Arsene Wenger praised the mental strength of striker Olivier Giroud after the Frenchman managed to not only comeback successfully from an injury ravaged first half, but also score a lot of goals in the second half of the season.

Giroud went off injured after the first few matches of the season. He missed the next few months due to foot injury and came back only recently. However, he has already helped himself to eleven league goals for this campaign. One of those goals came in the 3-0 win over West Ham United this weekend. In fact, Giroud has failed to score or assist a goal in only three out of the last 10 matches.

The striker has now resumed a lot of praise from Wenger, who resisted the urge to drop him after a very poor match against Monaco. The striker missed a number of opportunities that came his way in the 3-1 defeat against the French club, which has put Arsenal on the verge of being knocked out of the Champions League. Wenger has recalled that one of the attributes of Giroud is his mental strength, which has led him to become an international player after having been playing in the division even at the age of 22 and 23.

“It’s [mental strength] one of his strengths.This is a boy who played at 22 or 23 years old in division three and then becomes an international player.You need some mental strengths to do that because there is no red carpet and you have to work hard.You need some special strengths – Giroud had an outstanding game today.I know all these offensive players have the quality to deliver something special but what is for sure is they understand each other better than six or seven months ago,” said Wenger.

Arsene Wenger has once again increased to the disappointment amongst Arsenal fans by claiming that the top four remains the number one priority for the club despite reaching the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

Arsenal lifted the FA Cup last season to end almost a decade long wait for a trophy. It was celebrated with ecstasy by the fans, but Wenger reckons that the top four spot remains the most important aspect for the club. Finishing in the top four provides the chance to compete in the Champions League, which Arsenal have been doing consistently for more than 15 years.

It has proven to be a major reason behind the club being one of the most profitable amongst the top clubs in Europe, according to marathonbet . Wenger is not ready to sacrifice this just yet even though the Premier League will contribute a significant portion of the TV money when the new deal kicks in from the 2016-17 season.

The defeat against Tottenham at White Hart Lane remains as the solitary setback that the club has suffered in the league over the last five matches. Wenger says that it is good that Arsenal have progressed to the quarter-finals after beating Middlesbrough, but they will continue to concentrate on the league.

He told the marathonbet site “Our basic is always to finish in the top four and then win a trophy on top of that. We want always to be in the Champions League and this season it will be very difficult, because it’s very tight if you look at the table – every game now becomes a cup game. We have won (the FA Cup) five times during my period here. Nobody has won it more in the last 18 years, so we have always taken the competition seriously,” said Wenger. The Frenchman also says that he is ready to give a debut for new signing Gabriel Paulista this weekend.

Manchester City sustained a huge blow in their quest of protecting the Premier League title after losing 2-0 against Arsenal. The Etihad Stadium was the stage for Manchester City and Arsenal to face off in a match that had many things at risk.

Arsenal wanted to claim a victory in order to keep their hopes of snatching a Champions League spot alive meanwhile Manchester City needed to triumph for the sake of maintaining a close distance with the leaders of the Premier League, Chelsea.

The hosts enjoyed having more than 60% of possession but it wasn’t enough as Arsenal clinched the victory thanks to a penalty kick from SantiCazorla and a header from Olivier Giroud.

This result has allowed Chelsea to get some breathing space at the top of the English League but their advantage could be even bigger if they defeat Manchester City on the upcoming Premier League match.

Manuel Pellegrini and his squad failed on defeating Arsenal but their next match is scheduled to be played on January 31 when they lock horns with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and another loss could be enough for Chelsea to enjoy a smooth ride for the rest of the season before they claim the Premier League.

The Chilean manager of Manchester City is well aware of the importance that this match as he told the media that his team will bounce back.

“We still have to play against Chelsea so it will be a very decisive game. We will try to win that game to close that gap again. The game we must play at Stamford Bridge is a very important game. We must close the gap to two points. I hope we are going to recover and play the way we are playing so far,” Manchester City’s Manuel Pellegrini said.

The 23 year old forward of As.Roma, Mattia Destro is aware of the rumors that have been emerging which are linking him with a move to the Premier League side, Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger has at his availability a number of options in the attacking department of Arsenal which includes: Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, YayaSanogo, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis Sanchez, Danny Welbeck, Lukas Podolski and Joel Campbell.

