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Arsenal fearful after Van Persie spotted at Barcelona hotel

ARSENAL fans are over the moon that Robin van Persie looks set to take the ‘Player of the Year’ award this season, but their faces may drop when they realise how much interest their star striker is attracting in the transfer market. Indeed, the cream of European football might already be buttering him up.
The Daily Mail has spotted Van Persie at the hotel where Barcelona are currently staying ahead of their Champions League clash with Chelsea tomorrow – and the paper has been speculating as to why a talented international footballer with one year left on his contract might be hanging out with the best team in the world. Those of a less suspicious bent might assume he was catching up with fellow Dutchman Ibrahim Afellay at the Marriott hotel on Park Lane. Others appear to believe Van Persie wants to move up in the world.
If the Arsenal captain were to move to Spain, he would be only the latest in a long line of former Gunners – Fabregas, Nasri, Adebayor, Toure, Clichy – to be lured away from the Emirates with the promise of big bucks.
There’s bad news elsewhere for the north London club, as Inter Milan intend to beat Arsenal to the signing of Rennes midfielder Yann M’Vila, according to the Metro.
The Italian club, who last month sacked coach Claudio Ranieri, will appoint Laurent Blanc as his successor once the former World Cup winner has overseen France’s Euro 2012 campaign. And that’s not all: according to the Metro, Inter are about to make an audacious bid for M’Vila, despite the fact Arsenal have long been linked to the 21-year-old playmaker.
Taking its information from French sports daily L’Equipe, the Metro says that Inter will first hire Blanc as their coach and then use him as bait to lure M’Vila to the San Siro.
Apparently Inter will offer Rennes £10m for M’Vila in the summer and are confident he will agree to the move because of the prospect of working under Blanc, a coach he knows well from his time in the France side, not to mention the fact that Arsenal can’t even beat a team like Wigan these days.
That’s also the reason that Ajax central defender Jan Vertonghen might opt for Newcastle rather than the Gunners.
It had seemed a racing certainty that the 24-year-old would join Arsenal in the summer but The Daily Telegraph reports that Newcastle now fancy their chances of snaring the Belgian international. Magpies’ manager Alan Pardew watched Vertonghen in action for Ajax at the weekend and the Telegraph says it’s a sign that Newcastle are increasingly confident of pipping Arsenal to third spot, thereby qualifying automatically for next season’s Champion League.
Meanwhile AC Milan are preparing to make another attempt to persuade Manchester City to part with Carlos Tevez. The argumentative Argentine, who scored a hat-trick for the Sky Blues at the weekend in his first start since falling out with Roberto Mancini in September, has long been a matter of interest for Milan.
Italian rag Corriere dello Sport reports that Tevez almost made a loan move to Milan in January, only for the deal to fall through when City told the Italian outfit they would only offload the striker in a permanent transfer. Now it appears AC Milan will accept the proposition, paying City upwards of £30m in the summer.
And he won’t be the only new player heading to Italy in the close season, says Talksport, which reports that AC Milan are favourites to land Borussia Dortmund midfielder Shinji Kagawa when June’s transfer window opens.
The 23-year-old has been in sparkling form this season for the German club and is out of contract at the end of next season. That’s alerted Milan, as well as Chelsea, and the pair are both vying for the services of the Japanese ace. But if the Blues want to sign Kagawa they’ll have to qualify for next season’s Champions League otherwise he’ll go with AC Milan who are guaranteed qualification for Europe’s premier competition.
In other news Russian website Tden has reported that Fulham striker Pavel Pogrebnyak has moved into Jose Mourinho’s old gaff in Chelsea, prompting speculation that the on-loan marksman will be turning his temporary residence at the Cottage into a more permanent stay.
Pogrebnyak joined Fulham on loan from Stuttgart in January and becomes a free agent in June. But speaking to Tden, the Russian said: “I like my life in London very much”, and hinted that he’ll be staying put at Fulham

Lampard reveals his biggest-ever challenge

FRANK Lampard says Chelsea's Champions League semi final against Barcelona poses the biggest challenge of his illustrious career.

The Blues midfielder, third all-time highest goalscorer for Chelsea, says nothing he has come up against has proved more challenging than what lies ahead.

"It is probably the biggest challenge,” said the man with a personal medals haul including three Premier Leagues, three FA Cups, two League Cups and two FA Community Shields.

"To play them in the semi-final stage now, there are not many teams that you'd fancy over two legs against Barca, the way they've played.”

