Arsenal's fans eagerly wait to see what purchases will the Gunners do this summer after bosses have promised Wenger a budget that would allow him to bring some big players , but the French does what he knows best: brings young, future players. Ashley Young talks with Manchester, Liverpool took Jordan Henderson, Chelsea is closer and closer to bring Wesley Sneijder and Arsenal's fans have learned yesterday that the first transfer of their favorite team is the one of Carl Jenkinson, from Charlton, the team from League Two.
1.2 million euros will Arsenal play for the 19 years old player, and red-white fans have already begun to express displeasure, especially as it's possible that the star Cesc Fabregas will leave this summer.
The most important match of the season in England is played Sunday on "Old Trafford", where Chelsea is moving to recover the difference of three points which separates it from the leader Manchester United. With just three rounds remaining to dispute, the Londoners captain, John Terry, believes that a victory with "the demons" will bring back the title.
"It is the ideal situation to win the title. Our motivation will be higher than at any other game, because the satisfaction of winning on the"Old Trafford" is maximum.", said John Terry. The captain of the Londoners believes that the team has more advantages to beat United. "Manchester United is coming after the defeat with Arsenal from the last stage and their moral is low, in contrast, we are determined to keep the string of victories in the last stages. "Chelsea lost a single match in the last ten of Premier League and recovered 15 points against Ferguson's team (at March 1st, United had 18 points ahead of Chelsea).
Chelsea has every reason to be confident that she can get a win on Sunday on "Old Trafford" with Manchester United: Ancelotti's students have a series of ten games without defeat in the championship. However, the Londoners victories in the Premier League have been broken by defeats in the Champions League. Even though the "demons" were those who defeated last time: on 6th and 12th April,in the Champions League quarters double header (1-0 and 2-1). Not only Chelsea and Manchester United hope for the title. Arsenal is praying for a draw on "Old Traffford", a result that would close it to the first place if Wenger's " Gunners " defeat at Stoke tomorrow. Arsenal has 67 points and is six lengths from United and three from Chelsea .
LAST THREE STAGES
MANCHESTER UNITED (73 points, +38)
Chelsea (away)
Blackburn (away)
Blackpool (home)
CHELSEA(70 points, +38)
Man. United (away)
Newcastle (home)
Everton (away)
ARSENAL(67 points, +32)
Stoke (away)
Aston Villa (home)
Fulham (away)
The return of the Argentinian Gonzalo Higuain of Real Madrid's first 11 meant also the reinstatement of the Frenchman Karim Benzema in the reserves, the author of 11 goals in 28 presences this season and the man who took the brunt of Madrid's attack in the return much of the current season.
Unsatisfied with this status, the player seems more tempted to take into consideration in the summer the offers that will come to him. The first concerned of the striker's servicesr appears to be Arsenal's coach Arsene Wenger, who is unhappy with the rate of success of the three peaks that he has in the squad, Chamakh, Bendtner and Vela.
According to English media, Londoners would be willing to pay for about 25 million for Benzema , with 10 less than Real Madrid paid to Lyon in the summer of 2009.
Manchester United moved closer to the 19th championship title, after winning at the limit at Old Trafford against Everton, the team which is fighting for a spot in the Champions League with Liverpool. Guests made their intentions clear since the beginning of the game, opting for a solid defensive game and hoping to make a hit on the counterattack, while Sir Alex Ferguson rested Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick for the match with Schalke from Champions League next week.
In the first half, neither of the two teams did not have an extended possessing game, and the biggest opportunities came at the gate of Tim Howard, who opposed both Javier Hernandez's chances, but also in front of Nani. In the second half, United's pressure increased, but those who could have scored were David Moyes's students , Jack Rodwell testing seriously the veteran Edwinvan Der Sar. The end found United in a total forcing in front of a team barricaded on two lines and the goal dropped naturally in the 83rd minute, when Hernandez scored the only goal of the game with a head shot after a centering of Antonio Valencia.
Despite the limited success, Alex Ferguson seemed bothered by the English press: "The thing that annoys me is that journalists insist on the idea that Arsenal and Chelsea still have to play against us like the two matches are already lost.Why wouldn't we win these matches? I repeated to my students not to care about all that's published in the press and to focus on their game. We have four more natches to play and if we mind our own business we can't lose our title."said the Scot.
