Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger has said that he is very happy with the way Nacho Monreal played in his debut match for Arsenal against Stoke City.

Monreal has been recently signed by the Gunners. His signing was finalised on the last day of the mid season transfer window. Arsenal paid a transfer fee of 8 million Pounds for signing him from Malaga.

Monreal was included in the starting XI in his debut match and he stood up to the expectations of his manager. He looked really impressive in his very first match in the English Premier League.

Arsenal defeated Stoke in that match by 1-0 courtesy of a goal from Lukas Podolski in the 78th minute of the match.
In the post match press conference, when Wenger was asked about the performance of Monreal, he said, “He played really well. He came here yesterday and he went into the match without much practice. But, he looked in fine form.”

“He has shown that he has got the potential to play for a Premier League team. He was just a touch nervous in the first half, but, after getting into his groove, he played brilliantly in the second half. Some of his crosses were absolutely outstanding.”

“He is a quality left back and his arrival has certainly strengthened our defense. Hopefully, he would maintain his form in the rest of the matches of the season.”

When asked about the overall performance of the team against Stoke, Wenger said, “Our performance was quite decent today. But, the margin of our victory could have been bigger than this if we had cashed on the opportunities that we got in the first half. However, we got three points and that’s the most important thing.”
Arsenal is currently at no. 6 in the Premier League points table with 41 points in 25 matches.

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that he is extremely delighted that the midfielder Jack Wilshere have signed a new five-year contract with the club. The 20-year-old England midfielder has been regarded as one of the best young prospects in English football.

He has risen to prominence incredibly over the last few years and there has been a feeling most Arsenal that they should tie him to a new deal rather than attract interest from other clubs. Arsenal have had a history of losing important players as a result of letting the contracts run down to the final year.

Now, they have agreed terms with the 20-year-old England midfielder and he has put into the paper on five-year deal that would make him one of the best paid players at the club. Jack Wilshere first team to prominence during the time of Cesc Fabregas, whose presence in the first-team limited his opportunities because he is a similar player to Fabregas. Following the departure of the Spaniard to Barcelona more than a year ago, which has risen to prominence. He has recently come back from long-term injuries that kept him out of for more than 17 months. However, Wenger has enough faith in the midfielder to offer him a long-term deal.

"We are delighted that these five young players have all signed new long-term contracts. The plan is to build a team around a strong basis of young players, in order to get them to develop their talent at the club. Jack is certainly the best known, the leader of this group – but the other four are exceptional footballers, and we're very happy that we could conclude their new deals at the same time," said the Arsenal manager of the official website of the club after announcing the new contract for Wilshere.

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that he is extremely happy following the special derby victory against Tottenham. Arsenal have had a recent slump in form it comes to the North London derbies against Tottenham.

However, they managed a spectacular 5-2 win over Tottenham to not only end this poor record, but also improve their form and position in the league as well. Arsenal are coming into the match on the back of a very poor run of form, which has seen them slip to the seventh position in the league. They have also conceded numerous goals in recent matches.

Things did not start well in the North London derby during the weekend after the Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor scored within the first few minutes of the match. However, things immediately took a turn for the worse for Tottenham after the Togo international was given a straight red card for his challenge on the Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla. Arsenal took advantage of the red card and dominated the match from then on in. They managed to go into the half-time break with a 3-1 advantage, while the match finished 5-2 in favour of Arsenal. All the five goals came from different scorers, which pleased Arsene Wenger.

"I felt with the two results we had against Schalke and against Manchester United, our confidence level dropped and because we are a team that likes to go forward, when your confidence drops, you game suffers straight away. So it was important to get back to positive results to get back to our level. This team is something special. They want to do well and they have quality," said Wenger. As a result of this victory, Arsenal leapfrog Tottenham in the sixth position. They still remain many points off the title challengers Manchester United and Manchester City.

Arsene Wenger has praised Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for his terrific development as a player in the last 1 year.

Chamberlain has been included in the England national team for the World Cup qualifying matches against Moldova and Ukraine. As per Wenger, there has been a considerable improvement in Chamberlain’s game in the last 1 year. He has got some great skills at such a young age.

Wenger said that it’s a great achievement for Chamberlain to have found a place in the national squad. Generally, the players don’t get chance to be a part of the national team at 19 years of age.

But, Chamberlain is a special talent. He has achieved great success in quick time. As per Wenger, it’s not easy for a youngster to deal with such kind of success. When you come in the limelight so quickly, your focus tends to shift from the game to the things happening around you. So, it’s important for Chamberlain not to get carried away and keep concentrating on his game.

Chamberlain had signed for Arsenal last summer. Arsenal had bought him from Southampton. He played his first match for Arsenal against Manchester United in the Premier League. Arsenal’s performance in that match was disastrous. The team was defeated by 8-2 in Chamberlain’s debut match. Chamberlain’s first goal for Arsenal came against Shrewsbury Town in a match of the League Cup.

Chamberlain’s performance was impressive throughout the last season and he was one of the standout performers for the club. At the end of the last season, the former Arsenal captain, Robin Van Persie had said that Chamberlain was on the way of becoming a superstar.
Wenger said that the club is expecting some decent performances from Chamberlain in this season as well. He was fantastic in the last season and the club wants him to take his performance to the next level.

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that he will not be making any comments regarding the future of star striker Robin van Persie, who has been linked with a move to Manchester United and Manchester City.

