Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has slammed ‘unacceptable’ refereeing in the Gunners’ 0-0 draw with Sunderland at the Emirates on Saturday.
Arsenal could have drawn within two points of Manchester United on the English Premier League table with victory over the Black Cats, owing to United’s midweek defeat at Chelsea.
But the Gunners were left frustrated by a combination of stoic defence and poor decision-making by the officials, who failed to spot a clear penalty when Andrey Arshavin was pushed by Titus Bramble and wrongly disallowed a goal for offside minutes later.
Wenger, whose weary squad will travel to Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, was left exasperated by the result but tipped them to rebound from the setback.
”It is another disappointment,” Wenger said.
”You do not want to have things going against you, but what can we do? Now we just have to focus on Tuesday night.”
”I am very happy with the performance, defensively we were very good and gave a lot physically, and I cannot fault the players’ attitude.”
“True, we lacked a bit of creativity and sharpness in final third, but had two decisions going against us today which punish us severely, especially the offside, which is not offside. To win this game 1-0 today was important.”
”Today’s result comes at a bad moment. Will it psychologically have such a big impact on the championship? I don’t think so.”
Quizzed about the decision not to award Arshavin a penalty, Wenger said: “He was pushed, of course he was pushed.”
“You see the penalties we get at Newcastle and you see these kinds of penalties not given.”
“But we have to take it on the chin and continue to fight. But it is absolutely disappointing and not acceptable.”
Sunderland boss Steve Bruce praised goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, who put in a man of the match performance to deny Arsenal’s persistent attacks.
“He has had a fantastic first season,” Bruce told Sky Sports.
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“I think he played the first 11 or 12 games and to come out of the Belgian first division, he is only 22 years old, he looked very assured.”
“When he has produced a performance like has today, that will give him great confidence.”
“It is not a shock to us because we work with him every day. But there is a big jump from training ground to playing at the Emirates.”
“But he will be very, very pleased with that, I’m sure.”
Fernando Torres' agent insists he has been misquoted after stories on Monday morning suggested the Spain international striker was on the verge of leaving Liverpool.
Agent Jose Antonio Martin had reportedly indicated Torres could move to another Premier League club this summer.
However, Martin is adamant that he did not say anything of the kind and is unhappy with the way the story developed, saying now that Torres will remain at Anfield.
"For many months I have not spoken to the England press because their quotes are totally false," he said."Now is not the moment to speak about this issue because Torres is focused completely on his work for Spain.
"After the World Cup (player-agency company) Bahia Internacional will possibly meet with the player but the truth is that Fernando has signed a deal with Liverpool which is for the present and the future."
The 26-year-old is currently on World Cup duty with Spain, having scored 72 goals in 116 appearances during his three seasons with the Reds following his arrival from Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester City have all been linked with Torres, with Martin quoted earlier by the Daily Mail as saying:"Barcelona have signed David Villa and now they want to invest the money they have in other players.
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"However, it is very likely that Fernando Torres will stay in the Premier League, but I cannot say that it will be with Liverpool.
"We are working on his future, but right now you cannot guarantee that he will stay with the English club."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
There’s nothing football fans love more than talking about counterfactuals, or in other words: ‘what ifs’; and, on the whole, it’s a waste of time. What if Redknapp was manager of England? What if the national squad wasn’t made up of egotistical cretins with as much patriotism as a Cold War double agent? But, just occasionally, there are points worth considering. For example: if the variable in question was avoidable, rather than just a whimpering lament for different circumstances, then there is genuine cause for debate.
Take for example Arsenal’s much deliberated trophy-less period. A time when for Gunners fans there seemed to be more chance of eunuchs impregnating women than there did of Arsenal bagging some silverware. But then again, have they really been so far away? Indeed I can think of a number of times when Arsenal were right on the verge of success and just lacked some small catalyst to spur them on. The obvious thing to suggest therefore was that perhaps that catalyst could have been the injury prone talisman Robin Van Persie.