Barcelona ended Chelsea's Champions League hopes in 2009 – when an injury-time goal from Andres Iniesta saw the Catalans advance to the final on away goals.

They went on to win the trophy that year - just one of three Champions Leagues they have claimed in the last six years.

Lampard added: “They've shown it over the last few years how well they've played. It's a huge, huge challenge, as big as anyone could probably take on.

"And if we win it, it'll be one of the biggest victories. But it'll only put us in the final and not winning the final. So, then the next (challenge) comes."

Robin van Persie leading race for PFA award

Robin van Persie drew a blank against Wigan last night but is expected to be celebrating winning the PFA’s top award by the end of the week.

The prolific Arsenal striker was immediately installed as the odds-on favourite for the Players’ Player of the Year prize by bookmakers after being named among the nominees by the Professional Footballers’ Association yesterday.

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, Tottenham midfielder Scott Parker and the Manchester City trio of Joe Hart, Sergio Aguero and David Silva made up a six-man shortlist, but it would be a surprise if Van Persie is not named the winner on Sunday.

The 28-year-old Dutchman has struck 34 times in all competitions for the Gunners this season having shrugged off some of the injury problems that have hampered him in the past.

PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor said: “He has been amazing.

“You could pick half a dozen of his goals out for goal of the season.

“Arsenal were struggling for some time but he was a real talisman for them.

“He seems to have lifted the team and got them back believing in themselves again and looking to qualify for the Champions League, giving all the Arsenal fans some hope.”

The huge impact made by Aguero since his club record £38million move to City from Atletico Madrid last summer is recognised by the fact he is also shortlisted for the Young Player of the Year prize.

The 23-year-old Argentinian has scored 28 goals for Roberto Mancini’s side.

Taylor said: “We have been really fortunate to have a player like Sergio Aguero here.

“He has been a major player for Manchester City and I am not surprised there is talk of Real Madrid wanting him.

“I think Manchester City should work hard to keep him because he is a joy to watch.”

Tottenham winger Gareth Bale, who won the senior award last season, is this year nominated only in the young player category.

The 22-year-old Welshman is now regarded as one of the best left-sided players in the world and Taylor would love to see him play for Great Britain at this summer’s Olympics.

He said: “That would be brilliant. If he wants to play, and I hope he does, I think he should be given the opportunity.

“He fully deserves to be in a Great Britain team.”

Bale’s Spurs team-mate Kyle Walker, Arsenal prodigy Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck and Chelsea forward Daniel Sturridge are the other young players in contention.

Fulham v Chelsea ~ Player Ratings

Firstly let me apologise for the delay in these player ratings; however, they are being written under tragic circumstances. No-one likes to be awake before 7 am without their consent, much less a Uni student. Apologies if this comes through in my writing. But it presents me an extra hour in the day I wouldn’t otherwise have to write these up so, silver linings etc.

The time between the game and now hasn’t dulled the exhilerating feeling of experiencing last Monday’s SW6 derby either. A fairly open game where both sides, in stages, demonstrated their quality but I think it’s fair to say that we showed it more than them over the 90 and if it weren’t for a hugely dodgy penalty then we could have seen that reflected in the result.

Schwarzer – 6, againm another quiet game for Mark in goal! And that is huge testament to our defence. Thought his kicking could have been better but I can’t really remember him being forced into a real save or Chelsea bombarding him with crosses.

Hangeland – 7, another solid contribution from the lanky Norwegian. Blocks, solid marking, reliable as always when balls came into the box. Played a majestic ball down the left for Riise too.

Hughes – 7.5, I thought Hughes outshone Hangeland for the simple fact that he had the job (whether by choice or by demand) of looking after Torres, and the Spaniard barely had a kick. A few times he tried to peel off Hughes for the long diagonal but the defender covered him perfectly. Not to mention his vital tradmark interceptions from other incisive Chelsea passes. Also, it’s notable just how much Hughes has improved on the ball. We used to expect long balls down the channel; not any more, as he’s gathered a composure and confidence which enables the simple ball to be played effectively.

Kelly – 7.5, Kelly again continues his impressive vein of form. Kalou, despite being much parodied by the footballing world, can be fairly tricky on his day but his attacking contribution was nullified other than two fairly big moments; the first being the pen for a foul by Kelly which never was and the second a free header when he stole in between the centre halves but contrived to miss spectacuarly. Always willing to go forward too, Kelly was present in our offensive, as well as defensive, play.

