My Arsenal Blog

Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal players took a giant leap towards continuing the fantastic record of the Gunners with the Frenchman at the helm. They might not have won a trophy for eight long years now, but if they handed out cups for getting in the Champions League, the trophy cabinet at the Emirates would be heaving.

By beating Wigan Athletic by a healthy four goals to one at the Emirates last night, and relegating Roberto Martinez and his FA cup winners, Arsenal are now just two points behind Chelsea with an inferior goal difference of just one. Chelsea have to play the Europa League final against Benfica from Portugal tonight in the Amsterdam Arena and they are guaranteed a top four finish already.

That makes the likelihood of them winning the final game of the season against Everton at Stamford Bridge a lot slimmer, although the bookies have them at odds of 8/13 in the betting with Unibet (Check out their new 3 strikes bet!). The draw at 14/5 or an Everton win at 9/2 look a lot more appealing to me, especially as the Toffees will want to give David Moyes a good send off. Benitez and the players will have exhausted themselves to win the Europa trophy last night and will struggle to produce the same form just a few days later after celebrating their last-gasp win.

If Arsenal beat Newcastle United on Sunday, which is at 8/15 on, they will definitely finish above Tottenham again. That is why the odds of being in the top four are 4/11 on, while Spurs are at 23/10 even though they are strong 1/3 favourites to beat Sunderland at White Hart Lane.

Bookies still think Chelsea will finish third, with odds of 4/13 on that they will do so, but if Arsenal beat their result and overhaul them, the odds of 13/5 look very tasty. There is a chance, if Chelsea draw and Arsenal win by a single goal, that the two teams could finish on the same points and the same goal difference and goals scored. There would then, apparently, be a play-off to decide who finishes third and avoids a qualifying Champions League tie. I’m afraid I cannot find any odds for that happening.

Because of the recent run of excellent for for the Gunners, which has got us into this position in the league, any talk of Arsene Wenger leaving the club this summer has gone away. The odds of the Frenchman being in charge at the start of the season are a measly 1/25 on. In the world of modern football and with recent events at City and United in Manchester, Wenger is now the longest serving Premier League manager by a country mile.

Hopefully that continuity and the recent form will help us push on next season and finally end that trophy drought. The odds of that happening are 9/4.

The young French centre-back Laurent Loscielny seems to have replaced Thomas Vermaelen as first choice in the Arsenal starting XI after his performance against Bayern Munich in midweek, and his pairing with Per Mertesacker was confirmed in yesterdays game against Sweansea where we yet again kept a clean sheet.

Wenger explained why he had to stick to Vermaelen for most of the season up til now. He said: “Koscielny was outstanding on Wednesday night,”

“He has shown a bit more authority than usual and when he gets into that frame of mind, you can see he has outstanding qualities. It’s something I know he has but he needs that authority in his game to get his qualities completely out.

“He says that he was disturbed in his preparation in pre-season. In our final game in Cologne, he had a calf injury. It took him a long, long time to come back and after that he had many setbacks through the season.

“And every time he was close to coming back, he had another injury or sickness. He was sick a lot this year.”

Arsenal have now won the last games with 2-0 scorelines, and if you want to bet that they can do this yet again in the next game against Reading, then you should first check this link for betting bonus information before parting with your cash. I would certainly lay some money on Arsenal keeping a clean sheet again now that Koscielny is back in the defence!

Everybody knows that Arsenal are having a tough season, and it got a whole lot worse last night. The 3-1 home defeat by Bayern Munich left the Gunners almost guaranteed to suffer another season without any silverware, unless Wenger can orchestrate a miracle in Munich. The odds against us getting through to the last eight are 25/1. Please remember that if you are crazy enough to back Arsenal to get through make sure you use UK responsible gambling resources!

The only thing that Arsenal have to play for now is a top four spot which will guarantee a place in next season’s Champions league. Wenger has achieved this year after year, but we are currently sitting in fifth, four points behind Tottenham and five behind Chelsea. With 12 games of the season left there is plenty of time, and Arsenal made up a bigger gap last year, but the bookies have Tottenham as slight favourites to keep their spot this time around. They are slightly odds on at 4/5 while Arsenal are 11/10 to do it.

It seems as if the nerves of the Arsenal players and fans are starting to give the bookies second thoughts. Wenger’s press conference rant will not have helped either, as he has always been calm and authoritative before. Maybe they are not convinced that Wenger can get the Arsenal team back up and feeling positive and confident after such a disappointing week, although we are still heavy favourites to beat Aston Villa at the Emirates on Saturday.

However disgruntled the Arsenal fans are, however, the bookies feel that the board will not sack Wenger, as the Frenchman is still 4/11 on to be in charge of the Gunners at the start of next season.

5 managers who could replace Arsene Wenger this summer

There’s a chance that Arsenal might be looking for a new manager at the end of the season and they wouldn’t be short of quality applicants

All good things must come to an end and that includes Arsene Wenger’s tenure at Arsenal FC. While the Frenchman might still be in charge in ten years’ time, there is also the possibility that Wenger might choose the end of this current season as a chance to step down after taking charge in 1996.

