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Arsenal News

Mesut Ozil: Time for farewell?

Mesut Ozil began his seventh full season at Arsenal, but it seems the love between the German playmaker and the Gunners has gone. The 30-year-old midfielder featured just one out of the team’s eight Premier League matches in the 2019/20 campaign. It was a 2-2 draw to Watford away at Vicarage Road, a game which saw him making zero impact.

The head coach Unai Emery gave an interesting interview after the 4-0 drubbing of Standard Liege in the second round of the Europa League. The match saw teenager Gabriel Martinelli completing a brace. When asked about Ozil’s situation in the club, Emery kept the main focus on other players, namely the mentioned Martinelli. The Spaniard revealed that youngsters more deserve time on the pitch than Ozil.

Arsenal News

Arsenal Interested in Landing Dutch International

There are a lot of clubs which eventually regretted after letting go a player who exploded in the following season. Arsenal is also one of those, and they have a couple of examples from the past few years. One of the biggest mistakes of Arsenal’s transfer policy in the past few years is letting Serge Gnabry go since he now shines in the Bayern München’s jersey.

Yet another name that could appear on the list of biggest transfer fails is Donyell Malen. As per Daily Mirror reports, Arsenal is considered as one of the clubs interested in signing Donyell Malen from Dutch runners-up PSV Eindhoven.

Arsenal News

Christmas will be true test of Emery’s Arsenal

It didn’t look to be going well at all for new Arsenal boss Unai Emery when he first poked his head out of the Emirates tunnel back in August. Back to back defeats against Manchester City and Chelsea left the Gunners with zero points from their first two Premier League matches.

Criticisms were heaped at the players, mostly Wenger’s old guard rather than the manager himself or his new signings, who were thrown straight into the mix. Former Arsenal man turned pundit Martin Keown called it a much needed reality check, although any reasonable Arsenal fan will be well aware that a change of regime takes time to implement.

International News

Arsenal Players Struggle in Tournament or for Game Time at World Cup

A magnificent seven Arsenal players were selected for the 2018 World Cup finals, yet just one Gunner made it to the quarter-finals.

How have your Emirates Stadium favourites been faring in Russia? Here’s how the Arsenal players got on at the World Cup.

Blog

Both teams to score – a punter’s favourite

With the season over we decided to take a break from our usual coverage and look at one of our favourite bets ahead of the World Cup, both teams to score.

The proliferation of online sports books that are now dominating areas of the internet has changed many aspects of our betting lives. Beyond simple score-draw selection and selecting the winning side in any contest, a great number of ‘other’ bets are available that eager football bettors can take advantage of.

Arsenal News

Is Fellaini the Answer?

Every summer, the transfer window rolls around and pundits discuss the areas of the Arsenal team in dire need of improvement. Every year, the defensive midfield positions are identified as a key area of weakness within the Gunners’ squad. And, every time, Arsene Wenger has failed to address this issue. Now that Unai Emery has taken over in the hot seat, will this close season be a different story? Arsenal are in need of big changes, and this gaping hole needs plugging immediately.

Unfortunately for the new boss at the Emirates, he will be expected to make the best of the summer transfer market with a limited budget of around £50 million according to The Telegraph. In the current climate, this is the kind of money that Premier League contenders are spending on singular players. Rebuilding a squad that is riddled with problems on this allowance will be nigh on impossible. With that in mind, Emery needs to play the market cleverly and look to bring in some bargains.

Arsenal embrace change

Arsenal football club have long been one of the game’s more progressive clubs, with Arsene Wenger rightly hailed as one of the key catalysts involved in modernising the English Premier League in line with the rest of Europe. When he first came in, Tony Adams et al were having daily beer binges straight after training, before eating a kebab, smoking a few cigars, and grabbing a few hours sleep ahead of the next dya’s training, when the whole cycle repeated itself.

Fast forward just a few years and he had turned the team into a bunch of professional athletes – actually caring what went into their bodies, and turning to chicken and pasta, and abstaining from alcohol to maximise results on the pitch!

Arsenal suffer scare against CSKA

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted that his team struggled against CSKA Moscow and was in danger of conceding another goal that would have eliminated them on aggregate. He said that his players were surprised by the intensity of the game and that they struggled at times to cope with the energy and determination shown by the Russian player.

At times CSKA looked like one of the top Spanish teams like Barcelona and Real, with their passing somehow bypassing Arsenal’s midfield with relative ease. Arsene Wenger said that it was a difficult game for his players and that he is proud of how they have managed to come back into the game. He said that the second half was much easier for his players as they successfully raised their game to cope with the intensity of the CSKA Moscow players.

Arsenal News

Sanchez Departure Could Provide Arsenal with Better Balance

Make no mistake, Alexis Sanchez is a fantastic footballer. One who has been coveted by the best teams in the world ever since he caught the eye with his performances for Udinese and the Chile national team prompting a move to Barcelona back in 2011. And it could be argued that Arsenal have seen the very best of that talent having signed him as a 25-year-old back in 2014. A haul of 80 goals in 165 appearances for the Gunners certainly backs up this claim.

As a result, his departure to a Premier League rivals may seem a little absurd. However, as the 29-year-old Chilean follows Theo Walcott out of the door at the Emirates, two more players still in the prime of their careers will arrive. Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are not only talented and at the right age but they have also played together before – to great effect.

Arsenal News

Vieira: The Pretenders and Contenders to his Throne

July 2005. The month and year that Patrick Vieira left Arsenal to join Juventus. The deal was a reported £13.75m and left many Gunners’ fans in shock. The central lynchpin of the Invincible team had been cast aside with no replacement seemingly on the way.

For many, the Frenchman’s departure is a symbol of everything that followed for Arsenal over the next 12 years. A dominant, all-round midfielder who was a genuine leader. Gone. The Arsenal midfield hasn’t been the same since. Of course, it’s not quite that simple. To suggest Vieira was never replaced is a little misleading. In the last 12 years, Arsenal have had a selection of world-class midfielders, albeit of a different ilk from the towering Frenchman.

There is no doubt that Arsene Wenger has made more than a few questionable decisions during his reign. But blaming him for not replacing Vieira with a like-for-like player somewhat misses the point. The root of Arsenal’s failings in the league and Champions League stem further than a lack of leaders.