Just Arsenal News

A lot of teams come to Arsenal planning to be solid and hard to beat, but few have parked the bus quite as blatantly as Stoke City did yesterday. Arsenal finally broke the resistance with a deflected free kick from Lukas Podolski, but the linesman tried to incorrectly rule the goal out for offside. The referee overruled his assistant, and it was the correct decision, but Tony Pulis is unhappy (there’s a surprise) because he thinks the Arsenal players influenced Chris Foy’s decision.

“The disappointing thing for me is the number of Arsenal players that surrounded the linesman. I thought that was something you couldn’t do. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal under Arsene Wenger have generally been regarded as a team that produces great flowing football and have changed the way that the game is played in England. They have also been seen as a bit lightweight sometimes, and Wenger has had his disagreements with managers like Sam Allardyce when teams have set out to bully the Gunners by playing a very physical way. Tony Pulis and Stoke have been one of the main propagators of this approach, but Arsenal can get payback today and put the Potters in their place. .......Read the full article here

There are very few Arsenal fans that will be feeling sorry for our arch-enemy Ryan Shawcross this morning, as we all remember clearly the day that the Stoke defender broke Aaron Ramsey’s leg a couple of years ago.

Well he certainly got his come-uppance yesterday when he met his match in Everton’s Marouane Fellaini, who certainly was not scared of standing up to him. After being niggled by Shawcross once too much, Fellaini went straight in and clearly head-butted the hard man out of the view of the referee. .......Read the full article here

Aaron Ramsey seems to have an old head on his young shoulders sometimes. The 21-year old captain of Wales has had plenty of ups and downs already in his career, but is determined not to let things affect him too much, concentrating instead on doing his job, playing football.

Ramsey has spoken about the fact that Arsenal were pretty much written off as potential title winners before the season even started and, once Robin van Persie was sold to Manchester United, we were being talked about as a mid table side.

“That is a good thing. We are just going about our business. .......Read the full article here

Aaron Ramsey Ready To Play Alongside Ryan Shawcross by AM

Wales manager Chris Coleman is prepared to take advantage of changes in FIFA rules to rope in Ryan Shawcross for the Wales national team. The only issue he was concerned about was the possible friction it might create in the dressing room which contains Aaron Ramsey.

Aaron Ramsey is yet to receive any more than a text message apology from Shawcross, following the Stoke City defender’s dangerous tackle on the Welshman back in February 2010, as a result of which Ramsey’s leg was broken in six places. This ensured that tension would run high whenever Arsenal and Stoke City met in the league. Speculation has been rife regarding how Ramsey would welcome Shawcross into the Wales team if he agreed to Coleman’s proposal. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger thinks that it will be a good thing for Aaron Ramsey to face Ryan Shawcross and Stoke after recovering from the broken leg sustained against this opponent 14 months ago, but he thinks he should be left to deal with it in his own way.

Ramsey is nigh on certain to play as Cesc Fabregas is out of action once again, although he may be fit to face Aston Villa the following week. Wenger said: “Aaron Ramsey is likely to get another chance, I can even say that he will play.” .......Read the full article here

The row between Stoke City and Arsenal looks set to run and run, as the Stoke Chairman Peter Coates has reiterated that he still demands an apology from Arsene Wenger for the comments he made about Ryan Shawcross.

It seems from the official Opta stats this season, Stoke have committed 78 fouls compared to Arsenal’s 74, and have had 12 bookings, compared to 11 for the Gunners. But as Arsenal have had two players sent off they are far below Stoke in the Fair Play League as the Potters are yet to receive a red card this season.

Coates said: ” It is an interesting comparison with Arsenal’s and confirms our view. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger seems to have started this season with the target of upsetting as many opposing managers as possible, and he is definitely succeeding! First of all he called Paul Scholes a dirty player, and now he has started a long-running war of words with Sam Allardyce and Owen Coyle about the way that their teams play.

But it is Stoke City that he has upset the most, with Wenger’s accusations of “rugby tactics” and particularly accusing Ryan Shawcross of being intentionally dirty.

Stoke have made an official complaint to the FA, but as they have refused to take any action, Stoke intend to take the matter further. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger tried hard to prise Phil Jagielka away from Everton in the summer, and although the player is glad to have stayed at Goodison Park, he is proud to have been coveted by such a great team as Arsenal.

“It’s nice, obviously, for a club like Arsenal to be linked with me. But nothing happened. I stayed as an Everton player and I love playing for Everton,” Jagielka said.

“We have not had the greatest of starts to the season, but I’m sure we’ll pick up. It’s nice, nice to get two England starts and be linked with one of the big boys.” .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger says that it is very difficult to prove that Ryan Shawcross intended to injure Aaron Ramsey, but he is absolutely certain that Abou Diaby’s injury against Sunderland a few years ago was “100% intentional”, and he considered taking legal action against Dan Smith and Sunderland as punishment.

“There’s a grey area in the game over intent or not intent,” the Arsenal manager said. “You can never prove it.

“There are a few tackles where you can say that the player should be suspended for as long as the guy is injured. But then you have to prove intent and you go into a difficult area. .......Read the full article here

The England U21 manager Stuart Pearce only gets interviewed in the run-up to the U21 matches, and he usually manages to upset a few people when he is given the chance.

He has had an ongoing battle with Arsene Wenger ever since he picked Theo Walcott for last summers U21 Championship, and he is still carping on about it. In fact he thinks it was actually GOOD for Walcott!

“I don’t agree with Arsene at all,” Pearce said. “He didn’t play for long periods of last season, but he was fully fit at the end so he came with me to the Championships. It was a great experience and his first participation in a major international tournament, but then he hasn’t featured a great deal this year. .......Read the full article here

The outcome of the foul by Ryan Shawcross on the Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey yesterday has now been confirmed (by the official Arsenal website) as a fracture to the tibia and fibula, and he has had an emergency operation to “reduce the fractures”.

But the prognosis is not looking great as he will definitely be out for the rest of the season at least. The statement on Arsenal.com said: “During yesterday’s match against Stoke City, Aaron Ramsey sustained fractures to the tibia and fibula in his right leg. Yesterday evening he underwent surgery. .......Read the full article here