Just Arsenal News

Rub your eyes, Arsenal fans, pinch yourself and splash your face with cold water, then read the headline again. Is it still the same? Yes, and it is not April 1st, so what on Earth is going on? Maybe whoever wrote this story originally had shaky hands from the night before, or his dog barked as he was typing and he hit an extra zero, because 100 million euros is silly money for anybody, never mind Remy Cabella.

Montpellier have had a shocking follow up season the their historic title win last year. They finished ninth, a massive 28 points behind the champions PSG, and it seems to have affected the sanity of their deputy chairman, Laurent Nicollin. .......Read the full article here

Most Arsenal fans seem to agree that the Gunners definitely need a top top top striker, a hard defensive midfielder and maybe a new goalkeeper to improve us for next season, but if Wenger finally actually manages to get rid of most of our deadwood this summer then we may need more than a few players to make up the numbers of squad players.

Just as an example, I have been looking at the midfielders that Wenger had in the squad at the beginning of the season after selling Alex Song, and here is the full list: .......Read the full article here

So we now face the final game of the season, and Arsene Wenger knows that Arsenal simply need to win at Newcastle to confirm our place in the Top Four for the 17th season in a row. But which team is Wenger going to pick?

There are certain to be changes from last week’s nervous home win over Wigan, as the Spaniard Mikel Arteta is nigh on a certain casualty. Wenger said yesterday: “For the weekend, we have the uncertainty over Mikel Arteta, who had to come off just before the end of the Wigan game with a calf strain. Honestly, his chances of being available are minimal. I have to be realistic and prepare for another solution.” .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger has not announced his Arsenal team sheet for the crucial last game of the season yet, but it does no take a genius to work out that Olivier Giroud will come straight back into the starting XI to face Newcastle United. The big French international was sent off against Fulham and the FA rejected the Gunners appeal, even though it was clear from the replays that he had got the ball and slipped.

Lukas Podolski has grown into the role in the three games Giroud has missed, especially with his double against Wigan, but he will be back out on the left again on Sunday, if he plays at all. The manager is usually cautious about saying whether a player will be in the team but, when he spoke about Giroud today, he used the word will rather than might. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger must be fairly confident that he will have no problem holding on to his best Arsenal players this summer. Despite being stung in the past, he seems to be secure in the belief that the Arsenal board will not be tempted to accept a good offer for one of the stars at the Emirates.

Even so, I am not sure it is such a good idea to remind potential suitors just how good Santi Cazorla has been for the Gunners this season. The Spanish international showed his class again on Tuesday by setting up all four goals against Wigan in a Man of the Match performance, but Wenger feels the 28-year old has not got the credit he deserves in England. .......Read the full article here

The latest player to be linked with Arsenal is Fiorentina’s Spanish midfielder Borja Valero. Valero is said to be waiting to see if Arsenal or Tottenham will win the last Champions League spot before making a decision on which club he will join, according to Marca.

Arsene Wenger is wanting to strengthen his midfield this summer along with most other areas of the team and he believes Borja Valero would fit in with the players already at the club. He played at Villareal with Santi Cazorla for a while a couple of seasons back and they regularly combined well to create chances and score great goals. .......Read the full article here

Sharing is caring; Arsenal’s high scoring forwards by DG

If I were to ask you which Premier League team has four players that have scored more than 10 league goals this season, which would you guess? Man Utd only have two – RVP and Rooney. Man City? Two – Dzeko and Aguero. Chelsea actually manage three, but only if we include Demba Ba’s goals for Newcastle in the first half of the season. No, the only team to hold that particular record is Arsenal. Walcott has 14, which is quite impressive considering he missed a large portion of the early season. Cazorla has popped up with 12 which is a fantastic return from midfield, especially in his first season at the club. As well as these, both Giroud and Podolski have now netted 11 times each in the league. Spoilt for choice? You better believe it. .......Read the full article here

I know that the title of this article sounds obvious, but there were rumours yesterday that Arsenal’s Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla could be one of the first targets for the new manager at Manchester City, assuming that the rumours are true and it is going to be Manuel Pellegrini from Malaga.

Pellegrini clearly did not want to sell Cazorla to Arsenal last summer, but the financial starits that Malaga were in left him no choice. He said at the time that the 15 million euros we paid for the Spanish international was an awful bit of business by Malaga and was like a gift. And we all say thank you ver much Manuel, or should that be Muchas Gracias? .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger has a few decisions to make in his selection for the Arsenal team that travels north to St. James’ Park on Sunday in the hope of beating Newcastle United and ensuring a top four finish, at least. The Prof will not want to change too much with the Gunners being on a fabulous run, especially with last night’s goal-fest against Wigan.

Wenger may not have the option of keeping the same starting 11, however, if the calf injury picked up by the Spanish midfielder and vice-captain, Mikel Arteta, turns out to be as bad as first feared. Wenger suggested in his post match interview last night that it would be Jack Wilshere who replaces Arteta if necessary, but that comes with it’s own problems. .......Read the full article here

This was always going to be ab open and exciting game, with Arsenal and Wigan needing to win for different reasons. Arsene Wenger made just one change, with Gibbs coming in for Monreal and the young England international did brilliantly against one of Wigan’s main threats Callum Mcmanaman.

Arsenal made a great start and looked like they were going to blow Wigan out of the water. Walcott was really in the mood and was tormenting them down the right flank. It was one of Theo’s crosses that produced the corner that led to the opening goal. Podolski, playing as centre forward got a proper striker’s goal from it. .......Read the full article here

This is the big one for Arsenal. After Newcastle United won at the weekend, they are safe from relegation, while Wigan have to win both of their remaining games to stand any chance of being in the Premier League next season. So both teams absolutely must win at the Emirates tonight.

It will be a test of nerve as well as ability, which Arsenal have shown a lot of since losing the North London derby over two months ago. The Gunners unbeaten run has put a top four finish in our own hands and now we have to keep it together and finish the job. Wigan, however, have shown their own resilience in the face of adversity, losing just once in the same time period and producing a great performance to lift the FA cup. .......Read the full article here

As the season comes to a close, I feel it may be time to give your Arsenal player ratings for the season (I don’t want to think about tomorrow’s game to be honest!) It’s been a funny old season, with some players starting poorly and improving, some just not performing and some playing very well. Others have been wildly inconsistent.

Anyway, feel free to disagree, but here are my ratings for the season. Unless someone bangs in two hat-tricks for the Gunners in the last games, I doubt they will change. .......Read the full article here