Just Arsenal News

Given the impression that substitutes James Milner and Shaun Wright Phillips made during the second half of England’s 3-1 victory over Egypt, combined with the early season form of the currently injured Spurs winger Aaron Lennon, Theo Walcott’s performance against Egypt has come under much scrutiny, with many suggesting that the Arsenal man may have blown his chances of making the plane to South Africa in the summer on the back of a disappointing first half performance.

CAPELLO OFFERS ENCOURAGEMENT Read the full article here

The Arsenal winger Theo Walcott has finally managed to string a few performances together, after suffering injury after injury since the beginning of the season, but now he really believes he is fit enough to make an impression on Arsenal, and hopefully the England coach Fabio Capello.

Walcott was replaced by Sean Wright-Phillips in the England game against Egypt in midweek, and he realises that he is not guaranteed a place in Capello’s World Cup squad yet.

“Without a doubt, there’s a lot of competition.” Walcott said, “We want all our players back 100% fit and I’m just finding my feet now with my fitness.” Read the full article here

I couldn’t help but laugh at the English manager Fabio Capello’s comments about Theo Walcott.

After picking the Arsenal winger for the England squad to face Egypt next week, Capello admitted that Walcott was not yet back to his form of last season, and said he needed more games to get his confidence back.

“I saw the last game Theo played,”Capello said.”He was on for 72 minutes and did very well, but he is not in a fantastic moment,”

“He needs to regain confidence because he has lost a lot of balls. He is getting better and better, but he needs to play.” Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger has an unusual outlook on the “John Terry screwing Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend” saga, and although it doesn’t have anything to do with Arsenal, the Frenchman has made a couple of statements about the scandal.

His latest word is that Wayne Bridge is standing on sticky ground by saying he is withdrawing from the England team for the World Cup, and he believes that Bridge could be forced to play, or suspended from domestic football.

It seems there was a precedent set in France, when the ex-Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele retired from the France team, but the FFF threatened him with suspension if he refused to play. Read the full article here

Wayne Bridge’s surprise withdrawal from the England squad has left a big hole at left-back for the World Cup, especially as the disgraced Ashley Cole has already succumbed to injury.

So who will be picked to play alongside the (also disgraced!) John Terry in the final choice? At the moment it seems to rest on who will be available, and according to Arsene Wenger, the young Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs could recover from his broken metatarsal in time to be considered by Fabio Capello.

“There is a little chance that Gibbs will be fit before the end of the season if all goes well now,” said Wenger. Read the full article here

The Tottenham winger, Aaron Lennon, has suffered another setback in his recovery from the groin injury that has kept him out of the game since December. He returned to training but has just had another scan which has revealed further damage to some muscle fibres.

“He was close to getting fit, but has had a bit of a setback,” said Spurs manager Harry Redknapp. “Hopefully it should not put him back much from where he was, and he could still be fit in a couple of weeks.” Read the full article here

The Arsenal winger Theo Walcott showed glimpses of his former self in the game against Sunderland, and now thinks he is fit and ready to have a long run in the team.

He knows that his season hasn’t really got off the ground yet, but is relaxed and ready to contribute to Arsenal’s title push.

“I feel fit as anything I’ve felt,” he said. “I feel really good now so hopefully I can stay fit and look after myself. I’ve had such a stop-start season, I’ve lost so many games I’ve lost count. Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger is very happy that Sol Campbell gives him another option in the Arsenal defence, and he doesn’t think that it is an impossibilty for the 35 year-old to regain his place in Fabio Capello’s England team in time for the World Cup next summer.

“It (England) is not the immediate target but you should not rule anything out,” Wenger said today.

“That is not my worry and my job but if you were in his position what would you want to do? You would want to give your best and you never know. It is unlikely maybe, but if you are in his shoes you would say ‘Let’s give as much as I can’ and you never know.” Read the full article here

More bad news has arrived for Arsenal from the international break as Kieran Gibbs limped off the field during the England U21 match against Lithuania.

Gibbs was only on the field for 20 minutes before he was taken off with a suspected broken foot.

It was deemed bad enough for him to have left the stadium on crutches after the game, and Arsene Wenger will be waiting anxiously for the results of todays x-rays to find out bad it is.

A dreaded metatarsal is the expected prognosis, and as Wenger already has Gael Clichy out for the next three weeks with his back problem, Wenger must be cursing the November injury jinx. Read the full article here

The young Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs has broken into the Arsenal first-team and looks like he will quickly be promoted to be a full England international in the near future, hopefully in time for the World Cup.

Fabio Capello hasn’t included him in the squad to face Brazil this weekend, but purely because the U21 team have a qualifier for the U21 European Championship on the same day at Wembley.

“He’s a really good player” said Capello. “And really interesting for the future of the England team, but he’s young and now he has to play a really important game for the Under-21s against Portugal.” Read the full article here