Chelsea beat, with a 3-1 score, Birmingham team, while Arsenal drew with Tottenham on Wednesday night,in the remaining matches of the XXVIII stage of the championship of England.
For Chelsea scored Malouda '3 , '62 and Kalou '26 and for Birmingham scored Larsson'77 (penalty).
Arsenal was equaled by Tottenham, score of 3-3, after leading with 3-1. For Arsenal have scored Walcott '5, Nasri '12 and Van Persie '40. Tottenham's goals were scored by Van der Vaart '7, '70 (penalty) and Huddlestone '44.
Manchester United leads the classification with 70 points ,followed by Chelsea with 64 points, and Arsenal, again with 64 points.
The term "dramatic" seems too weak to describe what happened Sunday evening on Emirates, in a match in which Arsenal needed those three points to still hope for the title, and Liverpool wanted to win to get closer to the Euro Cups area . If it had not been for the serious injury of Jamie Carragher, who lost consciousness after a head in the head clach with John Flanagan, probably the Londoners had recorded the third consecutive white draw. Carragher needed an oxygen mask, being put on a stretcher after several minutes in which the doctors resuscitated him, the quarterback recovering then in the locker room.
Eight minutes of extension shown from the edge the reserve referee, and in the seventh Arsenal fans saw their team's first goal at home since February 23rd, at the penalty obtained by Fabregas and made by Robin van Persie. Stupor, however: just when t referee Andre Marriner was preparing to whistle the end, Eboue embarrassed Lucas Leiva in the box and Dirk Kuyt drew on the cormorants joy and especially of Sir Alex Ferguson's, Manchester United's manager enjoying in the stands the wrong step of the " gunners".
At ground level, Arsene Wenger has first spilled his frustration on his counterpart Kenny Dalglish, on who he swore powerfully , without the Scot being outdone. "I can not repeat the change of lines we had, I don't think it is relevant to the game," said Dalglish at the press conference. Arsenal's technician took as target the central, reprimanding him that he extended too much the match and gave too easy a penalty for the guests. "From the edge were shown 8 minutes, but the match was extended to about 12. Lucas easily tricked the referee, stopped the run and mimed a foul. It's frustrating because we dominated the match, Liverpool hasn't done anything but defend itself." , lamented Wenger.
Put under the pressure of winning a title in England after a break of six years, Arsenal is willing to let Cesc Fabregas to return to Barcelona, if the Catalan band is willing to make a major expense.
A source from the London club's entourage quoted by Goal.com London claims that Arsenal fixed the transfer fee of 52 million for the Spanish midfielder.
Fabregas's desire to play again for the club which she left when she was 16 is as bright as last summer, but Arsenal's captain will not be involved in negotiations until the end of the current season.
The midfielder won the World Cup in South Africa with a representative of Spain made up mostly of players of the band Blaugrana. Two of them - Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol - tried to force him to dress in Barcelona shirt on the return of Vicente del Bosque's students in the country.
Manchester United has kept intact the hopes of achieving the "triple" this season, eliminating Arsenal in the FA Cup at the end of a match which he won 2-0 at Old Trafford. Fabio da Silva and Wayne Rooney signed the goals , the last with a superb shot in the head, qualified the band led by Sir Alex Ferguson in the 27th semi-final of FA Cup history.
The victory weighed huge for the cheer of the leader team in the Premier League ,after two consecutive defeats in the league, with Chelsea and Liverpool.
Tuesday, Manchester United will meet at home the French from Olympique Marseille in the Champions League second leg, match in which the English band starts with the first chance after the white draw in France. United hopes to repeat the "triple" in 1999, when it managed to win the Champions League, FA Cup and Premier League.
In the other quarter-final of the FA Cup played today, Bolton Wanderers won 3-2 at Birmingham, ensuring its place in the semifinals for the first time since 1958, when it managed to win the FA Cup. South Korean Chung-Yong Lee scored the winning goal for Wanderers after Birmingham had managed twice to tie the guests. Two quarter-final matches will take place today, when Stoke City receives the visit of West Ham United and then Manchester City plays home with Reading.
