Mannone extends Arsenal stay

January 25, 2010

Vito Mannone aims to become Arsenal’s first choice goalkeeper after signing for another four years with the Premier League leaders on Monday.

The 21-year-old deputised for the injured Manuel Almunia earlier this season, making his debut in the Champions League at Standard Liege and going on to make eight appearances in all.

Mannone joined Arsenal from Atalanta in 2005 and has Polish international Lukasz Fabianski, who played in Sunday’s 3-1 FA Cup defeat by Stoke, ahead of him in the Gunners’ goalkeeping pecking order.

However, the Italy Under-21 international, who has had offers from clubs at home, had no qualms about staying with Arsenal.

“It is a great day for me, a great moment. I am really happy to be staying at Arsenal and will give everything to repay the club for the faith they have shown in me,” Mannone told the club’s official website, www.arsenal.com.

“I am delighted to be staying here because it was always my plan when I was really young to come to England and make it here at Arsenal, which is one of the biggest clubs in the world.

“Now I want to try and become the number one goalkeeper here, and help the team win trophies.”

LONDON (AFP)

Tags: arsenal, atalanta, champions league, debut, England, first choice, Goalkeeper, great moment, gunners, Italy, league leaders, Liege, london, lukasz fabianski, Manuel Almunia, premier league, qualms, standard liege, trophies, Vito Mannone

Arsenal roughed up by Stoke goal hero Fuller

January 25, 2010

Ricardo Fuller was the scourge of Arsenal as Stoke finally ended their long wait for an FA Cup triumph over the Gunners with a 3-1 win in the fourth round on Sunday.

Fuller scored twice to punish Wenger’s decision to field an inexperienced side at the Britannia Stadium and hand the Potters their first victory over Arsenal in this competition in eight attempts, stretching back to 1928.

Jamaican forward Fuller took only 70 seconds to stun the visitors and although Denilson levelled, the Stoke star nodded in a 78th minute goal to guide Tony Pulis’s men through to the fifth round, with Dean Whitehead’s late third completing a memorable day.

The last meeting of these side at the Britannia a little over a year ago was something of a shock to Arsenal as Stoke bloodied their noses with a 2-1 defeat.

While last season’s bruising encounter created controversy, Stoke supporters of an older persuasion are probably still harbouring the painful memories of 1971 and 1972 when Arsenal beat them in successive FA Cup semi-finals.

Wenger has made no secret of his need to lift some silverware, after five years without a trophy, but his team selection was very similar to a youth team, with out captain Cesc Fabregas and Denilson surviving from the side that beat Bolton on Wednesday.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas made his debut, while Francis Coquelin, Carlos Vela and Craig Eastmond were among the youngsters thrown into the starting line-up.

And hardly a minute had elapsed before the home side stunned an Arsenal defence including Sol Campbell, making his second debut for the club.

While Rory Delap’s gargantuan throws are no longer a surprise to anyone, Arsenal could not handle the first exocet. Lukasz Fabianski flapped and Fuller stole ahead of the Polish goalkeeper to find the net with a header.

That early setback clearly unruffled Arsenal and their first half performance was littered with stray passes and errors of judgement.

Stoke could have been awarded a penalty ten minutes before half-time when Fuller appeared to collapse under a desperate lunge from Mikael Silvestre.

But Arsenal finally levelled in the 42nd minute through Denilson. Fabregas played a free kick outside the box across to the Brazilian midfielder and he arrowed a low drive past Thomas Sorensen, with the aid of two deflections off Stoke defenders.

The second half saw Stoke dominant, with Fabianski under siege for most of the 45 minutes from an aerial bombardment.

Fabregas tested Sorensen with a long-range drive but Stoke pressed for a winner, with Coquelin almost turning Mamady Sidibe’s cross into his own net.

Wenger simply had to make changes and with 22 minutes remaining introduced Andrey Arshavin, Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey in a desperate bid to avoid a replay.

He did avoid one, though not in the way he wanted. Sidibe’s excellent work down the right ended in an inch perfect cross for Fuller to nod past a stranded Fabianski.

Visibily stunned, Arsenal’s exit from the FA Cup was confirmed when the excellent Etherington crossed for Whitehead to put the icing on the cake with his first goal for the club in the 86th minute.

STOKE, England (AFP)

Tags: Aaron, britannia stadium, Carlos Vela, cesc fabregas, Craig Eastmond, cup triumph, Dean Whitehead, Eduardo, England, exocet, fa cup semi finals, first victory, Goalkeeper, gunners, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, lukasz fabianski, Mikael Silvestre, minute goal, painful memories, potters, ramsey, ricardo fuller, rory delap, sol campbell, starting line, team selection, thomas sorensen, tony pulis

Wenger: “I can’t stand November”

November 4, 2009

Arsene Wenger expects a lot of accidents the following weeks. November is a headache of a month for the Arsenal boss when fatigue takes its first bite out of his squad.

“In England, you always get injuries in November,” Wenger said on the club’s official website. “It’s very frustrating.”

“You look at the statistics, they always happen in November and you know that in December you can win or lose the title.

“It’s the volume of games. You play on different pitches, players play international games, there is the end of the first phase of Champions League games and you could have played 20 games already.”

