Just Arsenal News

The Daily Mirror has announced this morning that the Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh has confirmed that he is moving to Arsenal in the summer, and he will be facing “the biggest challenge of his career”.

The Morrocan striker refused to go into details as he says he prefers to concentrate on trying to win the Champions League trophy with Bordeaux. Of course with both clubs still letf in it, there is a possibility he could find himself playing against his future team-mates in the next round.

Chamakh said: “I have always wanted to play in the Premier League and any striker wants to meet that challenge and play in the league. Read the full article here

To the relief of the Arsenal and Liverpool managers, the Premier League today rejected the proposal to have a play-off between the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th in the Premier League for the final Champions League place every season.

The Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, who believes that his team will finish fourth by the end of the season, was quite definite that he would have no part of it, and wondered when the clubs would even have time to play them. Read the full article here

The Arsenal youth manager Liam Brady has been trying for months to persuade the QPR starlet Raheem Sterling to move to the Arsenal academy, and it was thought that the youngster was keen to remain in London to be close to his friends and family.

But it has now been revealed that Liverpool have won the race for the 15 year-old wonderkid, and, according to Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow, Sterling will join the Reds Academy at Kirby.

“The success of our academy is vital to the future progress of the club and we have made clear that we will invest in outstanding young talent,” he said. Read the full article here

The Premier League has launched a proposal that the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th teams in the Premiership will have to face post-season play-offs with a place in the Champions League at stake.

Although you can expect teams like Arsenal and Liverpool to reject the idea if it is put to the vote, the idea is likely to have massive support from the teams that are currently locked in mid-table.

The idea is to give other teams a chance to share in the spoils from top-class European football, instead of the usual Top Four domination of Champions League qualification. Read the full article here

After last nights revelations from the Mirror that the Bordeaux strker Marouane Chamakh had agreed a £50,000 a week contract with Arsenal, another article, this time from The Sun, confirms that a deal has been reached and Chamakh has signed on the dotted line.

The article says: MAROUANE CHAMAKH will be an Arsenal player this summer after saying yes to a four-year, £10.4million deal.

The free agent Bordeaux ace has snubbed a BIGGER offer from Liverpool and put pen to paper on a Gunners pre-contract agreement.

There figures agree completely with the Mirror’s figure of £50,000 a week, but they even go further, and report that Rafael Benitez offered the Morrocan striker an extra £10,000 a week, but Chamakh turned them down in favour of Arsenal anyway! Read the full article here

Andrei Arshavin and Samir Nasri were taken off in last nights game against Liverpool, but today the Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger revealed that Alexander Song has also joined that pair on the treatment table.

“Unfortunately we have lost Alex Song with a medial knee ligament problem.” Wenger said.

“I hope he will be available for next week but it is not for sure. Arshavin looks to be a hamstring problem. We have to assess that too.

“Nasri got an elbow in his face and he felt unwell. But that is no problem. He will be available. Read the full article here

Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Liverpool last night was a tight hard-fought game, and after such an intense couple of weeks it is perhaps a surprise that Arsenal have come through it without sustaining more new injuries.

Last night Andrei Arshavin had to be replaced by Theo Walcott with a suspected torn hamstring, and Samir Nasri was brought off after being concussed in the first half.

Arsene Wenger doesn’t seem concerned with Nasri’s problem, but Arshavin’s injury needs to be investigsted today. Read the full article here

The Liverpool captain can’t believe that Howard Webb didn’t give his side a penalty in the closing minutes of last night’s match against Arsenal, which would have given his side the chance of an equaliser.

“It’s a penalty,” said Gerrard. “The referee told the Liverpool wall in the first half that if anyone raises their arms above their waste then I’m going to give a penalty.

“So, for some crazy reason, he has not give the decision. He said to me that he hadn’t seen it. But it’s unbelievable if a referee can’t see someone raise their arms in a wall. Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger saw his team take the three points from a tactical and hard-fought match against Liverpool, and after seeing Chelsea and Man Utd both drop points on the same night, he believes that Arsenal has as much chance as anyone to still win the Premiership title.

“I think it was a highly tactical game against a Liverpool team that didn’t give us any space to play.” Wenger said. “We found it difficult to get our passing going because they were always in our way. We needed to be patient and not make a defensive mistake. They had one or two chances as well but in the end we got that goal. When you have the two results we had before the most important thing is to win the game. Read the full article here

Barclays Bank, who sponsor the English Premier League,  have been holding a competition in India to find the country’s biggest football fan, in the “Biggest Fan of India” contest. They started their search over six months ago and thousands upon thousands of football fanatics from all over the vast continent applied for the award, sending in scrapbooks, videos, photos and long letters in support of their claims. Read the full article here