My Arsenal Blog

Arsenal are today closing in on moves for several strikers as they aim to spend money this summer to restore faith in the fans. The moves are being completed quickly in case of the clubs failure to qualify for the Champions League and then a possible failure to attract the players they want.

Stevan Jovetic from Fiorentina is looking like the most likely of the deals to happen as the two clubs ave been in talks for around a month now, apparently, and an agreement with the club and the player are seemingly complete. Jovetic would be a welcome signing in North London as he is a tricky attacking player who has excellent technical skills and as he has proved recently he can be a prolific goalscorer. I feel as though he would link up excellently with Theo Walcott on the wing or even in the centre, he is a similar player to Cazorla as well but he is more advanced on the pitch.

Edin Dzeko from Manchester City also looks to be on his way out and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger may be interested if he can get the Bosnian at a bargain price. Dzeko showed excellent goalscoring ability earlier in the season but has since been dropped again in favour of Tevez and Aguero. I think there would be no need to buy Dzeko unless Giroud was on his way out of the Emirates, This may be the case as Wenger would not want two similar strikers in his squad like Giroud and Dzeko.

It is also being reported that Arsenal are going to make an unexpected move for Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski. It was thought that Lewandowski was close to signing for Bayern Munich or Manchester United but if Arsenal have made a late bid it must be a spectacular one. This would be a great statement to the fans if a deal for the Pole really is on the cards and may change people’s minds about Arsenal.

Ever since Olivier Giroud got sent off against Fulham, Arsenal fans were clamouring for Lukas Podolski to be given the centre-forward role for the future, but after the German was hardly seen in the game against Man United, perhaps the enthusiasm has waned.

But Arsene Wenger seems convinced that the German international is the right man for the job going forward, despite his no-show in last weeks game. Wenger said: “He has the qualities because he is a good finisher,”

“He has a good technique and because we have a game based on very quick combinations, I believe he can be a part of that. Overall I am convinced in the coming games he will show it.

“A definite decision has not been made, but if there is an opportunity then there is a good chance I will do it.”

There is the problem with some surgery that Podolski needs in the summer, but if he can play through the pain (and improve after last week!) we all know he has the talent to be a brilliant centre-forward. Surely he has to better than Giroud in the end?

Or should Walcott be given another chance to shine?

Arsene Wenger knows that he needs to sign some top quality players in the summer, or as he puts it, `top, top, top, top players. The current top wage at the Emirates is around £100,000 a week for Theo Walcott and Lukas Podolski, but that will not be enough to persuade some of Europe’s best to join the Gunnersespecially when they know they can earn the equivalent of winning the jackpot at www.MansionCasino.com every week if they join Chelsea or Man City.

According to the Telegraph, Arsenal officials are aware of the problem and are ready to tear up the rulebook this summer in order to land the players that Wenger thinks will make his team able to compete with the very best again. One of those players is the young German star Mario Gotze. The 20-year old is a real talent, and apparently has a release clause of around £30 million in his contract with Dortmund, so the transfer fee is known, but just because Arsenal offer to pay it does not mean that Gotze will agree to the move, or that another club will not make the same offer but with better personal terms. The same can probably be said for another top target, the striker Stevan Jovetic from Fiorentina has been linked with a number of big European clubs.

Arsenal will, therefore, be looking to offload a number of players who are surplus to requirements, such as Djourou and Santos, as well as seeing the end of the contracts of Squillachi and Arshavin. They may not get much, if any, money for these players, but their wages will help us to attract the new stars.

It is unlikely that Arsenal will get anywhere near the silly money paid out by Chelsea and Man City, but at least the club is ready to change it’s ways to compete.

The Arsenal winger Theo Walcott got a rare start in a League game yesterday against Tottenham, but he was instrumental in helping the Gunners to a 5-2 and even scored the final goal when moved into the centre-forward position towards the end.

Tottenham took the lead early on but Arsenal took over after Adebayor was sent off (even I took advantage as I was given some free football bets and backed Arsenal to win after Adebayor gave Spurs the lead!) and Walcott believes that the Gunners fully deserved all three points.

