Arsenal have been linked with Luis Nani before, and it seems that the Portuguese international winger will be leaving his current club Manchester United this summer. There is interest from other clubs, most notably the Turkish champions Galatasaray, and it is through them that we have learned that United are only looking for a transfer fee of around £8 million, so should Arsenal be trying to bring him to the Emirates?
Having been inundated with transfer rumours for the last few weeks about Gonzalo Higuain coming to Arsenal I have been a bit reluctant on bringing up the subject again, but now, according to every media source and their dog, The deal is just about done and dusted for the massive figure (for Arsenal) of £25.
How Arsenal players can salvage England's pride by FD
So the feverish transfer speculation concerning who'll be coming to join Arsenal this summer has abated for the time being. If you believe the reports, it's because all the Arsenal medical and backroom staff have gone away on holiday.
Although it seemed pretty clear that Arsene Wenger wanted to sign David Villa for Arsenal back in the January transfer window, there is not a lot of speculation linking the Spanish international striker with a move to the Emirates this summer. Instead, it was widely believed that our North London rivals Tottenham were in pole position to sign the 31-year old from Barcelona.
As somebody famous(Brian Clough maybe?) once said, football is not played on paper it is played on grass, but statistics are widely used now in all aspects of the game. I am sure that Arsene Wenger has reams of stats about his Arsenal players, because they do give a good idea of what is going on and how a player is performing.
As all Arsenal fans will know, the club are currently chasing Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain to bring some firepower to the club that Olivier Giroud failed to provide last season. Most fans are happy at the prospect of Higuain playing for the club and they should be because he is a good striker who can score 30 goals a season when he gets regular game time but this article is not about him.
From a footballing perspective, the summer is a long, drawn out affair that saps your energy and leaves you desperate for the new season to start again. Fans of some clubs can often break up the mediocrity and dullness by getting overly excited about some shiny brand new signing.
Could Walcott be heading for an Arsenal exit? by FD
Come on , Gooners. What's a summer without the threat of an Arsenal big name exit? With all the excitement about the new, spend, spend, spend Arsenal and the feverish speculation over the quality of players being targeted for a move to the Emirates, it's no surprise that any potential departures are getting little news coverage.
Stuart Pearce has been speaking about the Arsenal players Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain following the first game for the England under-21 side in this summer's European Championships in Israel. England were uninspiring and lost 1-0 to a much better looking Italy side, which led to Pearce's complaints about the players available to him.
The thought of Arsenal signing one top quality striker seems unrealistic to some, let alone the two ‘world class' strikers that some Arsenal fans want. Of course I'd be ecstatic about two strikers joining but being realistic, I can't see the likes of Rooney, Higuian or Jovetic joining simply because of the demands of the respective players, clubs and our own negotiations.
Santiago Cazorla could be forgiven for being very pleased with his first season as an Arsenal player. Being voted by the fans as the Player of the Year could make you think that you had arrived and were comfortable at your new club, but that's not the way the Spanish international works.
He is understandably pleased with how the fans took to him straight away, and how well he settled into the Arsenal team.
Arsene Wenger has revealed why he never signed Gareth Bale when he had the chance, and the reason was that he had Gael Clichy. Bale used to play at left back for the majority of his career until the last two or three seasons and Wenger didn't like the idea of having two young left backs in his team.
In a time where Arsenal seem to have lost all their best players over the last few years, the arrival of this summer transfer window doesn't seem to pose a threat of losing any of our main players once again. Van Persie, Nasri, Fabregas, Song, Clichy have all left in the last few years and then before then the likes of Henry, Hleb and Vieira have all transferred away from North London.
I am continually surprised by the way some Arsenal fans feel about Theo Walcott. It seems to be similar to the `Ramsey effect`, in which in some people's eyes he will never be any good, no matter how well he actually plays. Maybe it is because Theo has been disappointing in the past, but he certainly doesn't seem to get the credit he deserves.
Ryo Miyaichi was a player that I think gave every Arsenal fan a tad of excitement. Maybe not the most skilful or amazing player that would change a game in an instant but his raw speed just gave us the feeling that something amazing could happen at any moment, much like the feel you got when you first saw Theo Walcott play for Arsenal, or Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, even Serge Gnabry.
Aaron Ramsey has been speaking about Arsenal's ambitions for next season and he's declared that Arsenal ‘need a trophy now'! Well fans certainly aren't going to disagree with the Welshman and it's interesting how this has come out too long after Walcott also confirmed the clubs ambitions, well the player's ambitions at the least.
A lot of Arsenal fans have been wondering how rue it is that Arsene Wenger has £70 million to spend this summer and also, if he does have it available, will he change his ways and actually use it. I think Wenger will spend in the summer and potentially more than he ever has previously, subject to the players of ‘top, top quality' that he wants being available.
Theo Walcott ended the season as Arsenal's highest goal scorer with 21 goals, which is his most impressive return yet, however without being too critical it's not a high enough number for a team that wants to be ambitious in the challenges in front of them.
Has Arsene Wenger changed the way he brings young players into the Arsenal team? by SS
In the past we all know that Wenger has given many young players a chance in the first team and that is why the club has had many home grown, club trained players in the team than most other clubs in Europe.
Hello friends and good day. News broke today that Arsenal has not shown any interest in re-signing Cesc Fabregas, our former captain and Arsenal player of eight years, who now plies his trade at Barcelona. Understandably, most of us are upset and so was I, until I realised that we don't really need him.
Theo Walcott has been a bit of a frustration for Arsenal fans since he joined the club from Southampton as a fresh faced 17-year old back in 2006. For a long time it seemed as if he would never fully realise his potential and that went for his international career too.
It is easy to forget that Theo has just turned 24-years old, because he has been around for so long.