So far, the number of injuries seem to prove Le Professeur’s statement. Johan Djourou, Lukasz Fabianski, Samir Nasri, Denilson and Tomas Rosicky all suffered from injuries. Gael Clichy and Nicklas Bendtner will probably be sidelined for at least a month.

“Like every team, we want our players to be available,” said Wenger. “But the only side which seems to have all of its players available at the moment is Chelsea.”

Paul Haring

Tags: accidents, arsenal, boss, champions league, CHELSEA, Clichy, denilson, different pitches, fatigue, first bite, headache, international games, johan djourou, league games, lukasz fabianski, Nicklas Bendtner, professeur, Samir Nasri, statistics, Wenger

Eduardo celebrates Euro reprieve by sealing Arsenal comeback

September 17, 2009

Arsenal striker Eduardo celebrated his Champions League reprieve with the late goal that gave the Gunners a dramatic 3-2 victory over Standard Liege on Wednesday.

Arsene Wenger’s side looked set for a miserable start to their Group H campaign when Belgian champions Liege opened up a two-goal lead in the first five minutes at the Stade Maurice Dufrasne thanks to Eliaquim Mangala’s strike and a Milan Jovanovic penalty.

But Nicklas Bendtner pulled one back before half-time and Thomas Vermaelen equalised before Eduardo poached the winner nine minutes from full-time.

Eduardo’s decisive intervention capped a remarkable 24 hours for the Brazil-born Croatian, who had learned on Monday that he was free to play after UEFA overturned his two-match suspension for allegedly deceiving the referee to win a penalty against Celtic in the qualifying round.

After an impressive opening to the season, back to back defeats against Manchester United and then Manchester City on Saturday had doused optimism at the north London club.

But Wenger can take heart from the way his side showed tremendous spirit to dig out a much-needed victory.

“Eduardo is a great player and you know he can always turn up with something,” Wenger said.

“They caught us cold at the start. They were fighting for every single one-on-one and it was a very difficult game. But what happened in the first few minutes can happen to any team in the world.

“We had to work very hard to win the game after that against a very motivated team and we did that. We put every effort in to make sure we could comeback. Scoring before half-time helped a lot and then we got two set piece goals.”

With first choice keeper Manuel Almunia sidelined by a virus and Lukasz Fabianski recovering from knee surgery, Wenger was forced to give a first Champions League start to Vito Mannone – a 21-year-old Italian with only one previous appearance for the Gunners.

Liege were making their debut in the Champions League group stages but Arsenal seemed to underestimate the threat they posed in the early stages.

They were sloppy right from the off and fell behind in the second minute when Eduardo gave the ball away with a careless backheel on the edge of his own penalty area.

Mangala seized on the mistake, held off Cesc Fabregas and scuffed his low shot past Mannone at his near post.

Arsenal’s last visit to Liege in 1993 had ended with a 7-0 victory in the Cup Winners’ Cup, but it was the hosts who were running riot this time.

Mannone had to pick the ball out of the net again three minutes later as his defence capitulated once more. William Gallas couldn’t cope with a powerful run from Jovanovic and tripped the Serbian striker to hand Liege a penalty.

Jovanovic picked himself up and calmly sent Mannone the wrong way with the spot kick to spark wild celebrations among the 27,000 capacity crowd.

But Liege were content to sit back and defend their lead for long periods after that stunning start, giving Arsenal a chance to regroup.

The visitors began to find some rhythm and reduced the deficit on the stroke of half-time when Abou Diaby slid a pass through to Bendtner, who arrowed a low shot under Sinan Bolat from a tight angle.

There was no repeat of Liege’s blistering first half opening after the interval and only a fine tackle from Mangala denied Bendtner as Arsenal monopolized possession.

Inspired by Fabregas’s promptings, Arsenal gradually began to resemble the side that reached the Champions League semi-finals last season.

Liege couldn’t hold out and Arsenal levelled in controversial circumstances in the 78th minute.

Fabregas curled over a free-kick that Song, standing in what looked an offside position, appeared to block with his arm but, as the Liege players protested, the ball ran to Vermaelen and the Belgian defender poked home from point-blank range.

Arsenal were in buoyant mood and Eduardo completed a remarkable comeback in the 81st minute with a close-range finish.

LIEGE, Belgium (AFP)

Tags: arsene wenger, champions league group, first choice, first five minutes, group stages, gunners, lukasz fabianski, manchester city, manchester united, milan jovanovic, motivated team, Nicklas Bendtner, north london club, optimism, recovering from knee surgery, referee, reprieve, single one, Stade, standard liege

Reports: “Arsenal make bid for Shay Given”

December 30, 2008

LONDON (SW) – British tabloid The Daily Express reports that Arsenal have made a bid for Newcastle United goalkeeper Shay Given. The Gunners are reportedly willing to pay eight million Pounds.

The Irish 32-year-old has been at Newcastle since 1997 -with a short stint at arch rivals Sunderland in the 2005-06 season- but might be willing to leave the Magpies in order to join a side that plays regular Champions League football.

Moreover, Given recently stormed off after Newcastle’s match with Liverpool and may not be as happy as he used to be at St. James’ Park.

If Given is to try his luck at Emirates Stadium, he would have to compete with Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski and Vito Mannone for a spot in Arsenal’s goal.

Newcastle may already have found a replacement, as the Toon showed interest in Sheffield United’s Irish keeper Paddy Kenny.

Written by: Jonathan Roorda