit with more than a whiff of panic about his dealings.

He needs to be bold again. And he needs to stop buying midfielders and teenage French-based strikers once and for all.

Think Small, Lose Big

The first-day aberration against Villa aside, Arsenal’s rare defeats this season have come against The Big Boys.

Chelsea in the Insert Sponsor Here League Cup and, rather more worryingly, Dortmund in the Champions League, had that ‘same old same old’ feel about them – Arsenal going well until they faced a truly top team.

There are two ways of looking at the 2-0 victory over Liverpool. It was either confirmation that Arsenal can now really mix it with a top four side or confirmation that Liverpool aren’t going to be a top four side for much longer.

And the win at Dortmund could be seen as evidence of the Germans’ decline as much as Arsenal’s improvement.

The upcoming games against United, City and Chelsea will shape Arsenal’s season, just as they always do.

Still, five points clear, a stellar midfield, in-form striker and a settled defence…you never know.

Hackney Marshes is one of the most infamous parts of London – with its long history of being the breeding ground for some of English football’s greatest ever players.

David Beckham and Bobby Moore have both trained on the Marshes before going on to captain England, while countless other players have used the turf as a means of carving out a career.

But Hackney Marshes could soon became famous for something else – after Mysterious Circles appeared in recent days.

The giant spheres arrived earlier this week, along with hundreds of mini ones, all of which contain strange markings. It’s not clear how or why they have arrived, but stunned joggers and dog walkers were among the first to discover them earlier in the morning.

The local media is now speculating that these strange arrivals could possibly be the first steps of an alien invasion.

It seems a little far fetched, but nobody seems to know how the objects appeared, and many experts have suggested that such strange occurences are how alien lifeforms would introduce themselves.

So are we about to be taken over by aliens? It’s hard to say, but readers are being urged to down to Hackney Marshes and check out the new arrivals for themselves. And please, report back to us on what you find.

Write comments in the comment section below, or tweet using the hashtag: #WINNERTAKESEARTH. All the speculation at the moment is that something will happen soon, with an update set to follow.

There’s something out there – go and check out it out for yourselves!

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