Just Arsenal News

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was pleased with his teams performance in the 2-0 win over Standard Liege last night, especially in the first half, and expressed that it was important to bounce back after the loss against Sunderland, and renew the team’s confidence before the meeting with League leaders Chelsea.

“The first half was good, in the second half we eased off.” Wenger said after the game.

“We just kept the result and we were in control. You could see we lacked a bit of urgency in the final third because we just eased a little bit off in the second half. First half was interesting with fluent moving, it was a very good first half.” .......Read the full article here

Even though the Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has made it quite clear that he doesn’t need to buy any players while he bringing his youngsters through, the papers continue to (dare i say it!) make up stories linking players with Arsenal.

Todays rumour is in the Sun, and it says that Arsenal are watching the Standard Liege midfielder Steven Defour. This is the whole, fact-filled article: ARSENAL are poised to move for Standard Liege midfielder Steven Defour.
The Belgian international is currently out with a broken foot but Arsene Wenger is a big fan. .......Read the full article here

The 17-year-old Standard Liege defender Eliaquim Mangala is extremely flattered to have been linked with Arsenal.

The youngster scored his first goal for Liege in the opening Champions League match against Arsenal, and he was widely considered to be the best player in the Liege team.

Mangala said: “I am thrilled to be linked to Arsenal,”

“They are on one of the biggest teams in the world, so when you’re linked with them it is very good.

“But I liked Standard, so let’s wait and see what happens in the future.” .......Read the full article here

I know you are all going to find this hard to believe, but it is being reported that Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has got his eye on a young French defender!

The 17 year-old Eliaquim Mangala had only played eleven games for the Standard Liege first-team when they faced Arsenal in the Champions League tie two weeks ago, but he scored the first goal (his first for Liege), and was generally recognised as the best player on the pitch for the Belgian champions. .......Read the full article here

The Czech international midfielder Thomas Rosicky was really happy that he managed to start his first game for Arsenal in 20 months, but says that the team started the night extremely badly and they must improve from that performance if they are to do well this season.

“I’d hardly touched the ball and after five minutes it was 2-0 for them, so it wasn’t easy,” said Rosický, “but I think we all know we’re capable of turning these games around and we did that tonight.” .......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

The Standard Liege midfielder Axel Witsel is currently serving an eight-week ban for breaking an Anderlecht player’s leg two weeks ago with a vicious stamp, but as the suspension only applies to domestic football, he is likely to be picked for tonights match against Arsenal. The Belgian FA had asked UEFA to extend the ban to include European games, but the Europe-wide governing body refused the request.

Witsel beat his team-mate Steven Defour to the Belgian Player-of-the-Year title last season so was very respected until his moment of madness in the top-of-the-table clash on the 30th August. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal’s injury hoodoo hasn’t gone away, and Arsene Wenger has now lost Manuel Almunia, Denilson and Van Persie for tomorrows Champions League Group match against Standard Liege in Belgium.

Almunia has been struck down by a chest infection and is hopeful to be recovered in time to face Wigan at the weekend. As second-choice keeper Lukas Fabianksi is already out due to an operation on his knee, it seems that Vito Mannone (pictured) will be making his second start for Arsenal between the sticks, after making his debut on the last day of last season against Stoke City. 19 year-old Wojciech Szczesny has also been named in the squad but is likely to start on the bench. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal will be pleased to see the expected return of Theo Walcott to the squad, and Rosicky has finally had a little game time in the disastrous match against Man City yesterday although Arsene Wenger insists that the Czech international will not be rushed back into playing 90 minutes.

The bad news is that the Gunners will be without Andrey Arshavin, and probably Eduardo, as FIFA are extremely unlikely to accept Arsenal’s appeal against his two game ban. .......Read the full article here