After an amazing run in the final two months of the season in which The Gunners went 8-0-2 to finish fourth and qualify for Champions League, the transfer rumors have already begun to swirl around potential offseason moves for Arsenal.
Last season, The Gunners welcomed Spanish duo Santi Cazorla and Nacho Monreal from Málaga, German Lukas Podolski from FC Koln, and Frenchman Olivier Giroud from Montpellier; who combined for a total of 123 matches started, 46 goals (of 102), 35 assists, and $58 million.
Arsenal fans had to endure a few nervous minutes at the end of the Gunners 1-0 win in Newcastle on May 19, but all's well that ends well as the club managed to finish in fourth place in the English Premier League this season to earn a berth in the qualifying stages of next season's European Champions League.
The last home game of the season ended on a very positive note and any win is a good way to repay the fans for providing the support throughout the entire 10 months. The win left us holding on to 4th spot as the battle for the Champions League goes down to the wire.
Arsenal remains in the driver's seat after a thorough 4-1 win over Wigan Athletic at the rain-soaked Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, May 14. The Gunners just have to win their final game of the season at St. James' Park in Newcastle to ensure themselves of a third or fourth place finish in the Premier League and an invitation to next season's European Champions League tournament.
Wigan made history again tonight. Three days after winning their first major trophy, they became the first side to win the FA Cup and get relegated after losing 4-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates.
While the win sends Wigan down with Reading and QPR, this was a vital three points for Arsenal in their quest for Champions League football next season.
A mere four days after winning the first FA Cup in Wigan's history, the club also became the first to ever get relegated the same season as winning the world's oldest football competition.
Tuesday night's match against Arsenal was a must win if they were to have any hope of staying up. Lukas Podolski gave Arsenal a lead in the 11th minute on Tuesday night, but Shaun Maloney (pictured above) kept the Latics' hopeful with an exquisite free kick just before halftime.
Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea. No, I'm not singing their song but that's how many times we will keep a look out for the results of their matches before we play our next one. It all became more important after last night's results. Both us and Sp*rs won our respective matches and it keeps up with the intensity of the chase for the last 2 Champions League spots.
This is a topic I have had on my mind for some time now and stems from Arsène Wengers apparent reluctance to try Podolski in the number 9 role. I believe he played this role once at the start of the season, (perhaps against Sunderland?), and since then, when he has played, he has been utilised from the attacking left, which often leaves him playing more like an orthodox winger.
This is a topic I have had on my mind for some time now and stems from Arsène Wengers apparent reluctance to try Podolski in the number 9 role. I believe he played this role once at the start of the season, (perhaps against Sunderland?), and since then, when he has played, he has been utilised from the attacking left, which often leaves him playing more like an orthodox winger.
(Disclaimer: This is a post by Nicks, Just wanted to clear the air before you start wondering if I'm a reverse Van Persie or something .)
Hello chums. A thousand apologies for keeping this blog in such a long state of abeyance; I blame this on a debilitating mixture of interviews, university applications, the death of football blogging as Twitter rises like a 140-character whale from the blue depths, and my college internet servers blocking this website for being too awesome or something.
I think the answer to that is a bit of both. Across 90 minutes on the balance of play, possession and opportunities carved out I don't think that 3-1 over-flattered us. That we were still 1-0 down going into the 84th minute does leave a certain feeling of having got away with this one though. I will, however, look at the positives that we kept fighting and pressing and that this is a very important trait that I see increasingly in this squad, which should hold us in good stead for the future.
I think the answer to that is a bit of both. Across 90 minutes on the balance of play, possession and opportunities carved out I don't think that 3-1 over-flattered us. That we were still 1-0 down going into the 84th minute does leave a certain feeling of having got away with this one though. I will, however, look at the positives that we kept fighting and pressing and that this is a very important trait that I see increasingly in this squad, which should hold us in good stead for the future.
We are Arsenal and there's no point in doing things the easy way. We provide all the hallmarks of a great movie despair and fear turned into jubilation when the odds are overcome. Well, maybe not to that cinematic level but somewhere along the lines because that was what happened yesterday against Norwich.
Once Arsenal's big guns all took to the pitch late in the game the club woke up in time to slam home three late goals for a 3-1 win over a pesky Norwich side. The three points move the Gunners into third place for the time being with 59 points as they leapfrogged over London rivals Tottenham and Chelsea.
It's a trip to the midlands today and a game against West Brom.
This fixture last year was one of the most tense, nerve-wracking Arsenal games I can ever remember. We took an early lead, let it slip to go 2-1 behind, got it back 3-2 and then hung on for dear life, quite literally at times, to the lead which would guarantee us Champions League football.
Today we return to the scene of our triumph (if you could call it that) last season. Martin Fulop might want to claim all credits but we still have to put shots at him for him to gift us goals. Andre Santos and Yossi Benayoun, 2 of the goalscorers from last season, are no longer with us for one reason or another.
April has already seen the summer transfer speculation around world football hit high gear. Arsenal has endured yet another frustrating season. Manager Arsene Wenger has been on the preverbal chopping block yet again despite finding a way to keep his club in the top six.
However, for a club with the history of Arsenal, being in the top six is just not good enough.
Arsenal's Lukas Podolski has recently been linked with a move to Serie A's Juventus; however the German international put the rumors to bed (via ESPN FC):
"I want to say two things. Firstly, I cannot help it that clubs are interested in me. And there are always people behind the scenes who want to float something in this business.