The in form striker has now scored twenty-four goals in twenty-six games in 2011 to go with a host of assists. And that doesn’t include his goals for Holland. But over the course of his last contract he has endured numerous lengthy spells on the sidelines. So If we look back at the times when Arsenal have come close to success in the last six years what can we conclude?
2007 League Cup Final
Arsenal’s inexperienced side were edged out 2-1 in a close encounter with Mourinho’s Chelsea. Van Persie had broken his fifth metatarsal whilst celebrating a late equaliser against Man Utd earlier in the season and subsequently missed most of the 2006/07 season including the League Cup final, although he still finished the season as Arsenal’s top scorer. The season hampered by the loss of their then top scorer and many were left wondering about what could have been.
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2007/08
I haven’t seen a better chance for Arsenal to win the title since 2004. They lead the league for various periods of the year were it not for a catastrophic end to the season in which they drew numerous games in succession after the horror of Eduardo’s broken leg incident they surely would have taken the title. But despite their fatal collapse Arsenal only finished four points off the top. And if you consider that Van Persie was fit for perhaps only a third of the season, maybe less, then you wonder whether he would not have won them the league had he been fit. Before his knee injury whilst on international duty Van Persie had scored seven goals in his first ten games. You would hope that a world-class striker would win you at least two games per season on his own. Those points would have been more than enough to take first place.
2010/11
Arsenal seemed to have finally turned a corner last year. Until the League Cup final fiasco they were going strong in every available competition. Obviously Van Persie was actually available for some of the second half of the season but again he was absent for much of it. He spent the first half of the season out after again sustaining an injury on international duty and injured himself in the League cup final. The result was that after getting Arsenal’s equaliser in the final he then had to be subbed on and replaced by the impotent Chamakh. This caused him to miss a further three weeks at a crucial stage of the season. Moreover, arguably Arsenal would have won the League Cup last year had he not been forced off and considering Arsenal’s temperamental mental strength who knows what could have happened had they won that day against Birmingham? Many believe, myself included, that it would have given the Arsenal players a new lease of life and given them the confidence to chase down the League title too. However, Van Persie was taken off, Arsenal lost the final and went on to only win three of their remaining games in all competitions. One of those was against Leyton Orient.
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So…
I wouldn’t be as presumptuous to say that had Van Persie been fit over the last few years Arsenal would definitely have won a haul of trophies. To say that would be to deny the other obvious flaws within the team: the leaky defence, goalkeeper problems, poor mentality etc. However it’s pretty clear that Van Persie is good enough to carry a team with those problems, he’s doing it pretty well this year and this is arguably Wenger’s weakest Arsenal squad.
Ultimately it’s not much consolation for Arsenal fans to know that he could have made the difference over the past six years but where this is important is for the critics out there saying that Wenger has lost it or that Arsenal have been rubbish since Vieira left. The fact is that they have had an appalling injury record over the last few years and always to their best players: Vermaelen repeatedly, Van Persie repeatedly, Fabregas repeatedly, Eduardo, Ramsey, Walcott, Rosicky, Diaby, Clichy and now Wilshere. They have all spent a ridiculous amount of time nursing injuries and many of the players never came back the same (for example: Rosicky, Eduardo). Van Persie’s record year in year out speaks for itself there is definitely grounds for the argument that had he not spent the best part of two years out over the last five then things could have been different.
For more news and views on English football follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay
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Jamie O’Hara has tasted relegation before, so you can forgive him for giving everything to the cause at Wolves to make sure lightening doesn’t strike twice. His performances since his loan switch from Tottenham have been brilliant, and yet again we are seeing that the 24-year-old is more than good enough for the Premier League. Are Spurs wrong to be overlooking such a talent?
It would certainly seem that way given some of the problems Harry Redknapp has in the middle of the park. He himself must have identified it to be a weak spot considering his recent injury list, as the manager tried in vain to sign Charlie Adam. I’d argue that if Redknapp would have got his man, Tottenham would have parted with in-excess of £15 million when they had a perfectly good centre-midfielder just waiting for the chance to stake a claim for a place in Jamie O’Hara.