The offensive plans of "the gunners" remained only on paper in the Champions League second leg, match definitely controlled by Pep Guardiola's team. FC Barcelona has constantly created a suffocating pressure on Arsenal, and after a lot of failures, the redemptive goals came . Lionel Messi has canceled the tour guests advantage through a brilliant execution - a fine take over after a pass from Iniesta and left shot to Almunia, who had replaced Szczesny, injured to a finger.
The Catalans have shown such an offensive appetite that it seemed they will score again with the band Arsene Wenger, as in the duel of the same stage last year, only the situation for the hosts had complicated in the first minutes of the second half, paradoxical at first action of the attack of the Londoners. Nasri struck one corner and the ball Busquets turned the ball into an own goal.That was the only shot on Barca's gate space in the whole match . Just three minutes after this draw, took place the phase that put crisis throughout all the breath of Arsenal: Robin van Persie kicked after the referee's whistle, which gave him the second yellow and thus the guests remained ten at a critical moment of the game. The Dutch striker explained in vain to Massimo Busacca that he has not heard the whistle in the noise of the stadium and also in vain has Wenger questioned the Swiss referee after the match.
Barcelona's coach Pep Guardiola does not believe that Arsenal lost qualification because of the elimination of Van Persie, but because his team played phenomenal. "I understand the sadness of Arsene Wenger, because I like the way his team plays. I do not know how people from Arsenal will look at the match, maybe they will consider they've lost due to the 11-10 play. Or maybe they will be objective and will find that they haven't succeeded three consecutive passes in the whole match. " According to the Catalan technician, the only solution for Londoners to improve the game is to see the bad things they have done at the Nou Camp. "I would love one day to hang out with Wenger and analyse both legs. Maybe I'm subjective, but I think we were a class over the English team. " Guardiola admitted that his heart stopped in the last stage of the match, when Bendtnerhad escaped to the gate, but was blocked in extremis by Mascherano. "If my player wouldn't run fast enough to block the 20 m shooting, we could be eliminated. We had plenty of occasions, we shouldn't have been in that situation."
Wanted by Barcelona, the club where he trained as a junior, Cesc Fabregas had a lackluster performance at the Nou Camp and considerated himself the main culprit for the failure of qualification."I take full responsibility for the failure of this evening. It is one of the worst moments of my career and I apologize, "said Arsenal's captain, who added:" It is a pity that we left the competition. We scared Barcelona a little bit, in particular at the equalizer goal .This is football. I played with pain in the leg and tried to resist as much. I want Barcelona to go very far in the League. "
After the nervous breakdown which he had at the end, when he yelled at referee Busacca, Arsene Wenger said after the game that even the UEFA delegate was outraged by the removal of Van Persie."How can you kill a game like this? I think there are two types of fans upset by such an error - those who love Arsenal and those who love football. It was a decision that ruined a promising match. And for what? If it was for a hard foul, I could understand,"lamented the Frenchman. Wenger has not forgotten though the fair play towards the opponent:: "We lost against a great Barcelone. I wish them a further success. "
An all or nothing match for Barcelona in the League. Cesc Fabregas will play for the first time in an official match on the Camp Nou from where he left eight years ago for 5.4 million euros with Merida.
Messi who scored four goals last season without Arsenal is the key element of the matches, say the Spaniards. Barcelona must turn the result of 2-1 on Emirates. Pep Guardiola is confident :Barcelona never lost a return match at home in an European match after it was led away.
