Jack Wilshere promised that he will never leave the Emirates Stadium. He also targeted mid-December for his return to training. In other news, Szczesny would put money on Arsenal grabbing the league title, and the keeper is also embracing a leadership role.
Jack Wilshere
As we all know, our promising 19-year old English midfielder has yet to play this season. His recovery has been slow and delayed. Wilshere told iFilm London: “It’s going really slow at the minute and obviously I’m really frustrated. I should be back in training by mid-December, then I can crack on and it’s up to the boss when he picks me.”
Wilshere’s return has not been on my mind as much now that we are starting to win games, but he is still a massively important player. When he comes back, Arsene Wenger will have more options in the centre of the midfield.
When asked whether he would promise to stay at Arsenal “forever,” Jack replied: “I promise that, yeah. I’ve been at the club since I was nine and learned to love it.
“From the [Patrick] Vieira days, to [Dennis] Bergkamp, [Cesc] Fabregas, I’ve watched them come through and move on. There’s a crop of new players, [Aaron] Ramsey, myself, Kieran Gibbs…hopefully we can really create something special.
“I love the club and I want to be part of its future.”
With all the transfer drama of recent years, this has to warm your heart as a Gooner. Jack really wants to be an [...]
Wojceich Szczesny answered several questions after Arsenal’s loss in the North London derby. His answers were fairly tame and uncontroversial, but that did not stop the media from twisting his words to make an interesting headline. Interesting headlines at best, stonewall lies at worst.
A headline on the ESPN: “Szczesny: We’re better than Spurs.” The headline and article gave you the impression that Szczesny rushed to them to proclaim that the Gunners are still the best team in North London despite the loss. Here is what Szczesny really said (from ESPN):
“You can’t make such a statement after a couple of months after our poor start to the season or after just one game. I think Spurs are a great club and they have shown today that they can play really good football, but are they better than Arsenal? I don’t really think so.”
Judging by his answer, Szczesny was asked the obvious question about a possible power shift from Arsenal to Tottenham. Yet the media want you to think that he went out of his way to make the comments. What else is Szczesny going to say? He plays for Arsenal, so he is not ready to admit ultimate defeat in the battle against Spurs.
The Sun are not only good at manipulating photos. They also manipulate quotes. Their headline: “Szczesny: I want to be Arsenal captain, not Van Persie.” Szczesny never mentioned Robin van Persie (from The Sun):
“I feel that when I say something, everyone listens to [...]
Arsenal advanced to the Champions League group stage by defeating Udinese 2-1 on Wednesday night in Italy. Wojceich Szczesny’s penalty save kept the momentum of the match with the Gunners. Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott chipped in with the Arsenal goals, while Antonio Di Natale provided Udinese’s only tally of the match.
The key moment of the game came after the referee handed Udinese a penalty in the 58th minute. The score was 1-1, and Udinese needed two more goals to advance to the Champions League group stage. Antonio Di Natale was the obvious choice to take the penalty. The Udinese captain struck the ball hard but Wojciech Szczesny made a brilliant, stretching save and the ball popped over the bar.
Udinese would have fancied their chances of advancing had Di Natale converted the penalty. It was not a terrible strike from the Italian striker, but Szczesny made a strong, confident block. The shot had tremoundous power behind it, but the Polish keeper denied Udinese the opportunity. The Italian side looked dejected after the penalty, while Arsenal were uplifted by the great stop.
Di Natale opened the scoring for Udinese in 39th minute. The 33-year old put a majestic header into the Arsenal net. The ball floated towards the far corner and popped off the post before settling in the goal mouth. Di Natale had been unlucky early in the match when he had a goal disallowed and also hit the post.
At halftime, Arsene Wenger’s team had a very real chance of dropping [...]
Robin van Persie was one of the only Arsenal players to show up to the match Sunday. He has seen how this team’s fall from grace but the Dutchman has a hard time understanding the recent form: ”There were lots of things (which went wrong) – we were not consistent enough. It is difficult to talk about it now. It is going to be difficult to finish third, but we still have one game and have to win that to at least give us a chance.”