I suppose the flip side of the coin is that when the likes of Luka Modric, Rafael van der Vaart and Tommy Huddlestone are all fit, O’Hara’s chances are once again going to become limited. But wouldn’t Charlie Adam’s as well? I’d even go as far as saying that if I was in Redknapp’s shoes and had to choose between O’Hara or someone like Jermaine Jenas to plug a gap left by his regulars, I’d be tempted to go for the current Wolves loanee.
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The Midlands club won’t be complaining of course. O’Hara is that little bit of creative quality which they’ve lacked in recent times. Along with the ever-impressive Matt Jarvis, Mick McCarthy has some real players at Molineux and they have every chance of staying up. Amongst others, Sir Alex Ferguson has said that Wolves’ current league position doesn’t reflect just how good they are, and I hope he’s right.
If Wolves manage to stay up, I can see O’Hara extending his spell in the Black Country for longer than the loan-spell which is the current arrangement. Wolves can provide the Englishman with a real platform to prove Harry Redknapp wrong. He will get regular games and will become one of the most important figures at the club – a role he seems to be relishing at the moment.
Wolves have a long way to go but they can start making plans for next season. They may be out of the drop-zone at the moment, but it’s that tight down at the bottom that one defeat could pull you straight back into the thick of things. It’s not getting any easier, either. McCarthy’s sides next three fixtures read: Tottenham at home, (as always when a player moves between clubs) Aston Villa away and Newcastle away. Spurs speak for themselves so will provide a huge test, one which O’Hara will be unable to take part it due to Premier League rules preventing him from playing against his parent club. Wolves’ away form has been a problem for them all season, so a trip to in-form local rivals Villa, is also going to be incredibly tricky.
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But the Spurs game aside, O’Hara could be the answer to Wolves’ troubles. If Tottenham continue to suffer with injuries and have to rely on their fringe players, seeing Wolves grow with O’Hara at the centre of things could make Redknapp regret the day he once again decided to over look his forgotten man.
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Joe Cole has revealed that Fabio Capello is keeping his England players guessing as to who will start Saturday's World Cup opener against the United States.
Cole is one of several players unsure over the places in the starting line-up ahead of the Group C curtain raiser in Rustenburg.
Unlike previous England managers, Capello is keeping his selection cards close to his chest and Cole believes his policy ensures the 23-man squad in South Africa remains on its toes.
"The great thing about the squad now, which is different to all through my England career, is that you don't know who the manager is going to pick in any position, so it keeps everyone on their toes," he explained.
"I've always found at club level when that is the case – when players are not just playing on reputation and are being selected on form, fitness and temperament – that's when you get the better team ethic and the way the team gels together.
"Fabio is a great manager. I've been lucky to work with some great managers and he is right up there with the best of them.
"You need discipline. It keeps us all on our toes. The discipline is very strong and I think that has worked well and we need that."
Capello will keep his starting line-up under wraps until Saturday afternoon but the Italian appears to have selection dilemmas in almost every position.
Any one of Robert Green, David James and Joe Hart could be selected as his starting goalkeeper, while the battle to partner Wayne Rooney up front could be won by Steven Gerrard in a supporting role or a regular striker in Peter Crouch or Emile Heskey.
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"It's great with England there is a lot of competition in the squad," added Cole.
"There aren't 10 lads coming here thinking they're just going to sit on the bench. Everyone in the squad is thinking they have a chance of playing here."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
It would take a bold man to bet against Lewis Dunk leaving Brighton in the January transfer window if the reported interest of Chelsea, Arsenal and Fulham results in a firm offer being made to the Seagulls. Gus Poyet will face an uphill battle trying to convince his young star that staying at the Amex Stadium is in his best interests – even though, of course, it most probably is in Dunk’s best interests to ignore the bright lights and big cheques, at least for now.
Assuming an offer is made, Brighton will be obliged to accept it. The average Championship club is run on rather tighter budgets than those in the bright lights of the Premier League, and even if they do feel they can afford to turn down the bid, Brighton will acknowledge that they cannot stand between Dunk and the opportunity of a lifetime.
