Just Arsenal News

It is nearly certain that Arsenal will be without their captain Cesc Fabregas for the return leg of the Champions League against Porto this week, as he has damaged the same hamstring the same hamstring that kept him out for a month earlier in the season.

Arsene Wenger said about Fabregas last night: “He has a hamstring problem and we don’t know how big the damage is yet because it is too early. We’ll see tomorrow or Monday. We have to make a late decision over whether he plays on Tuesday, certainly. It is the same hamstring he hurt before.” Read the full article here

The Porto goalkeeper Helton has revealed that his Porto team have been closely monitoring Arsenal’s recent form, and they believe that Arsene Wenger’s team is not as strong in attack as they have been in recent years.

After losing Robin Van Persie, Arsenal will now have to visit Portugal without Andrei Arshavin as well, and Helton believes this will enable Porto to keep a clean sheet in the home leg.

He said: “We’ve been watching ­Arsenal’s last few games closely and they’re not as strong as they’ve been in recent years. That can be to our advantage. Read the full article here

There is yet another Arsenal youngster coming through the ranks with great promise, and he must suely be guaranteed stardom with a name like Tom Cruise.

But when Arsene Wenger was asked if he had “star quality”, like the famous actor, Wenger said he only knew of one Tom Cruise, his one!

“You’re used to it,” he said. “For me, there’s only one Tom Cruise – and he is the one who plays for Arsenal!”

“If you’re in his boots you don’t think for a second at the start of the season that you’ll play in the Champions League. I believe he’s a very good footballer.” Read the full article here

The Arsenal midfielder Andrei Arshavin has been his usual full and frank self, and has spoken about how upset he was that his transfer to Barcelona fell through before Arsene Wenger snapped him up for Arsenal.

“The most beautiful football isn’t here, but at Barcelona,” Arshavin said. “But after them, perhaps Arsenal.”

“We are probably missing two top players.”

It was a well-known fact that Barcelona has always been Arshavin’s favourite team from when he was a lad, and the Spanish giants had tried to buy Arshavin after the Euro2008 tournament. Arshavin’s club, Zenit St Petersburg, refused to lower their price to the £12m valuation that Barca had offered, so he was then asked if he rued missing out on the move to Spain. Read the full article here

AZ Alkmaar host Arsenal in tonight’s Champions League match, and will be trying to retain a record that has seen them lose just once at home in Europe in their history.

Dutch sides of 15-20 years ago were very successful in Europe, (Ajax were the last winners from Holland in 1995), but Arsene Wenger believes those glory days are over, and he knows why too!

“It is down to money,” he said.

“The difference between Holland today and 15 years ago is that the players leave early and the top foreign players don’t come to Holland anymore, and go somewhere else because of the difference in financial potential. Read the full article here

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes that he has stuck to his philosophy and built a young team capable of winning the Champions League.

I a wide-ranging interview with L’Equipe, he also said that he turned down a massive offer to coach Real Madrid because he has promised to be successful with this team he has built from scratch, rather than buy a team to do the job.

“Real is the club of my childhood. When I was a kid, watching those guys in white, winning everything, then of course I am attracted by that club, but I have a pact with the young players of my team, and I want to succeed with that bet,” Wenger said. Read the full article here

Arsenal didn’t look like they needed any new players today, even with all the injured players out, and when Arsene Wenger has a fully fit squad to choose from they should be capable of competing against the best.

But the latest Arsenal transfer news is that Marouane Chamakh is still waiting for his chance to join the Gunners just won’t go away, but is there room for him in the team at the moment?

The Daily Mail seems to think it is a done deal. They reported tonight: Marouane Chamakh’s tortuous transfer from Bordeaux is now likely to be completed in January with Arsenal still the most likely club to sign him, despite interest from Juventus. Read the full article here

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says his team were “caught cold” in the first five minutes of the game against Standard Liege, but praised his team for putting in the effort to come back against a very motivated opponent.

He told Sky Sports: “It was hard work because we got a big blow from the start, we were 2-0 down.

“They started sharper maybe, they caught us cold. We were a bit slow at the start and they took advantage of it. Read the full article here

It seems that UEFA are taking the furore over Eduardo’s “dive” against Celtic very seriously, and have charged him with “deceiving the referee” in Arsenal’s Champions League Qualifier against Celtic. He is practically certain to miss Arsenal’s first two games in the Group Stages as he has already been judged and found guilty by all TV pundits from here to Gomorrah!

UEFA said in a statement: “Having studied video evidence of the incident in question, the UEFA disciplinary inspector decided to charge the player concerned.

“The UEFA control and disciplinary body will examine the case on September 1.” Read the full article here

The Scottish Football Association chief Gordon Smith has accused Eduardo of “disrespect” to football, and called on UEFA to give him a retrospective ban for his dive against Celtic last night.

Smith was incensed after watching Celtic’s hopes of going through dashed when Eduardo apparently fell over in the box, despite not coming into contact with the Celtic keeper.

Smith said: “Eduardo is a terrific player who has battled back from a serious injury to resume playing at the highest level.

“However, last night he showed disrespect to the game by his actions in winning a penalty against Celtic. Read the full article here