“I think the better team won,” he said. “They did have some good patches but in the grand scheme of things I think we deserved to win.

“We were very ruthless going forward and had five different goalscorers, which hasn’t happened for a while.

“It’s funny that it’s the same scoreline as last year – who would have thought that?”

Walcott was then asked if confidence had been very low in the Arsenal dressing room after their recent run of bad results, and he replied: “It has been up and down,”

“I am starting to get back into the team, and we have people like Santi Cazorla who has shone in his first season in England, Olivier Giroud is starting to show what he can do, Lukas Podolski is getting goals which is very useful and we have Jack [Wilshere] back.

“I think the confidence has always been there. But this was a massive win for us.”

Let’s all hope that, like last season, the 5-2 win over our greatest rivals will help us kick on and salvage something from this season (Fourth place and a League Cup trophy anyone?)

Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger claims that nothing will motivate him to force Wilshere into a speedy comeback, after the English midfielder was out for the whole length of last season with a recurring injury to his ankle.

“It is impossible to set a concrete deadline at the moment,” Wenger told the club’s official website.

“But it is all OK. He is as quick as we expected him to be. His ankle is good and his knee is good. There is no setback.”

“It difficult to say ‘it will be this week in September or October’ when he is back in training. He has been out for a year and I don’t want to put any pressure on him.”

The Frenchman believes that Arsenal will have a strong side for their travels to Asia where the Gunners will play their pre-season games.

“Some players like Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain, they travel. Song, Diaby, Vermaelen, Santos, Gibbs, Szczesny, they will all travel,” said Wenger.

“So will Gervinho – we have a very strong team out there. Rosicky is injured. Apart from that I think everybody travels.”

“Emmanuel (Frimpong) is doing very well. It will be the end of September or perhaps into October for him.”

According to Wenger, full-back Backary Sagna is also likely to join the team at the end of August once he has recovered from the broken leg injury he suffered at the end of the season.

“He is doing very well. There are no problems there. But it will be the end of August for him.”

Arsenal will probably look a lot better this season than they have recently now that they will recover the likes of Sagna and Wilshere and they also bought Podolski and Giroud. Arsene Wenger is now focusing in bringing at least another midfielder, but if Robin Van Persie chooses to leave the Frenchman will have to face a whole new set of problems.

Arsenal’s winger Theo Walcott seems to have gone through a change of heart now that he’s on the road with the team again. Being highly linked with a departure from the Emirates Stadium, with clubs like Juventus and Liverpool on his trail, the English International has spoken like a true Gunner once he arrived in Asia where Arsenal will play their pre-season friendlies.

“I am dead excited – it is great to see the fans,” Walcott told Arsenal Player. “It means lot to them because they never really get to see us in person.”

“As players we get to see a different side to the game, seeing fans who may never be able to come to Emirates. It makes their dreams come true and that is what we want to do.”

“They love the Club so much, they love the players and they want to be close to us. They’re proper fans and all want the Club to do well. It is fantastic for us to see another side of it.”

Arsene Wenger could do with a break from losing his top stars. He lost Fabregas and Nasri last season and is now in danger of losing Robin and Walcott, so it would be great to see Walcott stay at least if Robin does choose to leave in the end.

Perhaps this transfer window won’t be so bad after all?

The England manager Roy Hodgson has already lost Gary Cahill, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and John Ruddy out of his squad through injury, and Arsenal’s Theo Walcott is still slowly recovering from his hamstring injury picked up before the end of the season.

The winger has admitted that injuries have been bugging him for a few years and says that he is trying hard not to think about it, but obviously not doing well because he has spoken about it on Sky Sports!

“We try not to think about these injuries because ever since I had my shoulder operation, if I tend to think about injuries then I’ll get injured myself,” said Walcott.

“So I think the most important thing is everyone trusts each other and trains well.

“We’ve been very unlucky, but with the players that have come in for the players who had the injuries they’re always going to do very well and be very positive.”