The problem is that a move to a Premier League club might not be the dream that Dunk, or most Championship youngsters, probably imagine it to be. Yes, they are exposed to a whole new celebrity life, have the opportunity to train with some of football’s biggest names, and take a much-improved salary. But these perks can often come at a pretty high cost – namely the loss of playing time in competitive football.
In fairness, this is a decreasing problem in the English football system as Premier League clubs become ever-more accustomed to loaning out their emerging young players to gain more experience at another club, be that at the Premier League, Championship or lower-league level. A quick glance over the Manchester United or Arsenal websites will show how many teenage prodigies they have sent out to ply their trade at another club, either for the year, or just a couple of months.
Dunk may want to consider some players who haven’t received that chance, though, and lose the momentum of their development by stagnating on the bench or on the fringe of the first team. John Bostock is probably regretting jumping from Crystal Palace, where he was emerging as one of the Championship’s brightest young stars, to Tottenham, where he is struggling to break into the youth and reserve teams ahead of the likes of Jake Livermore and Ryan Fredericks.
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Then there’s England u-19 star Connor Wickham, who couldn’t resist an £8 million move to Sunderland this summer, forsaking regular football at Ipswich Town in the process. David Wheater and Adam Johnson have both left Middlesbrough since they lost Premier League status, although playing in a first-team might be a better option in the long-term than warming the benches for Bolton or Manchester City. Danny Wilson, having been seduced into a £5 million move to Liverpool, is buried behind a bunch of other youngsters in the pecking order. The list could be a lot longer, but that might get rather tedious.
If there is one thing we can take solace in, however, it’s that this mistake isn’t limited to British youngsters. Teenagers from across the globe are coming to the Premier League only to not make the grade and end up slinking off to Europe without a trace. Diego Arismendi was one of South America’s hottest prospects three years ago, but since his 2009 move to Stoke the Uruguayan is still yet to play in the Premier League. Federico Macheda appears doomed to never fulfil his potential in the red of Manchester United, although his two fine goals in the tail end of the 2008/09 season, which earned the Old Trafford side vital points on their way to the title, are a substantial legacy for such a brief time in the spotlight.
A word of optimism for Dunk, though – it can be done. It’s just down to which club you choose. Michael Kightly and George Elokobi just two of several lower-league players to transformed into Premier League players by Mick McCarthy; Bostock’s former Palace teammate Victor Moses continues his emergence under Roberto Martinez at Wigan. So perhaps it’s all about which club and manager the teenager ends up which will decide his fate. In that case, Lewis: choose Arsenal. Mr Wenger has an eye for talented teens – and they could use a centre-back…
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There is a banner up at Old Trafford football ground. Everyone in Manchester with a passing interest in football (and many beyond its boundaries) knows about it. It shows the number of years since Manchester City last won a trophy. This year, it threatens to tick over to the number 35. In fact, by the end of February it will have done.
I asked a United fan last week who he would rather win the league – Liverpool or City? He said it was like choosing between drowning and being shot. But his main arguments in choosing Liverpool were that it would mean more to us (just, because of the 34 years), AND United would have to tear that banner down.
So you’d think that for every City fan on this planet, if they could have one thing, it would be to win a trophy – any trophy. Carling Cup, FA Cup, Europa League, the Premiership. Anything. For most of us, it would be the first time the team we have supported all our lives will have won something.
And not surprisingly, most fans do list a trophy as the priority, this season, any season.
But not all fans. And, I suspect, not City’s manager or owners either.
And for why that would happen, you need look no further than the Champions’ League. The league of Champions, and those that weren’t quite champions, and loads of teams who were nowhere near being champions. In any other sport, 4th would mean failure – it wouldn’t even get you on the podium. But in the money-orientated world of top-flight football, 4th is everything – a possible gateway to untold riches and possible world domination.
As we all know, modern (top-flight) football is all about money. And here are the numbers to show why the Champions League is so, so important.
Teams competing in the UEFA Champions League group stage this season can expect to receive a minimum amount of €7.2m according to the “revenue distribution system” in place for the 2010/11 campaign.
