Just Arsenal News

Arsenal are sitting at the top of Group B in the champions league with six points out of six, and we haven’t had to play that well. The next two matches are against the German club Schalke who have four points after being held at home by Montpellier.

The Gunners are at home in the first game against Schalke next Wednesday and will go five points clear with a win. From there it would take a catastrophe not to win the group. We would then go into the knockout stages as a group winner and with the potential to strengthen the team in the January transfer window before it starts. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal will struggle to score any goals after the departure of Robin van Persie to Manchester United and Alex Song to Barcelona, everybody said. The top goal scorer and top assist provider would leave Arsenal in mid table, some suggested. Giroud can’t score and will be another Chamakh, pundits predicted weeks ago.

How times change, with Arsenal creating and scoring more than ever. Ray Parlour has revealed his thoughts on the matter and his belief that Olivier Giroud will continue ti improve and turn out to be a real star for the Gunners. .......Read the full article here

The England manager Roy Hodgson is going to take a leaf out of Arsene Wenger’s book when his team line up at Wembley tonight against international minnows San Marino. Along with using Wenger’s formation, Hodgson will start with two of the Arsenal players who are used to it.

Theo Walcott looks set to start on the right with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the left. Wayne Rooney, the England captain for the game, will be asked to play his more deep lying striker role that Santi Cazorla does so well for the Gunners. .......Read the full article here

Not many players get 100 international caps, especially for a successful country like Germany, but the new Arsenal striker and left winger Lukas Podolski got his at Euro 2012 and is likely to get many more before his international career comes to an end.

Despite their being a good crop of young German strikers coming through, the coach of Germany has spoken about Podolski and has assured him that he is crucial to the Germany team. Joachim Low is glad that Podolski has made the move from Cologne to the Gunners and says it is already improving his play. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal have signed up the promising young striker Chuba Akpom now he is 17-years old. The talented teenager has been playing regular games with the under-21 team and scored on Monday after an assist by Jack Wilshere.

The young striker has been involved with the England youth teams and impressed at the under-17 Nordic tournament last year, scoring three goals. Hopefully another star of the future is now committed to being a Gunner.

Someone who did not sign a professional contract with their club and was snapped up by another side is Vito Mannone. Arsenal did pay some compensation to Atalanta but not a lot. Mannone has had many ups and downs in his young life but is finally getting, and taking, the chance to show that he can cut it in the Premier league. .......Read the full article here

Just over a year after buying Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Southampton, senior figures at Arsenal are ready to give the 19-year old England international a new and improved contract as a reward for his fantastic, form and improvement since coming to the Emirates. The Ox works as hard as his namesake and has got a brilliant attitude.

Due to the exceptional players in the Arsenal midfield this season and the formations used by Arsene Wenger, Ox has not played as much as he might have expected for the Gunners, but he was looking a little tired after a long season and summer. .......Read the full article here

From reports in the papers following the Arsenal victory against West Ham and Theo Walcott’s part in it, things seemed to be moving in the right direction between Theo Walcott and Arsenal but that may have been premature.

Walcott wants the chance to be a striker and wants a decent pay rise, while Arsenal want assurances that he can do the job and earn the money that he is requesting. Arsene Wenger’s statements suggested that putting pen to paper was almost a formality but Peter Hill-Wood has issued comments that throw serious doubt on Walcott’s future as a Gunner. .......Read the full article here

Most Arsenal fans will be relieved that Kieran Gibbs will not be joining the England squad this week, as long as he is ready to play for the Gunners when they return to Premier league action against Norwich at Carrow Road on October 20th. The 23-year old must be cursing his luck, however, because he was in with a real chance of playing after the Ashley Cole and Twitter affair.

Arsene Wenger announced on Saturday that Gibbs had a thigh injury just above the knee and the manager did not think he would be available to play against San Marino or Poland. It has been confirmed today by medical staff but there is no mention of the specific problem or of how long Gibbs will be out of action for. .......Read the full article here

You could see what it meant to Olivier Giroud to score his first league goal for Arsenal on Saturday. The chances and blocked shots he had before his goal produced an expression of absolute agony on the face of the French international striker. When he did hit the back of the net, his delight and relief was echoed in the hearts of Gooners everywhere.

We all, or most of us, had faith in Giroud but each game in which he failed to score through bad luck, lack of opportunity or poor finishing left a little more doubt in our minds, and in his as well. The fact that he began the move from which he scored, and the fact that it was not a lucky or simple finish, will give the big man even more confidence. Giroud is sure that he will keep scoring regularly for the Gunners now he is off the mark. .......Read the full article here

One of the revelations of the season so far, and there have been a few for Arsenal fans, has been the return to form of the 21-year old midfielder Aaron Ramsey. We have probably all been a little guilty of impatience when it comes to the Welsh captain, but maybe he is the victim of his own previous success. There is always a worry that a player recovering from a long and serious injury will never be the same again but, thankfully, Ramsey is finally starting to remind us just how good he can be. .......Read the full article here

Teamwork is the key to Arsenal success this season by TS

How great is it being an Arsenal supporter these days? Yes we are not first on the log but there’s something in the air, isn’t there? Early days still but we can all feel it and I think it has something to do with one of the fundamentals of sport- being a team. .......Read the full article here

Reports suggesting that former Gunner Cesc Fabregas could make a shock return to the Emirates stadium, whether permanently or on loan, started to surface in the last few weeks. The cause of these rumours was the fact that Barcelona were not playing the midfielder and he was getting frustrated with his lack of opportunities under the new Barcelona boss, Tito Vilanova.

It seems to have been blown out of all proportion by the Spanish media, with Fabregas and many of his Barcelona team mates publicly denying that there was any problem. Furthermore, the Spanish midfielder admitted that he was not surprised at having to work hard to get in to a midfield that boasts Andres Iniesta and Xavi. .......Read the full article here