Even with all of those attacking players Wenger could still be interested in adding even more offensive performers to his squad taking into consideration all of the injuries that continue affecting his team and have been hampering the chances of Arsenal to claim a Premier League title in over 10 years.

In the last season of MattiaDestro, he managed to score 13 goals in 20 appearances. Destro is not a regular player and is mostly used as an impact substitute player but the Italian player is still able to make a difference on the few moments on the pitch that he has and this is one of the main reasons on why he has attracted the attention of Arsenal.

After being notified about the news of Arsenal being interested in signing him, Destro was happy to see that his progress is being viewed by other clubs but the Italian player seems to not be thinking about making a move away from As.Roma as he has built a healthy relationship with the coach and his teammates.

“Arsenal for me? The rumors are good, I’m happy for them. This is the proof that I’m doing my work well. There are so many things that I can improve on.”I must never stop and continue to learn new things. The coach encourages me a lot, he is teaching me some things, and I try to show my skills on the pitch, as well as the confidence he has in me.”

The German forward of Arsenal, Lukas Podolski has become increasingly frustrated about his lack of playing time at the Premier League club and has hinted at a possible exit from the Emirates Stadium in January depending on what happens in the remaining months of the year.
The career of Podolski in Arsenal has seen the German attacker making less and less appearances for the English club. During the debut season of Podolski as a player of Arsenal, he was featured on 33 matches but the next season, Podolski made 20 appearances and finally in the current campaign it’s been 3 appearances so far.
Out of the 7 opening matches of the Premier League of the current season Podolski has played in 3 of those as Arsene Wenger prefers utilizing other players as his source of goals including: Oxlade- Chamberlain, Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck.
Those players mentioned previously are the ones that the head coach of Arsenal, Arsene Wenger is using on a more consistent basis in the attacking department for the club while Lukas Podolski has had to settle with a place on the sidelines of the team for the majority of the current season.
“I have assessed my position in the team, and it has to change now. Let’s see what happens in the winter. The fact is that I’m not happy with it, that’s clear.” Lukas Podolski told the media.
The German player is clearly not satisfied about his current position at the Emirates Stadium and unless things do not change within the next few months, Podolski is likely to be exiting the Premier League club and join another club when the transfer window re-opens in January.

Arsene Wenger has claimed that his team definitely deserved the point against Everton. Arsenal managed a 2-2 draw with Roberto Martinez’ team in a fixture that they lost 3-0 last season. There was a danger of the score repeating once again this season, but Arsenal recovered sufficiently well in the second half to get the draw. Wenger’s team came into the encounter after having secured a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on the opening day of the season. Despite having brought in some important names like Alexis Sanchez over the summer, they looked devoid of ideas against a team expected to struggle against relegation.

There was a danger of Arsenal losing their first match of the season after a very poor first half. Defender Coleman had given the opposition the lead after just 19 minutes before striker Naismith scored just before the half-time break, although he appeared to be offside. Wenger, who has previously been known to complain about refereeing decisions a lot in order to take the pressure away from his players, was in high praise of his expensive acquisitions. The Frenchman said that Arsenal showed a lot of resolve and great in the second half to come back at such a difficult ground like the Goodison Park.

Everton have been extremely strong at home over the last few years.

“When we got beaten 3-0 here it could have been many more. That was quite a flattering score on the day but today I believe we deserved the point we earned and for us to come back from 2-0 down against a team who is good on the counter-attack shows that the belief and resilience is there. Having said that, the second goal was offside and there was a foul before, just before half-time, so it was difficult to swallow. But we took it on the chin and came back in the way we did,” said Wenger.

Premier League giants Arsenal have been given a huge boost in the transfer of Italian striker Mario Balotelli after the vice president of AC Milan Barbara Berlusconi, the daughter of club owner Silvio, said the player was not irreplaceable.

The Gunners have been looking to sign the former Manchester City striker for quite some time and it was reported that they have already tabled a bid of around £ 24 million to lure the madcap Italian striker back to the Premier League.
And with the Italian giants already turning their attentions to Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o as his replacement, the chances of the FA Cup winners landing the player has just risen exponentially.

Arsenal has been looking for a striker for some time and manager Arsene Wenger believes the Italian is the perfect player to partner Frenchman Olivier Giroud upfront. The Italian has a reputation for his off field antics but the French manager believes he can get the best out of the Italian and get him to mend his ways, just like he did with Jack Wilshere.