Each of the 32 clubs that took part in the group stage received a participation bonus of €3.9m, plus a match bonus of €550,000 per group game played. On top of that, the following performance bonuses were paid: €800,000 for every win and €400,000 for every draw in the group stage.
There are additional payments made to the teams that progress in the competition with €3m the reward for advancing to the round of 16, €3.3m for reaching the quarter-finals and €4.2m for a semi-final place. The winners of the final at Wembley Stadium on 28 May will collect a further €9m, with €5.6m going to the runners-up.
So, win all your six group games and you would earn €15m – comprising €12m for your group stage performance plus €3m for getting to the last 16. If Manchester United had beaten Barcelona in the final of May 2009, they would have earned a cool €45m. It is estimated this year’s winners could pocket close to €60m.
In addition, participating clubs are entitled to a share of the market pool based on the commercial value of their domestic television market, the number of UEFA Champions League matches they play this season and their final position in the domestic league table last term. They will also keep their UEFA Champions League gate receipts.
Each of the 20 teams that contested the play-offs received €2.1m.
The Telegraph ran an article the other year where it stated: Telegraph Sportunderstands that Uefa’s internal forecasts predict a 35 per cent increase in Champions League commercial and broadcast income for 2009-12, taking gross income to more than €1.1bn, an increase of around €300m on the €820m or so generated in each of the last three seasons.
Currently Uefa distributes almost €600m to the 32 clubs competing in the Champions League group stage, but that figure could rise to more than €800m from next season, heightening fears that the financial gap between the European elite and their domestic competitors is too wide.
Culture secretary Andy Burnham and FA chairman Lord Triesman have both voiced concerns this season that financial disparity is affecting the competitive balance of English football, and such dramatic increases in Champions League revenue will amplify the issue.
Regular Champions League football has helped United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal render the upper-reaches of the Premier League predictable, with only Everton breaching their dominance since England’s Champions League representation rose to four. The concern among their domestic competitors is that European success becomes self-perpetuating, providing additional income sufficient to fend off challengers in all but exceptional circumstances.
Unlike Manchester City fans, Roberto Mancini has not had 34 years of hurt – far from it. He’s had quite a charmed life, if truth be told. He has to finish top 4 this season – it’s pretty certain his job depends on it. Finish 5th and win the FA Cup, and I wouldn’t guarantee you he’d keep his job. Finish 4th and win nothing, and I can guarantee you he will be in charge next season.
The reasoning is simple, if not shared by many/most of the blue persuasion. It’s that aforementioned gateway to a “better world”. Champions League football (providing City got through a qualifier if they finished 4th – what could possibly go wrong?) means City are more attractive to world-class players, it means City are earning a lot more, and thus closer to becoming self-sufficient and satisfying Platini, it means more high-profile games, and with all that, with the players and the income, a greater chance of winning trophies from that moment onwards.
And there are City fans that see it that way too – it relies on a gamble that getting in the Champions League will mean everything else will follow – and what’s another year to wait when you’ve waited all your life?
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In addition to previous points, if as expected City finish outside the top 4 and Mancini loses his job, then once again City will have to recruit a new manager, and go through yet another building process with new players and new systems and new routines and changes to staff and the endless cycle of repairing damage that seems to define the club. Top players may leave – Tevez will for starters, and recruitment will mean more persuasion skills from Cook and Marwood. And more money, of course. Above all, a top 4 finish would bring one thing the club has lacked for decades – stability. Another year for City with the same manager? Blimey, it might just work.
But to many, to most in fact, the emotional attachment to the football club does not include financial analysis of what finishing higher may bring. It does not include analysing business models, or fair play criteria. There are those, as always, that would even welcome a change of manager. For the first time in many blues’ lifetime, a trophy looks not only possible, but probable in the years to come. And that trophy is all that matters – break the duck, break the curse, and everything else will follow. They have pictured the moment of a City captain lifting a trophy aloft as confetti rains down from the sky for far too long. The Champions League can wait for now. Winning the Carling Cup trumps playing Barcelona in the Champions League, when the heart rules over the business head. And rightly so.