The 28-year-old Dutchman is out of contract at the end of the season and he has already stated that he will not be signing a new contract with the club.

As a result, Arsenal are left are facing the dilemma of losing their star striker for nothing, but they could sell the player for around £ 20 million this summer. The two Manchester clubs have been heavily linked with the player.

Manchester United have already made an opening bid of £ 15 million, which was rejected by Arsenal. Even though Manchester City are yet to come with a concrete offer for the player, it is thought that they will be doing so in the next few weeks. Juventus were initially linked with a move for the player, but they have pulled out of the deal to sign the Dutchman after citing the excessive wage demands of the player. Robin van Persie is thought to be demanding around £ 200,000 per week to the interested parties.

"Well at the moment I must say that this is not the subject of our tour, van Persie. I can understand it interests journalists, but we have nothing special to say about him, and the day we have to say something we will come out, don't worry, and inform you. The tour is very demanding because we travelled a lot, we played tougher games (than) we expected, even in Malaysia the game was tough physically. Last night we had a very tough game physically as well between Manchester City and Arsenal so it's a big intensity," said Arsene Wenger while on the tour of Asia.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has defended his striker Robin van Persie's form at the Euro 2012 by saying that the lack of goals from the 28-year-old is down to the Dutch teammates.

Despite being one of the favourite teams to win the Euro 2012, the Netherlands went out of the competition in the group stages itself after having suffered three defeats in the three group matches. Robin van Persie, who came into the tournament as one of the players to watch, was extremely disappointing after he failed to convert many chances for the national team.

Wenger, who is facing a major fight to keep his star striker at the Emirates stadium, has said that Robin van Persie's failure to score goals is due to his teammates not helping him.

Robin van Persie had an extraordinary season with Arsenal last season after he almost single-handedly helped the club reached the third place in the league. This, in turn, helped them qualify for the Champions League group stages automatically.

It has been seen as a major reason that would persuade Robin van Persie to stay at the club, like he did with Cesc Fabregas years before. Even though there are many rumours suggesting that Robin van Persie would sign for Italian club Juventus, Wenger believes that the Dutchman will stay at Arsenal next season.

“Robin deserves more credit than he gets in Holland. Robin van Persie was the best striker during the tournament. He’s much better than strikers from other countries and he’s also better than [Klaas-Jan] Huntelaar. You’ve got two types of strikers. You’ve got the ‘striker-striker’, who only plays in the box and waits for the ball. And you’ve got more footballing strikers, like Van Persie, and in the even more extreme Karim Benzema at France,” said Arsene Wenger to the De Telegraaf after the tournament's exit for the Dutch.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been stirred by the news that winger Theo Walcott could be back into the first-team reckoning for the match against West Brom during the weekend.

It looked like Theo Walcott would miss not only the rest of the season for Arsenal, but also the Euro 2012 as well. However, he has made remarkable recovery from a hamstring injury he suffered in the 0-0 draw with Chelsea a few weeks back. Wenger criticised the Walcott for not coming off and remaining on the field only to worsen the injury. However, the return of Theo Walcott is a massive boost for Wenger in the hopes of finishing in the top three.

Finishing in the top three positions of the Premier league will ensure Champions League qualification to the group stages automatically for a club. Arsenal blew their chances of finishing in the top three after the 3-3 draw with Norwich during the weekend, but were rescued by the fact that both Tottenham and Newcastle failed to take advantage of this slipup. As a result, Arsenal going to the match against West Brom with their fate in their hands, and the return of Walcott, who has scored eight Premier league goals and has 13 assists, will be a massive boost.

The news is also a major boost for current West Brom manager Roy Hodgson, who was recently unveiled as the next England manager. Roy Hodgson would have been hoping to take Theo Walcott to the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine this summer. England will be hoping for a much better than just a quarter-final finish, which has become the norm for the team in the last decade or so in major competitions. England failed to qualify for the Euro 2008, and they will be hoping to do well this time around.

Arsene Wenger has said that the chances of Arsenal winning the Premier League this season is all but over after the 1-0 defeat at the hands of leaders Manchester City.

In the process, Arsenal also surrendered as their eight match unbeaten run in the league. The 1-0 defeat, which came courtesy of a David Silva strike in the second half, condemned Arsenal to the first defeat in eight matches. Even though Arsene Wenger said that the defeat was hard to take, the possibility of Arsenal staging a late comeback for the Premier League title race seems all but over.

It was only a week ago that the title race looked like being opened by Chelsea after the London club defeated Manchester City for the first time this season. It closed the gap at the top of the table to just two points, but the win over Arsenal just confirms the superiority of Manchester City. Arsene Wenger, though, was critical of the refereeing decisions in the match, as he believed that Arsenal should have been awarded a goal that was wrongly disallowed for offside. Despite the defeat, Wenger has said that there have been plenty of positives for Arsenal to take from the match and they should not be looking to downtrodden.

"There are lots of positives; the team has done well since August. The progress is encouraging, but we need encouragement and points. Today we only got encouragement. It was a game which could have gone both ways. It was very intense,” said Wenger after the defeat. He also said that Arsenal will not be making a move for French midfielder Yoann Gourcuff in the January transfer window. Manchester City have continued their perfect start at the Etihad Stadium with this victory, despite suffering a defeat last week to Chelsea.