L'équipe has the probable first 11 for France's opening world cup qualifier on Saturday :

Mandanda
Sagna, Mexès, Gallas, Evra
Govou, L. Diarra, Toulalan, Nasri
Benzema, Henry

In North America, Setanta will be showing both of France's upcoming world cup qualifiers on same-day tape delay:

Setanta broadcast at 4:00 p. Click to continue reading...

This headline, Saha becomes a Toffee after passing Everton medical, struck me as curious: how did Saha pass a medical?

I, for one, really hope his injuries are behind him for good - can you imagine? When he's in form he is a cracking striker, and I'd love to see him hit the heights for France.

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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has hailed the performance of new boy Samir Nasri and described his performance against Newcastle as complete. The young midfield maestro was outstanding on Saturday and followed up goals against West Brom on the opening day and FC Twente in the midweek Champions League qualifier with an influential performance against The Magpies. Click to continue reading...

Morning, or should I say afternoon, fellow gooners.

Apologies for no blog over the weekend. I was in the process of moving house, something i will have to do again by the end of the month. What joy.

As such, I only caught the second half of the Newcastle performance, but what I did see was rather lovely. Click to continue reading...

Midfield maestro Samir Nasri has claimed the first of Gooner Talk's Player of the Month award's after a magnificent debut month in an Arsenal shirt. The 21-year-old, who made two appearances as a substitute for France during Euro 2008, signed a "long-term" contract with the Gunners two months ago for a reported fee of £13. Click to continue reading...

The transfer of Aliaksandr Hleb discussed earlier this summer eventually became inevitable. Arsenal, after all, have a reputation as a selling club and had just finished another season trophyless. The planned £20 million switch to Inter that had previously opened the door for Hleb's exit served to ease his path to Barcelona. Click to continue reading...

Let me start by saying that I admire Kevin Keegan because he likes his football teams to play decent football. He gets them to play attacking attractive stuff and he is a great guy.

I like the Geordie public, they are great people and are starved of success in a football sense. This is not a direct pop at them. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal's post-Fulham rehabilitation continued yesterday with a comfortable 3-0 win over Newcastle. Since that black day last week we've won two games, scored seven goals and kept two clean sheets. Not bad.

Of course you have to take the quality of the opposition into account, and both Twente and Newcastle are poor teams, but you can only beat what's in front of you.

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Phrases like "taking candy from a baby" come to mind when Clichy repeatedly takes the ball away from a hapless opponent and darts upfield. He took a swerving shot on target today. If he starts adding goals to his game, we'll have to break out the 10s (9).

Nasri - Settling in nicely. Click to continue reading...

In one of the more intriguing contests of the weekend, Arsenal are looking to rebound from a lackluster start to the season. The Gunners struggled to defeat West Brom by a single goal in their opening match and then lost to Fulham at Craven Cottage last week.

Newcastle, meanwhile, are enjoying a fine start to the 2008-09 campaign.

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Newcastle United will make the 280 mile trip to The Emirates tomorrow to face Arsene Wenger's men. The Gunners go into the match as clear favourites, despite the frustrating loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage last weekend. Arsenal have been boosted by the fact that Samir Nasri, Theo Walcott and William Gallas have been passed fit. Click to continue reading...

Well that was pretty easy. Twente didn't put up much of a fight in Wednesday's second leg, going down 4-0, and 6-0 on aggregate. A real confidence booster if you ask me, especially in light of the previous weekend's performance. Theo Walcott's finish in the second half was undoubtedly Henry-esque, so that's good.

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Arsenal are through to the Champions League Group Stage where they'll have home and away matches against Porto, Fenerbahce, and Dynamo Kiev.

They made it into today's Champions League group stage draw by defeating FC Twente 6-0 on aggregated in the 3rd qualifying round. Goals from the second leg, a 4-0 home victory for Arsenal, are embedded below. Click to continue reading...

Here's the list for our World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Austria. These games make me nervous. After watching Austria in Euros, I'm thinking that they especially are underrated and could deliver a shock. (Like they did in that friendly with Italy last week. As my co-blogger Chris said, they scored four goals!

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It's always nice after an unexpected defeat to inflict a backlash on your next opponents, with Arsenal running riot against FC Twente on Wednesday night. Gallas, Nasri, Walcott and Bendtner all scored to ensure the Gunners ran out 4-0 winners, with Cesc Fabregas returning to inspire a team that had . Click to continue reading...

It's clear that the midfield area is where the Gunners are struggling at the moment, despite the acquisition of the talented Mr Nasri. While the Frenchman looks like the real deal already, the temporary absence of Cesc Fabregas illustrated how ordinary Arsenal can look in the middle of the park, ... Click to continue reading...

Well that was much more fun than the last few days, wasn't it?

We secured our qualification for the group stages of the Champions League for the 11th successive season with a 4-0 win over FC Twente (goals here via 101 Great Goals). The boss mixed the team up a bit. Bendtner came in for Adebayor, Fabregas replaced Eboue and Djourou came in at the back (heh) in place of Kolo.

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4 more Champions League qualifying games took place today in Europe. Liverpool steal a win Liverpool was going into this match with a 0-0 aggregate against Standard Liege and it took them 90 minutes to finally score a goal and advance into the next round of the Champions League. Dirk Kuyt scored the goal for Liverpool in stoppage time to give Liverpool an unimpressive win. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal bounced back from last weekends Premier League defeat to Fulham with a superb win over Steve McClaren's FC Twente. Nicklas Bendtner started ahead of below-par Emmanuel Adebayor while Kolo Toure was dropped to the bench mainly thanks to Johan Djourou's previous performances in the side. Arsenal Starting XI Almunia Sagna - Djourou - Gallas - Clichy Walcott - [. Click to continue reading...

Morning all. While for most of the summer I have been so supportive of Arsene Wenger and figured he would certainly improve the squad and make it competitive before the transfer window closes, I've found myself drifting further and further over the other side, and today is no exception.

After the first leg against FC Twente, Wenger had this to say to Arsenal. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal midfield maestro Cesc Fabregas is set to return from a hamstring injury as the Gunners' play the return leg of their UEFA Champions League qualifier against FC Twente at Emirates Stadium tomorrow evening. Switzerland international Phillipe Senderos won't play though. The 23-year-old was today undergoing a medical with Serie A giants AC Milan. Click to continue reading...

First things first my fellow gunners, Don't Panic. There is no need for some of this in-fighting that I have witnessed on different blogs and message boards between those of us who truly love the sport and are passionate about the Arsenal. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, regardless or not if it questions the wisdom of our fearless leader Mr.

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It's a big disappointment. But Fulham deserve full credit for this win. They had a plan and executed it perfectly: neutralize the Arsenal's weak central midfield and clamp down on the left flank.

Arsenal's team on the pitch were not fluid; their passes astray, their runs sluggish; they were often a step late to the ball. Click to continue reading...

Midfield maestro Samir Nasri will play against Fulham despite sustaining a thigh injury whilst on International duty for France. Gooner Talk told you two days ago that Samir Nasri would be fit for Saturday's Premier League clash with Fulham and the official site have now confirmed it. New-boy Mikael Silvestre could also be involved while Alex Song [. Click to continue reading...

Samir Nasri has been ruled out of France's friendly with Sweden on Wednesday because of a thigh strain. The Arsenal midfielder was called into Les Bleus' squad on Monday following the withdrawal of winger Hatem Ben Arfa, who injured his adductors at the weekend. But Nasri will not board Tuesday's flight to Gothenburg, the French Football [. Click to continue reading...