So we know that we are without Theo Walcott who would insist of travelling with England, silly boy, Abou Diaby, and possibly without Kieran Gibbs who is ill.
And we know Lukas Podolski and Bacary Sagna are fit.
We also know that so far this season we have scored seven [.
Lukas Podolski has been a key contributor for Arsenal with eight goals in 21 premier league appearances this season. Strangely, he has been fazed out of Arsenal's first team in the past weeks with no real explanation from Arsene Wenger. Perhaps Arsenal's best finisher, the decision does not make much sense.
Lukas Podolski has made it clear that he is loving life at Arsenal and has no intention of leaving them at the end of the season.
While still a regular starter, the Germany international rarely gets to finish games for the Gunners these days, and his indifferent form has seen him linked with summer moves to Juventus and Atletico Madrid.
One of the benefits of international games is that players often open up more to reporters in their own country than they do with the English media.
Invariably they say something truthful and controversial and then have to backtrack and deny it. Usually with the phrase "what I meant was lost in translation".
Arsenal striker Lukas Podolski has rubbished claims linking him with a move to Italian giants Juventus. The German international has been linked to the Serie A champions in recent weeks, but insists that he's happy in London and has no plans of moving this summer.
"Firstly, I cannot help it that clubs are interested in me," Podolski told Sky Sportsin response to talks of an impending transfer.
Arsenal's slim chance of moving on in the Champions League just got slimmer.
News broke on Monday night that Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere is facing a three-week stay on the sidelines, after discovering he had ankle inflammation during a training session.
Thomas Mueller and Bastian Schweinsteiger of Bayern Muenchen (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
After a gut-wrenching 3-1 defeat at the Emirates in the first leg, Arsenal will have plenty of work to do in the second leg at the Allianz Arena to qualify for the Champions League quarterfinals.
Arsene Wenger has sprung a little surprise with his selection of Arsenal team for a hugely important Game against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Lukas Podolski starts on the bench with Cazorla in his left sided position, Aaron Ramsey will start alongside Mikel Arteta, possibly as an answer to the threat of Gareth Bale.
In typical Arsenal style we made it a bit difficult for ourselves, but in the end that was a game won on merit and off the back of some excellent performances.
If the opening goal wasn't quite as early as in previous weeks, it was sufficiently timely to settle us down and give us the platform we needed.
We have a late kick-off today, playing at Loftus Road against newly relegated QPR. I have to admit this game worries me a bit. Perhaps I'm just bracing myself unnecessarily, taking a slightly glass half empty outlook, but I think after their Premier League status has been sorted they might play with a measure of freedom that the relegation battle didn't allow.
Well, we got there in the end but we didn't half make hard work it. Three points and up into third is as good an outcome as we could have had, yet it looked touch and go for a while.
Some of that was down to the fact we didn't play particularly well, some of it was down to Norwich who, understandably, set out to frustrate us.
It almost feels as if we're judging Lukas Podolski for the first time in an Arsenal shirt yet surely it is too late for first impressions. After the 1-1 draw with Manchester United in which Podolski finally got his opportunity up front, it's still not clear whether he's the answer.
It was actually Podolski's second start as the focal point of Arsenal's attack, having began the season against Sunderland in that role and then again in the defeat to Swansea late last year, although for only 40 minutes alternating with Gervinho.
it seems somewhat quieter this morning. Hopefully there are a few Manchester hangovers, some of which include acute food poisoning and 72 hour ebola as they ready themselves for the trip to play us on Sunday.
The Arsenal news yesterday was not particularly good as Olivier Giroud's red card appeal was rejected.
In the end, it wasn't really a tackle that Olivier Giroud made which earned him a red card. It was over the top only ever so slightly, and when Giroud saw the colour of the card he was incredulous. But in an age where digital motion capture means every 50-50 tackle if timed a teeny bit late is accentuated, he had to go.
After a period in which we've had to wait a full week between games, it seems something of a novelty to have midweek football.
Everton come to town in what's, on paper at least, our most tricky fixture of the remaining 6 aside from the visit of Manchester United. The Toffees come with genuine aspirations of Champions League football themselves.
Welcome to a brand new week and there's some interesting stuff from the manager regarding a couple of his forwards to get us going.
Lukas Podolski came off the bench to have a big impact on Saturday, but there's been plenty of chatter about him and his future. He's been sidelined, somewhat, through injury and the form of others, but Arsene Wenger doesn't talk like a man who is willing to write off a player he paid £12m for just a year ago.
Morning from a thoroughly miserable Dublin. I think it's time we extradited some of this rain to somewhere that might actually need it.
The first week of the Interlull draws to a dull, tedious close and the first round of games take place tonight. You can see a full list of who's about to get injured in action on the official site.
It's been another pretty quiet week – you can tell because all the tabloids are just running last week's transfer stories over again in the absence of anything else to talk about. Gonetic. Jovelons. Whatever. Let's get to the summer then start worrying about these kind of things.
Alexis Sanchez of FC Barcelona (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
Juventus are swimming in calm waters with the guarantee to play in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League and a lead now up to nine points over SSC Napoli in Serie A.
The club have now shiftedtheirfocus to possible summer transfer targets.
I may have mentioned it before but I am not a fan of winter. If summer is Dennis Bergkamp, then winter is a Sheringham/Terry combo with a Dutch Skunk cherry on top. The older I get the more I hate it. Stupid coldness.
Anyway, after a week off without football we can start to look at what lies ahead.