Riise – 8.5, the most impressive aspect of our play was undoubtably the domination we had down our left hand side. The first half of our armoury on that flank was the full back Riise who had an absolute field day. Russ Goldman actually picked him out as a candidate for suprise performer of the match and that foresight turned out to be accurate as Riise surged forward with impressive resolve and quality. Pushing up so far as to break the Chelsea offside trap several times, firing in crosses too, but also defending well; my favourite Riise moment of the game was when he was injured and despite being way out of position chased back and performed a diving salmon leap to clear a pass out for a throw in. In a sense his defensive duties were helped by Ramires being played out wide, who despite possessing great athleticism isn’t a winger really at all. However, if Ramires was played there to neutralise Riise as an attacking threat then there was only one winner in that battle.

Murphy – 7, our captain was afforded extra space and freedom in the three man midfield and as usual he used it wisely. Spreading passes around for fun and knitting our defensive and offensive unit together neatly, along with snappy tackles and good defensive covering. Not sure why he came off early.

Diarra – 8, a masterclass in anticipation and interception. Diarra read the game beautifully from a defensive point of view and I lost count of the number of times he cut out Chelsea passes and broke up attacks with those interceptions and tackles, as well as covering runners from midfield. A couple of slack passes but his possession game was fairly sweet as we are beginning to expect from him; collecting the ball and moving it on swiftly and with intelligence.

Dembele – 7, a return to form of sorts. Dembele definately had more influence in the middle of the pitch than he had done in previous couple of games, perhaps aided with the relative staticness of Mikel and Lampard who Dembele can just drift pass effortlessly, and did. Joined attacks, but I am concerned with this apparent drop off in form after what initially appeared to be a masterstroke.

Frei – 8.5, part two of our left flank domination. Frei was exceptional against Chelsea last Monday. I cannot remember the last time I went to a game and expected something exciting to happen when a specific player recieved the ball. He tore Ivanovic to shreds, one of the premier right backs in the league. In a sense, he possibly should have done more with the opportunities he created for himself, but what a talent. My favourite thing about Frei is that he looks like he’s losing the ball every time he runs with it but it’s still totally under his control! (see: his run when he took on four Chelsea players and forced Cech into a save). He also suits Riise more than Kacaniklic. However I really would like to see him go down the outside, just once! Very impressive.

Duff – 7, not as dynamic as Frei but still had his part to play in the game. He covered Cole well, and when attacking was wise with the ball and didn’t lose it rashly, although we didn’t see him do too much damage to the defence. Nice corner taking though. We could have scored 3 in the 20 minutes he was taking them.

Dempsey – 8, you can’t stop this man. Even if he’s outnumbered with a defensive midfielder shielding balls into him he still played the forward role well, dropping off, turning at goal and doing damage (however it would have been interesting to see how we would have played with Pogrebnyak), playing a key role in our performance. And with his first, and only, solid attempt at goal, he scores. It took a deflection, that was obvious watching it live, which could get it taken away from him but let’s give it to him for now and marvel at the achievement of scoring 22 goals in a season.

~Subs~

Etuhu – 6.5, came on for Murphy and I was worried because I thought it’d disrupt our attacking patterns, and to be fair it did to an extent. However we needed him when Chelsea really pushed in the last few minutes and he did well.

Sa – N/A, nice to see Sa return after so long out but it will be interesting to see what happens to him come the end of the season. Did ok in his few minutes on the pitch and offered a bit of an outlet

Hey Ashley Young, Arsene Wenger wants you banned

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has had enough of fakers in football and he wants to see video evidence used so that divers can get hit with retrospective bans.

Has the mood finally turned sufficiently on diving that the powers that be might actually start to do something? Maybe it has, but it took some fairly shocking incidents to finally do it.

First we had Liverpool's Andy Carroll tumbling to the ground when clear through on goal against Newcastle a few weeks ago and then last week Manchester United’s Ashley Young hit the deck dramatically after the slightest bit of contact with QPR’s Shaun Derry.

Then, facing his old team Aston Villa yesterday, Young was at it again, flinging himself acrobatically to the ground after the slightest contact from our own Ciaran Clark. It prompted Young’s own boss, Alex Ferguson, to say: “In the last week or two, yes. I’ve never seen that in him. It’s not a habitual thing in him. He was brought down, he just made the most of it.

“It was a dramatic fall. He overdid the fall but it’s a penalty, there’s no doubt about that and I don’t think they can have any complaint because he has taken him.”