“I’m starting to get there. A hamstring injury’s a bit of a pain in the backside to be honest. But I’m training really hard and looking after myself.

“The good thing is that I’m not trying to kill myself before the tournament as well and I’m starting to ease my way back into things.

“I’m sure, come the tournament, I’ll be ready to go.”

In the two England warm-up games, Walcott has been brought on in the second half. Hopefully Hodgson is just being careful not to aggravate his hamstring, or intends to just use him as an impact sub. Walcott hopes he can be in the First XI. “If you come off the bench as an attacking player, you want to make a difference,” he said.

“Hopefully, we’ve given that sort of option to the manager if needed. But we’ll train hard and just see if we can get in the starting line-up.”

Just make sure you dont come back with a worse injury than the one you went with theo!

The Arsenal winger Theo Walcott isn’t afraid of the competition he’s being brought by new Gunner wonderkid Oxlade-Chamberlain, although the English international claims that their roles in the team differ quite a lot.

Walcott seems to think that the two of them can coexist perfectly together on the pitch, given that even though their talents are quite alike, the Ox is not really a winger.

“It’s always great to have competition. You want to play well, you want the team to play well and to have other players around keeps you on your toes.

“Alex is a good lad and we get on very well. He gets on with his job and he is learning the game. But we are totally different players, to be honest.

“He’s told me that he’s an attacking midfield player, that he likes to play just behind the striker in that free role. And I can see that because he’s very powerful when he gets the ball.”

That also seems to be what Wenger thinks, as the Frenchman is really trying to force the young player to become an offensive midfielder, because according to him that’s where Arsenal would be able to exploit his potential the most in the future.

Arsene Wenger believes that the Arsenal fans were instrumental in helping the Gunners recover from their terrible start this season, despite the anger shown at the end of last season’s campaign and the beginning of this one.

“I believe our fans at home are much better this season than last season,” he said. “After a difficult start to the season they understood quickly that we needed their support and they changed their attitude.

“Overall, during the season, especially since January, they have been really behind the team and it helped us in many games.”

But it also a fact that the Arsenal supporters shout louder when the team is winning, just as Wenger emphasised a couple of weeks ago.

“I always said that the vibes have to come out from the team,” he said.

“When the fans feel that the vibes are right they stand behind the team and support the team. With the recent history of the team having been more positive, the fans have more reason to believe that they can support the team and that they will win the game.

“But the dynamic always has to come from the team.”

Theo Walcott also thinks the fans have been brilliant recently and have helped Arsenal become unbeatable at the Emirates. He said: “The fans expect us to win every game, and we expect to go out there, play our best and we feel we can win every game.

“The Emirates is starting to become a fortress, which is what we want it to be. That is with the help of the fans, they develop that.

“Away fans and players don’t like to come to the Emirates, especially over the last few months. It helps us players, it is like having an extra man on the field.”

Lets all hope that the team gives us lots to shout about tomorrow!

Arsenal’s war with their biggest rivals Tottenham is reaching new extents this season now that the Spurs are ahead in the league table with 11 games to go until the end of the season.

After the last matchday, when the Gunners won against Newcastle at the end of a brilliant performance by Wenger’s players, and Tottenham lost against Everton, Walcott threatened the Spurs that they won’t be on top of Arsenal for much longer.

“Tottenham have got to be watching over their shoulders now,” Walcott told Sky Sports.

Tottenham didn’t fail to reply to the statement, and being one point ahead of Arsenal in the league, their England midfielder Scott Parker said: “I wouldn’t say we’re worried one bit.”

“We’re focused. We need to win football matches. That’s it.

This comes after a bet Wilshere placed with Defoe and the fans of the two clubs. The fans of the club which finishes lower in the league will have to each pay One Pound each to charity. This bet was invented by Wilshere after the Spurs defeated Arsenal in the first leg of the season, and then Defoe increased the wager betting some of his own money against the Gunners fans.

Who do you think will win that bet? ARSENAL!

Check out the next three matches for Arsenal’s rivals here