Clearly a frustrated man looking for answers. Robin has been very loyal to us over the years and has always pledged his love for Arsenal. But it must be tough to weather the storm of disappointment that has descended on the club. Even so, RVP is optimistic about next season:
”Next season we have to try [to come back stronger]. Everyone starts from scratch and we have a chance, it is up to us to prove it.”
First, Wenger must prove to his team and the fans that the club is committed to winning. The owners have to make some of the money earned from those record-high season ticket prices available to Wenger. Wenger must use this money to improve the side and win back the supporters. No one understands why Arsenal must charge the highest ticket prices in the country but no one would be complaining if we were filling the trophy cabinet.
Speaking of dissaproval from the supporters, Wojceich Szczesny commented about [...]
Keeper Wojceich Szczesny has emerged this season as the starting man in goal for the Gunners. He also says some interesting things in the media. Szczesny always sticks up for his team and his manager. Maybe this lad is the leader we need. He certainly is one of the louder players out there as a keeper needs to be. Here is what he had to say about Wenger:
Szczesny has been a revelation for us this season.
“It (the criticism if Wenger) is ridiculous. If you ask any of the players, they will stand by the manager. He built this thing from nothing and I believe he is the best manager in the world. He puts his reputation on the line with young players. We all take individual responsibility for our mistakes, and everyone has played their part in this season’s disappointments.”
Szczesny lost me there. Wenger did not build Arsenal from nothing. We had the reputation of being a top club in England long before Arsene got here. Sure, he is the best manager we have had in modern times, but he did not build the club up from nothing. Our previous manager, George Graham for you youngsters, won two league titles, an FA Cup, an UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and two league titles. Maybe Szczesny should have opened up the record books.
Graham, of course, was known for his outwardly defensive style. Arsene made our club one of the most exciting sides to watch [...]
Szczesny still thinks Arsenal can catch Man United.
Arsenal are currently six points behind Manchester United with six games to play. Wojceich Szczesny, who made his return from injury yesterday, still thinks that his side can emerge as the champions of England: “Of course we still believe we can win the title. We still have to play United and they also have to play Chelsea. They will drop points and we believe we’re good enough to win every game remaining.
“Tottenham is a very good match for us to come back from a big disappointment and we owe it to the fans because they’re very disappointed about what happened against Liverpool. We owe them a result at White Hart Lane.
“The draw was a huge disappointment because with a minute to go we scored what we thought was a winning goal. We’re all gutted. It was a cheap penalty to give away whether it was one or not. We needed to win really badly to keep the pressure on United.”
”We’re only thinking about winning the title, not who is behind us.
“We go into everything to finish first. We are Arsenal, we don’t want to finish second and we definitely don’t want to finish third.
“I still feel a little uncomfortable when I’m in goal. I wear a special protection but it didn’t cause me any trouble against Liverpool.”
Szczesny has wisdom beyond his years. The 21 year-old keeper is the future in goal for us. He covers the [...]
The Gunners will have yet another chance to bounce back on form tomorrow evening against Manchester United at Old Trafford. After the referee knocked us down, can we get up and beat the league leaders. The Red Devils are also looking to get back on form after two consecutive defeats against Chelsea and Liverpool in the league. The team that is able to rebound from poor form will be the team that earns a place in the FA Cup semifinal.
Szczesny will miss six weeks, leaving Arsenal with only one healthy keeper.
We both will be missing some key players. Cesc, Szczesny, and Walcott (not to mention Vermaelen) will miss the match. United will be without Nani and Rio Ferdinand. Nani has been United’s best player this season in my opinion, despite his shocking header to Dirk Kuyt. He will leave a big gap in the United attack.
Wojceich Szczesny will be out long term with the injury to his finger that he sustained in Barcelona. Here is Wenger addressing that situation: “We need now an experienced goalkeeper as cover for Almunia because Mannone is out for six weeks so we cannot call on him.
“Mannone is here at the training ground having treatment but he cannot play for the next six weeks. We can call him back [from Hull City] but he is not available.
“We have Wojciech out, in my opinion for six weeks. We have Fabianski out for the rest of the season. We need absolutely [...]