The start kick belongs to Barcelona. We expect a great show '1: Clichy X attacks Xavi harshly: '2: Arsenal soars on the gate defended by Valdes, but Nasri fouls D. Alvez '4:S. Busquets calls foul but does not receive anything '5 :Arsenal on the counter attack but Wilshere centers too far for V. Persie: '6:Alves fouls Fabregas. '7: Adriano passes, excellent to D. Villa but the Spaniard is on the aisle '9: Iniesta passes perfectly to D. Alves who was in off-side. Arsenal has a quite high defense, trying to destroy Barcelona combinations. '13: D. Alves keeps well the ball for Villa. The Spaniard is not tuned to catch the ball. '15: Koscielny sees yellow after stopping Pedro illegally . '16: D. Alves shoots directly to the gate , emotions for Szczesny. Goalkeeper of the gunners is tense after a free kick executed by D. Alves '18: Arsene Wenger is forced to change Szczesny, Alunia enters, problems for Arsenal are already starting '23 : Adriano tries a guard for Messi,but he is too far in the back '27: Messi is fouled by V. Persie '28: Barcelona has a chance to open the score, Pedro sends over the gate '29: Sagna collects yellow 30: Messi dribbles two Arsenal defenders Messi Messi Messi Messi is waiting too long to shoot '32: Barcelona soars to the gate of Almunia, D. Villa has a great chance to open the score, but he "passes" to the gate keeper. There have been 35 minutes and Arsenal is still holding. '36: Adriano tries to center but he hits the bar , amazing '38: D. Alvez fouls Clichy pretty tough. B Barcelona has possession on her side, but that's not enough to qualify '41: Abidal senses the duel with Rosicky Spirits at the Camp Nou preheat . V. Persie is arguing with Abidal. Both teams expect the break. 45+ 1: V.Persie sees yellow for protests. 45+ 2: Barcelona goes on the counterattack through Messi Messi, Messi, Messi ..... Messiiii shoots directly into Almunia's arms 45+ 3: BARCELONA .... GOOOOOOOAL Gooooaal Messi. From this moment the Catalans are qualified. Break on the Camp Nou. Barcelona enters in the break with an advantage. DO NOT go ! we'll back with the second half in just 15 minutes.
The second half starts. Arsenal is forced to score if they want to eliminate Barcelona '53: GOOOOOOAAL ARSENAL. The Gunners are currently qualified. AUTO GOAL Busquets. Barcelona has to take it from the start again. '55: Unbelievable. V. Persie sees the second yellow, I do not think he heard the whistle of Busacca Dutchman. Wenger has a real problem. '57: D. Villa could score but he kicks the goalkeeper. The Spanish has always kicked in the gunners goalkeeper. '59: Arsenal goes on the counter through Nasri , the Frenchman has no one to pass to, the lack of V. Persie is shown. Arsenal is frantically trying to keep the ball. '64: Huge opportunity for Adriano. '66: Villa shoots Almunia again. The goalkeeper is at the 4th or 5th ntervention '68 : Three action for Barcelona. Xaviiii ... GOOOAAL Barcelona. The match is restarted. '70: Unbelievable Barcelona has penalty. Barcelona players embrace each other '71 GOOOAAAL BARCELONA GOOOOOOAL MESSI .... Barcelona is now qualified in the quarterfinals. '73: Wenger inserts Arshavin in Rosiscky's place . '76: Arsenal tries to jump to the gate of Barcelona thriugh Nasri. '77: Change from Arsenal. Wenger puts Bendtner in the place of Fabregas Barcelona magnetizes all the balls. Nothing works out for Wenger's students '81:Guardiola changes too. D. Villa goes out, enters Afellay '85: D. Alves wants to leave Messi alone with the empty gate ....Alves is too altruistic. '87: Keita Mascherano is replaced by Keita after a duel with Bendtner '90: Guardiola is stalling, introduces Maxwell for Adriano. Four minutes are shown from the edge. There are a few more seconds until the expiration of extra minutes. FINAL WHISTLE. Barcelona in the quarters.
Rome seems to be out of the crisis, and Sahtior has a lot of work to do to qualify for the first time in the League quarterfinals.
Barcelona must compensate the failure in London , and Milan has to wash the shame of San Siro in front of the English at Tottenham.
See the schedule of Champions League return matches.
Tuesday, 8th March :
Sahtior Donetsk (Ukraine) - AS Roma (Italy), first leg 3-2
FC Barcelona (Spain) - Arsenal (England)first leg 1-2
Wednesday, 9th March :
Tottenham (England) - AC Milan (Italy), first leg 1-0
Schalke 04 (Germany) - Valencia (Spain), first leg 1-1
The other matches from the 8th tour will take place on 15 and 16 March.
Arsenal meets Barcelona today at Camp Nou in the Champions League knockout return leg. "The Gunners", who have won on the Emirates (2-1) are confident that if they eliminate Barcelona, they will win the competition.