No one transfer has quite summed up the excess of the flawed approach to the transfer market during the Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli reign than Stewart Downing and under a new manager, he has a point to prove all over again in what must represent a make or break season for him at the club.
Liverpool paid a whopping £20m fee for him to Aston Villa last summer, seemingly because the club had already sold Ashley Young to Manchester United for £17m and were reluctant to part ways with both wingers in one transfer window, but as ever, money talks and the club got their man.
Out of all the big-money moves given the green light by Dalglish during his 18-month spell in charge, none have disappointed more than Downing. Andy Carroll arrived with the huge fee of £35m, but he still retains the faith of a large majority of the Anfield faithful for the simple reason that when he’s fit and on form, he can be a truly terrifying presence up front, capable of battering the opposition’s defence into submission and his form picked up towards the end of last season as he scored in both the FA Cup semi-final and final against Everton and Chelsea while dismantling John Terry in the league game at Anfield.
Jordan Henderson could still be some player and he’d burdened by expectations of what he should be rather than an accurate assessment of the player he is – quietly efficient, composed and above all, a player that keeps the game simple. Downing, however, came to the club with an already established reputation and at 27 years of age, without much room to manoeuvre in terms of future improvement or sell-on value. He was purchased off the back of a successful season for Villa during which he scored seven goals from midfield and displayed a maturity to his game, often finding himself starting in the middle of midfield. He was signed to provide the manager with more options in midfield, but his poor form only succeeded in causing headaches
Liverpool paid hugely over the odds for him simply because Aston Villa themselves did when they forked out £12m for him from Middlesbrough back in 2009-10. If we’re being honest, that’s about the maximum that you should ever play for someone of Downing’s quality, but when you factor in the English premium that you inevitably pay and the fact that he had improved markedly at Villa Park, then you are left with an inflated price that he was always going to struggle to justify.
I’ll set my stall out now, I’m a Downing sceptic – it’s not that I don’t believe he doesn’t exist (if only), but I’ve never been privy to his supposed powers. Of course, he can whip a decent ball in at pace from time to time, but he’s always looked as if he’s never quite had the pace to trouble a quality full-back, nor the trickery or guile to beat them on the inside.
At Liverpool last term, he could regularly be found guilty or narrowing the midfield, with a reluctance to take on and try and beat his man, while Jose Enrique at left-back was quicker with the ball than he was without it. He completed a pretty rotten 0.6 dribbles per match and failed to register a single assist or goal in 36 league appearances, 28 of which he started. Just to compare, Ashley Young, who enjoyed a similar move to a bigger club and who struggled after a bright start, completed 0.9 dribbles per match and finished the campaign with six league goals and seven assists from 19 starts and six substitute appearances.
Downing struck the only goal of the game during the side’s narrow 1-0 victory over FC Gomel in the Europa League last week in what was a fairly anonymous performance aside from that. He was used on both flanks during the match as Rodgers went with his preferred 4-3-3 system, with Joe Cole, then Raheem Sterling being used on the other side. New signing Fabio Borini often cut an isolated figure up front at times as the side struggled for match fitness against opponents already well into their league season.
Nonetheless, given that Craig Bellamy looks to be on his way out of the club to Cardiff, Maxi Rodriguez and Dirk Kuyt have already left and that Rodgers has a limited transfer budget, Downing could be set to be handed a key role over the coming season, as one of the more senior members of a fairly young squad.
It looks as if Rodgers is aiming to make his mark at the club, bringing an end to the English contingent’s privileged positions in the dressing room; they are no longer guaranteed a first-team place merely due to the nature of their hefty fee. Andy Carroll has already tasted the sharp end of the stick and unless he starts to perform, so will Downing.
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Downing has always looked as if he struggles to cope with the pressure of playing for a big side – he has for Liverpool so far and in the majority of his 34 appearances for England since making his debut back in 2005. However, as a big fish in a small pond, he can often be seen to perform above expectations, like he did at Boro and Villa and with Anfield becoming a smaller pond than in years gone by, now is the time for him to step up. Another failure like last season will see him marginalised – fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
After watching his side in the 8-2 thrashing by Manchester United, Arsene Wenger cut a despondent figure at Old Trafford. It was after this display that Wenger and the board realised that they desperately needed to strengthen the depleted squad. After collecting nearly £80 million of transfer fees over the summer, it wasn’t like they didn’t have the money to spend in the window.
