After the early-season malaise, Arsenal are getting back to form and showing that with a little added consistency they can challenge for honours. A commanding 7-1 victory over Blackburn and last-gasp heroics by Thierry Henry to down Sunderland 2-1 in the last two Premier League fixtures should mean the Emirates Stadium side enter the fixture with confidence.

Wenger has this week stated the importance of away goals, and pledged to attack Massimiliano Allegri’s side; this is a must. The Italian team are very much a confidence-based unit, and right now they are rocking slightly after a couple of poor domestic fixtures. Defending too deep and letting the Italians have the ball will only give them belief; attacking them with pace may well decide the game in Arsenal’s favour.

Although they did get an away win over Udinese at the weekend, defeats against Juventus and Lazio in the last month have shown the Scudetto holders’ vulnerability. This Milan side is not at the same standard of those of previous generations, and if they are put under pressure could capitulate.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain continues to show his worth and should start for Arsenal, and along with Theo Walcott needs to get the ball down and run at the home defence. The hosts will be boosted by the return of Alexandre Pato, Alessandro Nesta and Kevin-Prince Boateng after injury, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be the man to watch for the San Siro outfit. With Per Mertesacker injured, Laurent Koscielny and Thomas Vermaelen will be given the task to neutralise the powerful Swede.

All in all, this is not a bad tie for Arsenal, and Wenger’s men should not look at the fixtures with any trepidation. An attacking outlook in the first leg without being reckless is needed for The Gunners to get the tie back to England with an advantage, and this will be a real litmus test to see how far younger players such as Oxlade Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Song have come in recent times.

However, a fairytale stands in the balance, as it is a farewell (for now) for one older head. Thierry Henry has added welcome competition in attack over the last month and scored important goals for the club he loves. What an ending if the mercurial French attacker could inspire his team to victory, but I am sure the Arsenal legend would love a win to send him off back to America.

You can purchase tickets at Ticketbis, an online ticket exchange, that helps football fans buy and sell tickets online for nearly any football match in Europe.

As of September 4, 2011, the largest shareholder in the club is Stan Kroenke, owner of Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE), who owns 41,537 shares (66.76%). Kroenke’s holdings in the club began with an initial 9.9% bought from ITV plc in April 2007; initially treated with hostility, he is now regarded as an ally of the Arsenal board and was appointed a non-executive director of the club in September 2008.

Kroenke brought his stake in the club up to 20.5% following a purchase of shares from fellow director Danny Fiszman. On 1 May 2009, Arsenal announced that Kroenke had bought a further 4,839 shares from the Carr family, including Richard Carr, also a director, which made him the largest shareholder of the company with 28.3%. On November the same year, this increased to the maximum 29.9% limit.

A rival bid for the club came from Red & White Holdings, which is co-owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov and London-based financier Farhad Moshiri. Red & White bought the stake held by former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein, as well as stakes owned by Lansdowne and many other minor shareholders, and as of September 2011 own 18,204 shares (29.25%) of the club. This is the largest single stake owned by a non-board member.

This led to press speculation of a bidding war between Kroenke and Usmanov.  However, Kroenke agreed not to purchase more than 29.9% of the club until at least September 2009, while the rest of the board agreed not to consider a sale of their shares to “non-permitted persons” until at least April 2009, and had first option on each others’ shares until October 2012.

In April 2011, Kroenke extended his ownership of the club by purchasing the shareholdings of Nina Bracewell-Smith (15.9%), Danny Fiszman (16.11%) and other directors of the Arsenal board, taking his shareholding to 66.64%. Under company law Kroenke, as majority shareholder, is obliged to make an offer for the remaining shares in the club, which would include those owned by Red & White Holdings as well as any stakes held by the remaining minority shareholders of the club;  these include those owned by former players as well as three shares owned by the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust.

Information from wikipedia.org

Arsene says our frustrating pocket Russian still deserves to drink freely from the milk of human kindness.

And who could argue with that…

This article titled “Andrey Arshavin deserves Arsenal fans’ respect, says Arsène Wenger” was written by Jamie Jackson, for The Guardian on Friday 3rd February 2012 23.02 UTC

Arsène Wenger has told Arsenal fans to show some respect to Andrey Arshavin after the midfielder was booed when he came on for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 2-1 league defeat by Manchester United last week.

Wenger, whose side have lost three of their last five league games, backed the under-fire Russian, who has been vilified by some fans for his inconsistent form this season.

He said: “At the moment we play a little bit under difficult circumstances but we have to realise that we have to support our players. I personally have a huge respect for Andrey Arshavin and if you would see him behave every day you would have one as well. I understand everybody’s frustrations because I’m quite tolerant – but there is still a difference between frustration and lack of respect.

“I am here to make all of the fans happy and when I do not manage to do it I am, of course, not happy. But what is most important is that we have our fans happy at the end of the season.”

