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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hailed his side’s ‘special spirit’ after the beat bitter rivals Tottenham in a 1-0 win.
The Gunners won the north London derby thanks to a fabulous Tomas Rosicky strike after just 72 seconds. Despite having to stay resilient for long periods of the game, Arsenal have put themselves right back into the title race with that victory.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hit out at Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben as the Gunners exited this season’s Champions League after a hard earned 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena.
Arsenal were 2 nil down going into the second leg in Germany and needed a top performance to overcome a two goal cushion against the European Champions for the second season running.
Arsenal started the second leg reasonably well with Alex Oxade-Chamberlain producing an excellent display in midfield. The Gunners however fell further behind in the tie when Bastian Schweinsteiger’s struck from close-range but German forward Lukas Podolski levelled things up against his former club.
But unfortunately for Arsenal they couldn’t get their noses in front on the night and had Lukasz Fabianski to thank for ensuring they went a second season unbeaten at the Allianz when he saved a stoppage-time penalty from Thomas Muller.
Despite Arsene Wenger publicising his fears in the pre-match press conference Arjen Robben still went to ground on a number of occasions and it was no surprise when the referee finally awarded the Dutchman a penalty in stoppage time.
Wenger told the press afterwards that he was not impressed with Robben’s diving antics :
“Robben is very good at getting the maximum of nothing and he is a great player and as well a very good diver, but it is part of it, He is a fantastic player, I would not deny that, he’s one of the best players in the world.
But he gets in front of a player and then he slows down and goes down. He gets the free-kicks.
That’s where we spoke about yesterday that the referee, if he gives him a yellow card on the first one when he goes down, he will not do it again.”
Wenger then spoke about his side’s aggregate defeat against the European Champions :
“We had to defend a lot in the first half, but we knew that being in the game at half-time we had a good chance to win the game,
I believe that in the second half the opportunities were there, but overall over the two games I feel that what made the difference is the decision to send our goalkeeper off in the first game.
We played a 1-1 tonight and that decision had a huge impact. It was on the same player who got a penalty again tonight and that’s the regret we have. Spirit wise, we have everything until the end.
Good luck to Bayern, they are a good side but I think they are this season more vulnerable than last year.”
Bayern will be relieved to get past the Gunners who presented a very tricky tie on paper for Pep Guardiola’s men. In fact the result may have been different if Mesut Ozil has converted his penalty and Wojciech Szczesny hadn’t been dismissed at the Emirates in the first leg.
Bayern are now 2/1 favourites to retain the Champions League this season with Barcelona at 7/2 and Real Madrid at 4/1. To see these odds and more click here. With Arsenal exiting the competition it’s now left to Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea to fly the British flag although both City and United must overcome two goal deficits if they are to remain in the competition. Chelsea are locked at 1-1 with Galatasaray.
Mikel Arteta is is considering appealing against the ‘very harsh’ red card he received at Crystal Palace yesterday following a tangle with former Gunner’s striker Marouane Chamakh.
Arsenal’s new signing Mathieu Flamini has set his sights on savouring more trophy wins during his second spell at the Gunners. The French ace spent four years at Arsenal from 2004 to 2008 in his first spell at the club and helped Arsene Wenger’s side to their last trophy – the 2005 FA Cup.
Since then, the club have endured eight trophy-less seasons, but Flamini, who returned from AC Milan on a free transfer last month, believes the big-money signing of Mesut Ozil proves the Gunners’ intent going forward.
New Arsenal signing Mesut Ozil has revealed that it was a telephone call from Arsene Wenger that convinced him to leave Real Madrid for Gunners this summer.
The German midfielder moved to the Emirates after Arsenal finally splashed the cash and smashed their transfer record to sign the attacking midfielder on transfer deadline day last week in deal worth a whopping £42.5million.
This was to be the summer of bold moves for Arsenal, a summer where they nailed their colours to the mast and said ‘This year we mean business.’ But for one reason or another it has not played out like that for Arsene Wenger and Arsenal.
After taking the unprecedented step of telling the world that they had real money to spend this year and despite being linked with some top names, only young striker Yaya Sanogo has been brought in from Auxerre. Arsenal appeared to be following their intent with strong interest in Gonzalo Higuain but seemed to stop short of paying what Real Madrid wanted for the Argentinian striker who then went and joined Rafa Benitez’s Napoli.
Gonzalo Higuain’s move to Arsenal has taken a step forward with Real Madrid finally giving permission for the player to begin talks over his transfer, according to his father Jorge Higuain (who is also his agent).
The possible transfer of the Argentinian striker has been ongoing for a few weeks now with Arsenal and Madrid locked in talks over a deal for the Argentinian international striker.
It seems that Arsenal are in ‘pole position’ to land Real Madrid’s Argentinian striker Gonzalo Higuain according to reports in Spain. Arsene Wenger is determined to strengthen his squad this year and the Madrid hitman is thought to be top of his list.
Higuain is expected to leave the Bernabeu this summer after stating that it was his intention to leave Madrid at the end of last season. The striker has endured a difficult time at Madrid and has been unable to command a consistent starting place during his six years in the Spanish capital.
