Just Arsenal News

Surprise, surprise, the FA have rejected Arsenal’s appeal about the red card and three match ban dished out to Olivier Giroud against Fulham on Saturday. Although replays showed that the Frenchman slipped while going for the ball, we will now have to face Manchester United, QPR and Wigan Athletic without him.

I don’t know why I’m surprised, but had hoped that recent cases like the one for the Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany showed that the FA were starting to admit that referees did make mistakes. However, the only thing consistent about football’s governing body is their inconsistency. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board will be delighted today, following yesterday’s vote by the Premier league clubs to impose sanctions against clubs that break new financial restrictions. The vote was very close, but 13 out of 19 voted in favour of the proposals, with Reading abstaining, which was just enough for the two thirds majority.

There were two aspects to the proposal. The first is to do with wages. It is not a wage cap exactly, more of a cap on increases for the biggest spenders. From next season, any club whose annual wages are over £52 million will only be able to increase their wages by £4 million the next season. There are currently seven clubs that this will affect. .......Read the full article here

Michael Owen may have been lucky to escape a yellow or even a red card on Saturday after his angry punch thrown at Mikel Arteta towards the end of the bad-tempered game between Arsenal and Stoke, but he may regret that the referee didn’t deal with it immediately as he is now open to an investigation by the FA.

Owen’s manager Tony Pulis admitted that Owen shouldn’t have reacted so strongly, but he is waiting expectantly for the FA to make an announcement. He said: “Arteta’s challenge was a poor challenge but Michael shouldn’t do that.”

“That should be left to the referee. .......Read the full article here

Fans of Arsenal and just about every other club in the country will have been completely unsurprised yesterday when the FA failed to do anything at all about the behaviour of Alex Ferguson during his side’s narrow victory over Newcastle on Boxing Day. The referee made no mention of the incidents in which Ferguson went on to the pitch to harangue the referee then did the same to two of his assistants. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal Now Have More Influence

Ivan Gazidis, the Arsenal Chief Executive has joined the FA’s Professional Game Board (PGB) and the FA Council. His appointment to these posts are effective as of this 2012/13 season.

This situation sounds familiar doesn’t it? David Dein ring a bell? Either way, this can be seen as a plus for the club, not a negative. Hopefully the presence of Gazidis will maybe sway some decisions in Arsenal’s favour, especially when in regards to refuting completely appauling calls made by officials during some games. .......Read the full article here

Jack Wilshere has had an amazing year for someone so young. He broke into the Arsenal first team, then was named by Fabio Capello as the future of England, and then won the PFA young Player of the Year award, but he has no intention of taking a rest!

Arsene Wenger has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t want Jack to play for the England U21′s this summer, at the risk of burning out, but Jack has no interest in listening to Wenger’s advice. He just wants to play!

He wants to play for the U21s this summer, then the senior England team in the Euros next summer, and then in the Olympics when he gets back from that one. .......Read the full article here

The Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas is confident that the Gunners have what it takes to win the Premier League this season and the performance at the Emirtes against Everton showed this. Though he admitted that the team did not start well.

He said: “We were not up for it at the start against Everton and we were very sloppy. We know that we could have paid for it, but fortunately the team stepped up”.

He continued: “It is a very inspiring comeback and maybe we needed something like that to lift us and see that even with injuries and suspensions, we can still have a really strong squad”. .......Read the full article here

The Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has recently been accused of spending too much time complaining to match officials during games but the player believes he knows where and when to draw the line, but he does admit that he was “upset” at the time!

He was accused of speaking to referee Lee Mason by Everton boss David Moyes. However the FA did not see this mentioned in Lee Mason’s match report about the game that Arsenal won 2-1.

Fabregas spoke about the game on the Arsenal website: “There has been much talk about me saying things to the officials at half-time on Tuesday night. All I can say is that I have respect for all match officials. Their job is a very difficult one and their decisions are final”. .......Read the full article here

The Man City captain Kolo Toure has put the boot into his old team-mates at Arsenal for the way they treated Emanuel Adebayor before and during Saturdays game at the Eastlands, saying they all snubbed him before the game started and then picked on him during the match.

But he agreed that Adebayor was wrong to celebrate like he did in front of the Arsenal fans, but again it was because he was being jeered throughout by the supporters, while Toure himself was being applauded!

“I am astounded because he has received blows from all the Arsenal players,” Toure said in the Sun. .......Read the full article here