With the Russian transfer window still open Wenger was asked if there is a chance Arshavin may still leave for a club in his homeland. “For me, no,” he said. Pressed if anyone else has a say in that decision, Wenger said: “Andrey Arshavin.” Has the playmaker, then, intimated that he wants to leave? “No.”

Arshavin will captain Russia at Euro 2012 but Wenger does not think he will leave to get regular football ahead of the tournament. “Things can change quickly – villain today, hero tomorrow, it is like that nowadays. But when you are a good football player like he is you can always come back,” the Frenchman said.

Wenger is also facing a demonstration at the Emirates on Saturday when Arsenal play Blackburn Rovers from disgruntled fans who plan to place bin bags over empty seats to highlight falling attendances.

But Wenger said: “I would not like to make any comment on that. I feel we have to be above that and show our quality on the football pitch and not respond to every individual provocation.”

Under Wenger Arsenal have qualified for the Champions League in every season since he took over in September 1996. He has drawn criticism for his financial prudence in the transfer market and, asked if he might spend big if Arsenal fail to finish in the top four, Wenger said: “We’ll make that analysis at the end of the season.”

Is the target now to avoid defeat until the end of the season? “Unbeaten, certainly, ideally you want to be unbeaten,” he said. “Is it possible? To prove that it is possible is just to win on Saturday. For the rest, I believe that we have played some great football this season and we have to continue to improve the way we play and focus on that. Football has to be a happy moment that you want to share with people who come to the game. We always try to behave like that.

“I believe we played 15 years on the trot in the Champions League and we play in 10 days in the last 16 of the Champions League. We want to come back in the Champions League position in the league, we want to prepare properly for the next round of the FA Cup and I wish that in the next 16 years it will be exactly the same for the club and that the fans will be happy. After that what can I say? Ideally I want everybody to be completely happy and over the moon but we live in a world where you have to accept that not everybody reacts the same.”

While Wenger said he may rotate against Blackburn, Oxlade-Chamberlain’s participation is in doubt: “We have a little problem that we have to check today because his knee jarred a little bit and we will see how he has recovered from it. All of the other players look all right.”

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Especially with his injury record.

Pic from his new site robinvanpersie.com

Bergkamp still got it by soccermr

This article titled “Arsène Wenger: Manchester City’s Roberto Mancini is ‘out of order’” was written by David Hytner at the Meihu Sports Centre, Yiwu, for The Observer on Saturday 16th July 2011 16.39 UTC

There was a storm before Arsenal brought the curtain down on their Asia tour, featuring thunder, lightning and torrential rain, yet it was nothing like the one afterwards, when Arsène Wenger raged at a familiar slight.

The manager has digressed regularly from the real business here, which has been to promote the club’s brand to the captive audience in Malaysia and China, to insist that the captain Cesc Fàbregas and Samir Nasri are staying put in north London. Fàbregas, who has not been in Asia because of injury, is dancing once more with Barcelona, while both of the Manchester clubs want Nasri, who is into the final 12 months of his contract.

Wenger began the tour by declaring his determination to keep Nasri this summer was so absolute that he would be prepared to lose him on a Bosman free transfer next year, and he ended it with a stinging rebuke to his Manchester City counterpart Roberto Mancini, who has said that he still hopes to sign the midfielder by the end of the month.

“This comment is out of order,” Wenger said, before addressing the issue of its disrespect. “I cannot say otherwise. These comments are not allowed. They are against the basic rules of football and he should be informed [of that].

“I don’t know what should be done. I don’t spend my time worrying about what other people say because we are focused on our game. But what we want is respect and we don’t make these comments about players who are under contract at other clubs. It’s time football in England came back to these basic rules.”

Nasri was the focal point at the outset even if, in between the explosive weather and post-match quotations, the match was something of a damp squib. He was again handed an advanced midfield role in the middle of Wenger’s 4-1-4-1 formation, strengthening the impression that, if Fàbregas were to leave, Nasri might be asked to step into his boots.

The story of the first half was the pace and incision of Hangzhou Greentown, the Chinese Super League team, together with some dreadfully sloppy Arsenal defending. Thank goodness it is only pre-season. Sébastien Squillaci got another dishonourable mention.

Greentown had the first chance with just 90 seconds on the clock, Wang Song breaking clear only to be denied by Vito Mannone’s legs, and Paulo Pezzolano hit the post shortly before the opening goal after being given too much time to line up a curling shot. A minute later they scored through Sebastián Vázquez’s close-range finish, and there were soon sightings of Wenger’s outstretched arms on the bench. Carlos Vela’s bundled equaliser on 45 minutes, after Andrey Arshavin and Robin Van Persie had combined, had scarcely been signposted.

It felt strange to see Arsenal turn out in a neat-and-tidy athletics stadium, given the clamour from the fans in China to see them. The capacity was 45,000 and it was significantly under half full, although virtually everybody was supporting Wenger’s team. For Arsenal, though, the live broadcast rights to the game across China were everything. Rather more watched from their armchairs.