"It will be the hardest match of the last years, but if we pass Barcelona, we will win the trophy." said midfielder Jack Wilshere yesterday.His coworkers have the same opinion, Nasri and Fabregas."Barcelona is the most in form team in Europe. If we eliminate it, the chances for us winning the trophy increase a lot." said Fabregas, who has recovered from a slight injury and could play against the team who raised him.
Arsene Wenger has revealed the tactics he will use in the match tonight. The French technician will give up the offensive style that characterizes Arsenal and will focus on defense and counterattack. "We have a minimal advantage. We can not afford defensive mistakes. We need to change our play style for the game at the Nou Camp. It will be one of our few matches where we will spend 60% of the game defending us. "
Arsenal's coach wanted to remind the press that Arsenal knows how to defend, not only to attack: " Everybody says that Arsenal doesn't have defensive. Let me remember you that in the last seven league matches we have not earned a single goal. "
Arsenal had a great journey in Premier League in the last stages and came at a distance of just three points from the leader Manchester United, who also played an extra game.
FC Barcelona captain, Carles Puyol, is unavailable for Tuesday's match with Arsenal in the Champions League knockout round, still having pain in his left knee. Puyol, who has not played for weeks, attended the last two workouts of the team, but has not yet been endorsed by doctors to evolve. He had knee pain at each training session.
Gerard Pique will also miss from FC Barcelona on Tuesday, being suspended.
The Catalan team was beaten by Arsenal in the Champions League first round,with 2-1 score. Guardiola must consider a very good strategy if it wants to beat Arsenal.
The North London team will travel to Spain for the match on Tuesday night that they will play in Champions League against the champions of the Primera Division, FC Barcelona. Arsenal comes after a painful semi-failure at home in front of Sunderland, 0-0, after which it lost two precious points in the battle for the title with ManchesterUnited.
The Gunners don't aim to play at 0-0 the crucial eighth meeting of the League because they aren't used to practice a purely defensive game. "We need better players physically ready because we have a lot of running. We don't have the necessary safety for our defensive to barricade ourselves against the Catalans. We will attack and try to score." said Arsene Wenger. Good news for Arsenal fans, whose captain, Cesc Fabregas will be holder in the game in Spain. Big chances to return to the lawn have also Jack Wilshere and Alex Song. All three have missed a period, from injuries suffered in the season.
Arsenal will go to Catalonia in the shelter of a 2-1 result in the tour, match that Barcelona controlled most of the time and led until the end of the game after the goal scored by Villa. Two sensational successes , Arshavin and Van Persie have given to the Londoners a victory which will bring hope for the return match that will be played on March 8.
Sir Alex Ferguson faces problems before the English football derby that Manchester United played on the field of its rival, Liverpool. Rio Ferdinand was missing for a long time from the Red Devils team, following an injury and Nemanja Vidic was suspended for a red card earned at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool came after Kenny Dalglish's first defeat of the season, 1-3 at WestHam and was in desperate need of points to keep hoping for a Champions League place. Cormorants also had a stake for this match: obstruction of United to win another championship title, which would have surpassed the record of 18 championships that the two share.
The only time during the first half in which United was dangerous occurred after the first quarter hour when Berbatov hit Reina's bar after a shot from 20 yards. A very well organized game in defense of Liverpool and two successes of Dirk Kuyt followed. The first was after a sensational race of Luis Suarez, who has strung together on the road no less than four players.
Kuyt completed his hattrick in the second half, after a free kick executed by Suarez and managed this way to score the first goals of his career against Manchester. Hernandez's goal came too late to change something and that's how Liverpool went to the sixth place with 42 points.
Manchester is at its second consecutive defeat in the championship after the failure on Tuesday at Stamford Bridge and lost ground in the fight for the title which the "red devils"have with Arsenal. United still has an advance of three points ahead of the gunners, who have to play one more game with Tottenham.
Arsene Wenger's students have played on Saturday a very important match on Emirates against the eight-placed, Sunderland. The stake of the game was represented by a closer position to Manchester United in the rankings.Hosts manager used the best seal possible, despite the fact that Arsenal will play in the middle of next week the final game against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. But the hosts could not count on the captain Cesc Fabregas , on the top scorer Robin van Persie and the wing Theo Walcott , all three being injured and their absences have said their word.