In the last three or four years in world football, the 4-3-3 formation has become the cornerstone of nearly every team in the world including Arsenal. Clubs have adopted this formation because of the success that was achieved by Barcelona with this formation and the trend of having two or even three out and out strikers died off.
There will be just two Arsenal players in the England squad that plays a couple of friendly matches, against Brazil and Republic of Ireland, but both Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are likely to feature prominently. While 24-year old Walcott will be hoping to carry his club form across to the international scene, it seems to be the other way round for the Ox.
Despite being just 24-years old, Theo Walcott is now one of Arsenal's senior players at the club as he looks to enter his 9th successive campaign with Arsenal following his arrival from Southampton in the 2005/2006 season.
It may not seem that long but as a player with that much experience at the club he is now seen as one of the most influential off the pitch.
After Benteke's comments yesterday about Arsenal, I've seen fans calling for Wenger to sign him as if he was the world's best player stating that he always dreamed of playing for Arsenal, however he's not. Back in reality he's a 22 year old striker for Belgium who had an exceptionally good season, but is he really what Arsenal need right now?
I have written articles about what the former Arsenal midfielder Stewart Robson has said before and it has pretty much been non-stop negativity, especially towards Arsene Wenger. Robson never played under the Frenchman, but he clearly considers himself an authority on him.
The Talksport regular has been telling us all season that Wenger should go and was clearly going to fail to finish in the top four this season.
Your high point, low point and funniest moment of the season. by NS
Well, it's all over.
Overall, a frustrating season for Arsenal. That was a season of Deja vu for many. A promising start, strange team selections at the mid point, Rosicky returning late on, injuries to Diaby, captain sold and a monumental end to the season to catch and overtake Spurs to secure the 4th place trophy.
It has been a testing time for everybody concerned with Arsenal Football Club this season, but the players made sure that it finished with a bang by beating Newcastle United at St. James' Park yesterday. You could see the elation and relief on the faces of the Gunners and the Gooners who had traveled to see the game, but we really must do better next season.
So we now face the final game of the season, and Arsene Wenger knows that Arsenal simply need to win at Newcastle to confirm our place in the Top Four for the 17th season in a row. But which team is Wenger going to pick?
There are certain to be changes from last week's nervous home win over Wigan, as the Spaniard Mikel Arteta is nigh on a certain casualty.
Arsene Wenger has not announced his Arsenal team sheet for the crucial last game of the season yet, but it does no take a genius to work out that Olivier Giroud will come straight back into the starting XI to face Newcastle United. The big French international was sent off against Fulham and the FA rejected the Gunners appeal, even though it was clear from the replays that he had got the ball and slipped.
Sharing is caring; Arsenal's high scoring forwards by DG
If I were to ask you which Premier League team has four players that have scored more than 10 league goals this season, which would you guess? Man Utd only have two – RVP and Rooney. Man City? Two – Dzeko and Aguero. Chelsea actually manage three, but only if we include Demba Ba's goals for Newcastle in the first half of the season.
Theo Walcott is Arsenal's top scorer this season with 21 goals so far. Olivier Giroud will need to score four against Newcastle on Sunday to equal that, so I think that Theo has got no reason to worry there. What he is worrying about, though, is breaking the 15 year run for the Gunners under Arsene Wenger.
When most of London was expecting Wigan to pull off another one of their dramatic last gasp escapes from the clutches of relegation, Arsene Wenger's men destroyed any such Latics dreams in an inspired 2nd half display at the Emirates. At the end of the night Roberto Martinez's men became the first team to be relegated from the EPL after winning the FA Cup.
Arsenal vs Wigan 4-1 Highlights 2013 Podolski Walcott Ramsey Maloney Goals Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter
Arsenal vs Wigan 4-1 Highlights 2013 Podolski Walcott Ramsey Maloney Goals Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Arsenal vs Wigan 2013 ( Arsenal Wigan Athletic VIDEO BELOW) Final score and result:- Arsenal vs Wigan 4-1 ( Podolski*2, Walcott, Ramsey) Emirates Stadium, London- 14 May, 2013- 19.
This was always going to be ab open and exciting game, with Arsenal and Wigan needing to win for different reasons. Arsene Wenger made just one change, with Gibbs coming in for Monreal and the young England international did brilliantly against one of Wigan's main threats Callum Mcmanaman.
Arsenal made a great start and looked like they were going to blow Wigan out of the water.
There have been a number of Arsenal players away on international duty this past week, so I am going to take a look at how they have all done. The most important thing, for anyone concerned with the Gunners, is that none of the players picked up any injuries or had a total disaster. Other than that, though, there were good and bad things for our players.
The latest player to be linked with an early summer move to Arsenal is Manchester United's Portuguese winger Nani. In a series of strange transfer reports, Nani is just the latest after weeks of goalkeepers, strikers and the rest of Europe being linked with the club.
Arsene Wenger watched his side finally come good in the second half against Wigan last night, but he thinks the game was much closer than Arsenal's winning margin suggests. He said after the game: "We had a quick start and a strong start for the first 20 minutes. We were really dominating and after that we became a bit conservative and pushed forward less and allowed Wigan back in the game.
Once again it's being reported by several media outlets that Arsenal are interested in Manchester United player Wayne Rooney and the information states; "Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is happy to smash their wage structure to land Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney.
After Arsenal secured fourth place with the 1-0 win over Newcastle United and a chance of Champions League football next season, Arsene Wenger hailed his "special" players. In particular, he praised their mental strength as they overturned a seven-point gap from Tottenham Hotspur. The resilience showed in the team's performances as they went nine league games unbeaten, and swapped their usual swashbuckling style for a more pragmatic approach.