Arsenal’s marketing department has been excited at how the tour has helped to make the club more visible in China and increase their reach. One of many remarkable statistics was the one million users who logged in to a web chat with Vela and Aaron Ramsey, whose nickname in these parts is Mr Handsome.

There is no doubt that Arsenal have felt the love from the locals. They have choreographed their tour to perfection, making capital from even the little touches. The players’ names on the back of their shirts here were in Mandarin.

Wenger made 11 half-time changes, the arrivals including Ramsey and Theo Walcott, and his new-look line-up dominated the second period. Yet they spurned a stream of chances to win, with Walcott the chief culprit.

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This article titled “Andrey Arshavin’s goal completes the Arsenal recovery against Barcelona” was written by Kevin McCarra at Emirates Stadium, for The Guardian on Thursday 17th February 2011 00.32 UTC

Arsenal may not have won the Champions League tie but they approach the return with a serenity that is no longer within Barcelona’s reach. The visitors lost a lead and then the match. In that run of events an initially effortless side became careless and vulnerable. They ought to reproach themselves and there is now penance enough in a return at the Camp Nou that will be stressful for Barcelona no matter how it is eventually resolved.

For the time being Arsène Wenger can settle for feeling proud of the maturity of Arsenal players whose temperaments did not shrivel even when Barcelona were at their most intimidatingly fluent. Instead Arsenal persevered in looking for weaknesses and eventually located them. Robin van Persie tied the score in the 78th minute with a drive from a tight angle on the left that ought never to have beaten Víctor Valdés at his near post.

There was further proof to come of Barcelona fallibility. Five minutes later Cesc Fábregas set Samir Nasri moving on the right and the cut-back was swept home perfectly by the substitute Andrey Arshavin. Barcelona had come as close as seems feasible to resembling normal, intermittently accident-prone human beings. Chances were squandered as if it could be taken for granted that there would be many more to come for Lionel Messi and others.

That assumption turned out to be a delusion and now there are matters of bare fact to occupy them. The centre-half Gerard Piqué was booked and will be suspended for the second leg. The Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola, must therefore hope that the captain Carles Puyol’s recovery from a knee injury does not falter between now and 8 March.

There was proof in abundance of Barcelona’s technique and imagination, yet they were not ruthless in taking the full benefit. They had been 2-0 ahead here a year ago before drawing the first leg of the quarter-final but went on to rout Arsenal 4-1 in the return. That may account for the complacency when Barcelona neglected to drive home the advantage of David Villa’s opener last night.

Arsenal’s emergence as the single likely challenger to Manchester United for the Premier League title ought to have told Barcelona that there is more of an edge to Wenger’s men nowadays. With an away goal recorded in a narrow defeat Guardiola’s side deserve to remain favourites for the quarter-finals but that assertion is open to more debate now than anyone anticipated.

Meeting Barcelona is a predicament for virtually all teams but Arsenal’s case is unusual. Rather than being the normal contrast of styles, this encounter saw Guardiola’s side taking on opponents who would like nothing better than to emulate their methods.

Arsenal withstood that comparison. Even when the visitors took the lead through Villa in the 26th minute it came in a spell where they might just as easily have fallen behind. Neither team was particularly convincing when seeking to thwart the other. Their heart is not in such work.

That openness made for a frenetic yet also adroit spectacle. Barcelona could well have had a lovingly crafted opener after a quarter of an hour. Andrés Iniesta picked out Messi and he laid the ball back to Villa before breaking free on the return. It may only have been the wish to take the goal with a flourish that undermined him as a dinked shot went beyond the far post.

Arsenal were at least as effective then in unpeeling a back four. Following good work by Theo Walcott, Fábregas lobbed a pass to Van Persie, who rattled a shot that was saved by Valdés. Even if Wenger’s men blundered in their effort to spring the offside trap, Messi sending Villa in for the opener, Arsenal had been trying to dictate the terms of the match and so break a Barcelona rhythm that is as natural as a pulse.

There had been indications from early moments that Barcelona are less sure in defence without Puyol. In that aspect the visitors could be seen as fallible human beings. They were not in full command when a run like Walcott’s unpeeled the right side of the defence in the 55th minute, although his low ball was cleared. There was enough disquiet in Barcelona for Piqué to receive his yellow card, after bringing down Fábregas.

There was a gathering conviction to Arsenal and, in consequence, the odd indication of alarm in the visitors as the second half assumed its shape. It took 20 minutes or more before Barcelona enjoyed a studied period of possession as they probed around the edges of the Arsenal penalty area. Two substitutions reflected managerial outlooks.

Guardiola’s preference was conservative, as Seydou Keita took over from Villa, while Wenger pitched on the creative Arshavin for the holding midfielder Alex Song. The match had turned pensive. That was natural after two sides who had regularly swept around this pitch realised that they resemble normal footballers in one respect. They, too, can get very tired. Arsenal still mustered a perseverance that took them to victory.

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