AC Milan signed the striker just a year and a half back from Manchester City and although Balotelli has been in prolific goal scoring form for the Italian giants, his off field antics has gotten the better of the club hierarchy who are hoping to cash in on the player. With new manager Filippo Inzaghi set to take charge from the new season, he has made it clear that Balotelli is not in his plans as he looks to build a new AC Milan team.

And this has given Arsenal a massive transfer boost as Arsene Wenger looks to build a team to challenge for titles after winning the FA Cup last season, their first piece of silverware after nine long years.

The veteran French defender of Arsenal, Bacary Sagna is the latest player of the Premier League club that has outlined his future and it seems to be already decided that Sagna will be leaving the club he joined back in 2007.

Bacary Sagna has a contract at the Emirates Stadium which expires in June and speculation has been spreading around for the past few weeks concerning the future of the former Auxurre player.

Speaking to europe1.fr, Sagna said, “I’m out of contract, as everyone knows. I still consider myself as an Arsenal player at present. But actually we had a small problem to agree a new deal, and I don’t think I will stay at Arsenal at the end of the season.”
“It is a mixed season, we started very well, but we could have done better. Injuries have hurt us, especially those of Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott. At this level, it does not forgive.”

Having made over 250 appearances for Arsenal, Bacary Sagna managed to establish himself as one of the best right-backs in the world at some point of his career and even at his 31 years of age, he still was a consistent performer for Arsene Wenger in this recently concluded season.

It still remains unclear as to what club the French defender will be joining with rumors going around linking him to Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool but no official statement has been released by the player or any of his potential destination clubs.

A few months ago, there seemed to problems with Sagna and Arsenal as the defender wanted a substantial increase of his current wages and even though meetings and discussions were made no agreement was made and now his exit from the Premier League club is on the horizon.

Dennis Bergkamp has disclosed that he was approached by the Spanish club Barcelona in the nineties, but, he didn’t accept that offer and decided to make a move to Inter Milan instead.

Bergkamp’s tenure at Inter however didn’t prove to be that much successful. He stayed there for just a couple of seasons and then moved to Arsenal where he ended his career in a grand fashion.

Speaking in an event yesterday, the Dutch legend said, “When I was to take transfer in 1993, I had an offer from Barcelona as well, but, I went to Italy because the league over there (Serie A) was the best at that point of time.”

“Also, I had been promised by the Inter head that aggressive brand of football would be played there and that did happen, but, only for a short period of time.”

“I honestly believe that I could have done a lot more at Inter during the time I was there, but, because of some reasons, I couldn’t” he told the allemagne portugal cote website.

When asked about his relationship with the media over there in Italy, Bergkamp said, “I found the Italian media slightly different. They used to write weird things. Once I had a new hair cut and they wrote that I was feeling the heat (pressure) a bit too much and that’s why I went for a haircut. That was hilarious.”

Bergkamp who is a part of the support staff of Ajax Amsterdam at the moment played only 50 odd matches for Inter Milan in which he managed to score 11 goals. For the kind of player he was, it’s not an impressive record at all.

Bergkamp’s scoring rate at the other clubs was much better. He scored more than 100 goals for Ajax and Arsenal.

Those who believe that Arsene Wenger will not leave Emirates Stadium next summer might be wrong. According to the people close to the Gunners boss, there is no certainty that the he will sign the new deal.

The Arsenal officials however have said time and time again that they are pretty sure about Wenger getting ready for the contract extension at the end of the season, but, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

If those people (Wenger’s close sources) are to be trusted upon, the two parties are not even close to reaching an agreement.

Arsenal’s performance under Wenger this season has been much better than the previous season. But, still, they are not looking like ending their trophy drought. Yes, they are in the semi final of the FA Cup, but, their recent form doesn’t suggest that they would end up winning it. They have played really poorly of late.

Despite that, the Arsenal board doesn’t want to let Wenger go. It has been reckoned by them that the club is developing quite well under him and that’s why they are eager to hand the Frenchman a contract extension.

Wenger has managed Arsenal in more than 1000 games which is one hell of a landmark. He has been one of the longest serving managers in the history of the Premier League.
In case he doesn’t sign the new contract at Emirates and decides to go, the top clubs all around the world would definitely try to secure his services.

Wenger would like to go from Arsenal on a high if he has to and that would be possible only if he guides his team to FA Cup glory because winning the Premier League is looking out of Arsenal’s reach now.