arsenal news

After a 1-0 win over the Sunderland kickems yesterday,  Arseblog News  runs the rule over the Gunners individual performances, players are about to get rated, yo. Wojciech Szczesny: 9/10 –  A touch wobbly from corners at times, but made brilliant saves, and ensured Arsenal held onto their slender lead. Best performance of the season from him. Carl Jenkinson: 4/10 –  One silly tackle you can forgive, two not so much. He’ll have been told to avoid doing exactly what he did, did it anyway. His rawness is still obvious. Bacary Sagna: 10/10 –  Majestic. Imperial. A dreadlocked dominator. Has had his difficulties this season but man of the match yesterday. Per Mertesacker: 8/10 –  Solid and efficient alongside Sagna, after a couple of iffy showings this was much better. Nacho Monreal: 8/10 –  Excellent in his passing (96% completion), had some struggles with Sessegnon but a good showing. We’ve yet to concede a goal since he signed. Mikel Arteta: 8/10 –  Mikel the metronome,

Premier league action resumes today after mini a interlull with the International friendlies during midweek and the Gunners will travel to the Stadium of Lights with a fond memory of a certain Thierry Henry who scored the winning goal last time around. Arsenal are currently 4 points adrift of Spurs, who are sitting in the last champions league qualification spot with Everton holding on to their 1 point lead in the 5th place. Arsenal go in to the match on the back of a grueling 1-0 victory over Stoke City last week, while the Black Cats will be hoping to recover from a 2-1 defeat suffered at the hands of Reading, thanks to last ditch goal from Jimmy Kebe. However, Martin O’Neill’s men are quite difficult to break down in the home turf and they have managed to avoid losses in their last two home fixtures. Martin O’Neill in is interview said:  ”We had a rather stodgy game against Swansea and then I was hoping we could put that out of our minds and go on to win at Reading. A draw

Villa Park hitman wants to leave according to reports. Christian Benteke is ready to quit Aston Villa after just a season with Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all considering a move for the giant Belgian. fanatix tickets: Barclays Premier League tickets still available.  Sunderland vs Arsenal tickets  are on sale from £23 for this Saturday’s match at the Stadium of Light. Benteke has been a revelation in the Premier League this season since moving to Villa Park in an £8million deal from Genk, with his form and 14 goals in a Villa shirt making the Premier League big guns stand up and take notice. According to the  Daily Mirror , Benteke has expressed his desire to leave struggling Aston Villa in the summer with Arsenal understood to be leading the race for his signature in the summer as they look to add more firepower to the ranks at the Emirates Stadium. “When the guy came into Villa, people were saying to me ‘who is he and why are you going for someone from Genk?”‘

Last week the acquisition of Nacho Monreal cast a very dark cloud over the Arsenal future of Andre Santos. Today, with the rain clouds just about done pissing all over him, it appears our smiley happy Brazilian will be hitching a ride on a rainbow back to Brazil. According to  L’Equipe  our part-time-left-back-full-time-social-media-fiend is wanted on a six-month loan by homeland side Gremio and could complete a move by the end of the day (even though he was training at London Colney this morning). It’s reported that Gremio president Fabio Koff is hoping to have the player register with regional football association CONMEBOL this afternoon so that he can play in the Copa Libertadores. “André Santos is one of our interests,” Koff is quoted as saying by  Sambafoot.com . “We talked with Arsenal, but there is nothing certain. It is a very difficult negotiation.” Despite the difficulties in bartering with the Gunners, it is believed a resolution is very close to being reached.

Ex-skipper in line for new role at the Emirates.  Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger is planning on bringing former captain Patrick Vieira back to north London, according to  reports in the Daily Mail. fanatix tickets – Barclays Premier League tickets are still available for next weekend’s games. Sunderland vs Arsenal tickets  are on sale from  £23  for this Saturday’s match at the Stadium of Light. The legendary one-time Gunners midfield player is currently working as the Football Development Executive for Premier League champions Manchester City, a job he has held for the past two years. However, it is understood that the 36-year-old would jump at the chance to return to the club he starred with in the late Nineties and beyond, especially as he would get the opportunity to work with Wenger again on the training field as his current position at the Ethiad is more of an ambassadorial role. Wenger has reportedly drawn up a shortlist of candidates to fill the key Head of

email News and gossip from The Emirates. While Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott were catching the eye for England at Wembley another of Arsenal’s internationals had a very memorable match indeed. Tomas Rosicky had to make a mad dash off the pitch after suffering  what was described as an ‘intestinal problem’  during Czech Republic’s 2-0 win over Turkey. For those not fluent in PC talk that means he suffered from a rather acute attack of diarrhoea during the game; he put it down to nerves. Arsenal face some defensive concerns ahead of the game with Sunderland this weekend as  Thomas Vermaelen AND Laurent Koscielny are both doubtful for the fixture.  Vermaelen was already troubled by an ankle injury ahead of the game but Laurent Koscielny limped out of action for France during their international friendly with Germany last night. Arsene Wenger may have to call upon veteran misfit Sebastian Squillaci or young Spaniard Ignasi Miquel if neither recovers in time

Numerous reports from Italy have claimed that Arsenal have already began negotiations with Marseille over the summer transfer of Cameroon international defender Nicolas Nkoulou. The 22-year-old was believed to be the subject of a bid from Newcastle during the transfer window and has also been interesting AC Milan, Manchester City, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid but the Gunners have apparently stolen a march on the rest by already commencing talks over a summer move. Nkoulou has been at Marseille since moving from Monaco in 2011 but he was first linked with Arsenal as long ago as 2008 when he was watched by Gunners’ scouts whle playing for Cameroon at the Beijing Olympics. He has almost 50 Ligue 1 games under his belt for Marseille and has 36 international caps for Cameroon, the first of which came shortly he appeared at the 2008 Olympics.