Arsenal dominated the game from one end to another, but failed to break the lock of the defense side leaded by a goalkeeper in a day of grace, Mignolet stopping many times the hosts efforts to open the score. In turn, Samir Nasri,two times and Nicklas Bendtner were blocked by the French in the first half. Second half brought nothing new, hosts continued to miss, the largest miss being Chamakh 's bar. The guests could finally kick, but England's youth team striker, Danny Welbeck has got a great volley , but Szczesny rejected it in corner, making it up for the League Cup final blunder from Birmingham's winning goal. It ended 0-0 and Arsenal lost two huge points in the battle for the title.
The manager of the hosts said he was satisfied by his team's game : "I am happy with the way my students have played. The defense was very good, but they had a certain lack of creativity in the offensive phase. We had also two big mistakes of arbitration, especially at the stage when Arshavin was stopped for a non-existent off-side. A 1-0 win would have been very important for us. "
The hopes of " the gunners" are heading for the English championship derby which will be held Sunday at Anfield Road between Liverpool and Manchester United. Wenger hopes the rivalry between the two combatants would materialize in a new failure for Sir Alex Ferguson's team, after the Tuesday one , a 1-2, suffered in Chelsea's ground.
England League Cup Final brought face to face Arsenal London and the 16th ranked in the Premier League, Birmingham City. "The Gunners" had a chance to win a trophy again after six years of drought, but couldn't rely on the Spanish superstar, Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott.
Arsenal hit on their opponent's concentration and determination, the work of the manager McLeish and giant Zigic, who opened the score after half an hour of play. Wenger's students have retaliated by the acrobatic executing of Van Persie, who brought the equal five minutes before halftime.
In the second half, Foster has done wonders for Birmingham's door, blocking Nasri three times , but also Arshavin, on the other side,Fahey hitting the pillar of Arsenal's gate. In the 83rd minute the manager Alex McLeish has made perhaps the most inspired change of his career when he entered on the field the striker borrowed from Rubin Kazan, Obafemi Martins. The game was headed to overtime, but this has not agreed by the Nigerian who benefited from the lack of communication between Wojciech Szczesny and Laurent Koscielny and turned into a goal the gift offered by the two, bringing his first trophy for his team after the League Cup won in 1963.
On the other hand, Arsenal missed the chance to get the third League Cup in history, but she still remains in the fight for the Premier League title, where it's four points behind Manchester United and for Champions League, where she starts on the second leg against Barcelona at the Nou Camp from a 2-1 score.
After almost eight years, the team coached by Arsene Wenger persuaded Cesc Fabregas to sign with the "Gunners". Since then, the Spaniard has become one of the best midfielders in the world, and Barcelona, the club he left, regrets him and tries to bring him at the New Camp , and is willing to pay 40 million euros for him .
History is about to be repeated now: Wenger put a while ago his eyes on Jon Miquel Toral Harper, a talented player at La Masia Academy. He is only 16, the same age Fabregas had at the time of his departure in England. According to Marca, Toral agreed with " the Gunners." The midfielder of Spain's team under 16 years , Toral really wanted to move to England because his mother was born there. He was wanted by several bands of Albion, but chose to go to Arsenal, convinced of Arsene Wenger's offer, who spoke to the footballer's mom in January.
In exchange for Toral, Arsenal will pay 350,000 euros to Barcelona ,representing the football training allowance. The Catalan president, Sandro Rosell, showed disappointment with Arsenal's attitude, but also by the junior's decision, saying he no longer has any chance to dress Arsenal 's shirt in the future. At the age of 47 years, Rosell was vice-president of the club in 2003 when Fabregas left Arsenal , and hoped till the last moment to avoid a new situation, but Toral's desire was stronger , and the young midfield became a British player two weeks before the rematch between Barcelona and Arsenal, in the Champions League knockout round.
Arsenal's coach, Arsene Wenger, said on Sunday that the London group can afford not to sell Cesc Fabregas.
The French technician said that money is not a problem for Arsenal.
"We need Fabregas. It is a great player and we want to keep him here. We fight all the competitions because we have players capable of doing it. We can afford to turn down offers from financial reasons. We do not need money. Those who accused of before that I don't spend money now reproach me that I do not sell players. That is a sign that we do things in a good way." , said Wenger.