If the 63-year-old decided to leave, who would replace him? We can think of five men that might be interested in taking over the mantle.

• David Moyes

Moyes has been linked with the Chelsea and Manchester United manager’s position, although the Scot could be interested in a fresh challenge at the Emirates Stadium instead. While Arsenal aren’t a big-spending Premier League club, they do have bigger budgets than Everton and the Toffees boss knows how to operate within financial parameters as Wenger has done so successfully over the years.

• Diego Simeone

Simeone is probably best known in England for being kicked by David Beckham during the 1998 World Cup, although the Argentine is fast making a name for himself as a top-class manager and is doing very well with Atletico Madrid this season. He took charge in 2011 and could be interested in taking a high-profile job in England, with age on his side at 42.

• Steve Bould

Perhaps Arsenal will decide to promote from within and how about the man who is perched next to Wenger in the dug-out every week? Bould is Arsenal’s assistant manager and replaced Pat Rice in the summer, with the 50-year-old now potentially being groomed for the top position. He knows the club inside out having been Head Youth Team Coach at the successful Arsenal Academy.

• Malky Mackay

Everything Mackay has done during his managerial career to date has turned to gold. He was working wonders with a shoestring budget at Watford before taking charge of Cardiff City and his team are well clear at the top of the Championship and destined for the Premier League. If Brendan Rodgers can earn a move to a club like Liverpool, then Arsenal could come in for the Scot.

• Rudi Garcia

“Arsene Who” was the headline when Wenger replaced George Graham and the same might apply here, with Garcia currently in charge of Lille where he won the league and cup double in 2011. The 48-year-old has previously managed Saint-Etienne, Dijon and Le Mans, having built up a solid understanding of French football and might look to transfer his skills to north London.

Written by Matthew Glazier from Bettingpro.com.

Yes, yes, I know, the season is over and you are sad because there’s no more football to watch now for a while and because your most favorite team is out of action until pre-season starts, but there’s still a few bucks you can make till then through betting, and I’m not talking about betting on EURO 2012 games.

Arsenal might bring you a few bucks in the summer as well if you have your predictions right, because there are loads of bets out there for those who think they know who is going to join the club and who is going to leave.

Robin Van Persie
The hottest topic of the moment is Van Persie’s contract talk, as the Dutch striker just snubbed the first set of negotiations. The betting houses give him a 1.62 odd of staying and a 1.88 odd of leaving this summer, so they still think Arsenal’s captain will still be with us next season!

Niklas Bendtner
It’s still about transfers, as Niklas Bendtner’s future with the club is about to come to an abrupt end, and Borussia Dortmund seem to be the favorites to landing him, with a 2/1 odds. Stoke and Celtic follow with 9 and 11 odds of landing the Danish international striker.

Shinji Kagawa
Dortmund’s deal with Arsenal may extend to Kagawa as well, as the Japanese midfielder’s chances of joining the Gunners are rated with a 4/1 odd, while Man United seem to be the most favorites to land him.

These are just a few bets you can make which are sure to bring you quite a nice income. Arsenal is looking to reconstruct, but they’ll surely want to keep Robin as long as possible. What do you think will happen?

The way the next season and the transfer window campaign will go for the Gunners is all up to the last game of the season. A loss could potentially mean losing the third spot, and even the fourth, given the fact that Newcastle and Tottenham are breathing down their necks.

If Arsenal do fall off the third place their transfer season would have been ruined, and if it wasn’t enough that Wenger isn’t a big fan of big money transfers, the fans will now have to accept the idea that the club can’t invest having lost the Champions League participation (and funds).

In the game against West Bromwich the Gunners have a 1.7 odd of winning, which is not a small one by any means especially considering the fact that they are likely to give their all for the three points, so this seems like a sure bet at first sight.

WBA has a 5.5 odd of winning the game, and having drifted a long way away the relegation zone it’s safe to say that they won’t be fighting tooth and nail in the last game of the season, as everybody’s eager to see it over and leave for a nice long vacation.

Betting on Arsenal is probably the best thing you can do this weekend, so good luck and let’s hope the Gunners will be smart enough to secure third place.

Arsenal seem to have run out of steam now as they drew with Chelsea and Stoke after losing the previous match against Wigan, and the Gunners still need to remain focused because Tottenham and Newcastle are still breathing down their neck with two games to go.

Tottenham managed to beat Bolton and they have come to within a one point deficit behind Arsenal, and now that Chelsea are in the Champions League final, nobody can guarantee that the 4th spot in the Premiership will lead to the CHL groups.

Arsenal are due to meet Norwich on Saturday, and the odds seem to be in their favor. The home ground advantage and the fact that the Gunners will probably be highly motivated to win the game in order to keep a safe distance from Tottenham, have persuaded bookies to offer them just a 1/3 chance of winning the game, while Norwich will bring you as much as a 14/1 odds of winning the match.

Placing a bet on Van Persie to improve on his goal tally will bring you a an even money bet, while a bit more trust in the captain and a bet on a hat-trick from the Flying Dutchman would bring you brilliant odds of around 9/1, and would also nearly assure him of the Golden Boot award for this season.