Wenger reacted to the horrific result with three days of hectic activity, spending an estimated £30 million, before the transfer deadline came to pass. Arsenal’s team of worldwide scouts went through their intensive scouting notes and turned to a supply of options that the club have been tracking for years. By the time the transfer window closed Arsenal had a new look defence with Brazilian left-back, André Santos, and German centre-back, Per Mertesacker joining the club. In attack, Spanish midfielder, Everton’s Mikel Arteta, had joined South Korean striker, Park Chu-young, on the late arrival list, along with Israeli international Yossi Benayoun, who joined on loan from Chelsea.
Looking over the signings I think that Mertesacker is just the sort of defender Arsenal needed to sign with a no-nonsense commanding style that will provide much-needed strength to their defence. Benayoun and Arteta may be proven Premier League players but they are not in the same league as the recently departed duo of Fabregas and Nasri. Benayoun has left Stamford Bridge after being deemed surplus to requirements while Arteta has only made an average of 26 appearances during the last three seasons, a worrying statistic. The other two arrivals are both unproven players who may have featured for their respective international sides but it is difficult to tell whether or not they will make a huge impact at the Emirates this season. This is the risk Wenger is taking, by rushing through the late transfers he has gone against his usual transfer prudence and as a result they have ended up with older players on extended lucrative contracts.
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The team will certainly have a fresh look in their next Premier League game against Swansea and Wenger has instantly appeased the loyal fans by signing experienced players without really bothering about the fees and wages paid. Not only did he manage to refresh an inexperienced squad but he also shifted out some deadwood who were taking up vital wages.
While I can understand why Wenger has felt the need to sign so many players in such a short space of time I fail to see why it could not have been completed earlier in order to get better value for money. Nasri and Fabrgeas departed a full week before the transfer window closed and if Wenger would have just matched Chelsea’s offer for Juan Mata it is much than likely the former Valencia player would have ended up there instead.
Wenger was left in a difficult position after the Manchester United defeat and I that is probably why they made a late bid for Arteta and even offered him a four-year contract, despite the fact he will be 34 when it finishes. It appears quite a desperate move but I think it could out to be quite a coup as Arteta has always been regarded as a top-class performer and if he can stay fit he could be an excellent purchase by Wenger, although there is an element of risk involved.
While Ferguson and Mancini were able to sit back with a relaxing day last Tuesday, Wenger was desperately trying to secure some new recruits for his team. By deciding to strengthen so late I think he has taken a gamble by bringing in quantity over real quality. New faces were certainly required at the Emirates but by going against his own transfer policy he showed his desperation. The only way we will find out if it was the right thing to do to from their results at the end of the season.
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Manchester United have lined up Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg to replace Edwin van der Saar, according to first-team coach Rene Meulensteen.
Van der Sar, 40, confirmed this week that he will quit at the end of the season, ending a remarkable two decades at the top of the game.
Now it seems the Old Trafford club want another Dutchman to take over.
“Stekelenburg is indeed a keeper who is at the top of our wanted list,” Meulensteen told Dutch radio.
“We naturally talk a lot among ourselves about who should replace Van der Sar. Alex Ferguson has spoken about Stekelenburg with Edwin, and that does not seem strange to me at all.”
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson on Friday said he hoped the club dealt with Van der Sar’s retirement better than they did with the departure of Peter Schmeichel in 1999.
That triggered a tortuous six years at Old Trafford, when 10 keepers tried and failed to fill Schmeichel’s enormous gloves before Van der Sar headed north from Fulham.
“We hope we are better organised about it this time,” said Ferguson.
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“I made a mistake. I should have taken Van der Sar at that time but didn’t do. We tried several goalkeepers in the interim before I eventually got Edwin. Hopefully we’ll be better prepared this time. We’ve learned from that.”