Not exactly a condemnation and Fergie is hardly going to slag off his own player in public but we reckon he has probably had a word in private to prevent the English winger’s reputation becoming even more tarnished than it already is.

And before Young’s latest tumble, Arsene Wenger was already advocating new measures were brought in to stop the wave of ‘simulation’ in football.

“I must say the English players learn quickly,” Wenger said yesterday when asked in foreign players brought cheating to England. “If an obvious dive is punished by a three-match ban, the players would not do it anymore. I would support it.”

It seems they can use video evidence to apply bans, or miss them like in the case of Mario Balotelli on Alex Song, but if the threat of retrospective action is there it may just make players think twice.

Of course, like goal-line technology, we won’t hold our breath.

Reaping the Rewards of Full Fitness: Theo van Persie

When Arsenal hosted Newcastle at the Emirates Stadium, football fans graced themselves for another Premier League spectacle. Hatem Ben Arfa opened the scoring for the visitors but they were pegged back with a good piece of technique from Robin van Persie.
With the game tied at 1-1 with seconds to spare, Arsenal attempted one final surge at Newcastle’s goal. After some swift movement from the defense, Alex Song found Theo Walcott on the far side on the right hand side.
The winger swung in a peach of a cross that lost some momentum before falling kindly to Thomas Vermaelen in the six-yard box.
The rest, as they say, was history.
Five games have elapsed since that victory over this season’s surprise package and Walcott has smashed in three goals against Aston Villa, Queens Park Rangers and Wolves taking his tally this season to 11. With five games to go, Walcott is two goals short of equalling his personal best record for Arsenal, the 13-goal campaign he enjoyed last season.
Despite the fact that Walcott has been on everybody’s good books recently, he has also been on the end of a heavy criticism from the same fans who are singing his praises at the moment.
In a match as crucial as the North London Derby when the stakes were higher than the altitude of an Air Force One, the fans booed Walcott in the first half for every misplaced pass, failed dribble and wayward shot. Arsene Wenger saved his bacon by offering the young lad another chance in the second half and he repaid his manager’s faith with two placed finishes that put Tottenham to the sword.
Wenger wasn’t lenient when he was having a stinker against AC Milan in San Siro. The boss withdrew him at halftime to hand the great Thierry Henry a Champions League farewell.

The King’s final appearance in his second coming: I.am.Legend
Claudio Villa/Getty Images

You don’t need to read Theo Walcott’s autobiography to know how he has fared in recent times. After much media vulture hype, he was selected in the 23-man squad to represent England in the 2006 FIFA World Cup but he failed to make an appearance. He also inherited Thierry Henry’s jersey and locked horns with Andrey Arshavin for a starting berth on the flanks.
His biggest disappointment to date will have to be missing out of the tournament squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Fabio Capello preferred one-dimensional wingers like Aaron Lennon and Short Wright-Phillips to Walcott, and they fared no better in England’s appalling campaign,
This season, Walcott’s contribution to the team has been a major success story and one can look no furtther than his key goals and the boatload of assists he has raked up for his telepathic partner, Robin van Persie.
Had Walcott failed to score those vital goals against Udinese Calcio, Arsenal might have been playing some Thursday night football, if you know what that means. He has had some notable finishes this season with his standout goal being that puzzling goal against Chelsea in Stamford Bridge last October.
Unless you’re leaving in a far away cave with no access to internet or color TV, you should know that Robin van Persie is leading Arsenal’s scoring charts with 34 goals but his closest challenger is Walcott with…11 goals.
Theo Walcott feels that he’s feels completely fearless , now that his injury woes have been put behind him:
“I’m 23 now and I am still growing. I am not afraid of getting hurt. A few years ago, I had shoulder injuries, ankle problems and back problems and that was just me learning the other side of the game.”
“Now I am just getting into games and enjoying myself, not being scared of anything. The manager always tells me not to be afraid of going into tackles. We are playing great football and it’s nice to be part of that and not on the treatment table”
I’ll have to agree with Walcott on that front. many players produce their best football when they’ve attained optimal fitness. On the other hand, players with constant niggling injuries always tend to spend more time on the treatment table rather than on the pitch, to the detriment of their teams.
If you want to search for another living testimony of a player achieving his best form by being fully fit, you can look no further than Arsenal’s captain, Robin van Persie.
The Flying Dutchman was blighted by injuries in the start of his career at the club and there were even constant calls from the fans, telling the club to get rid of him courtesy of his countless minutes, hours, days and months on the treatment table.
Since his return to full fitness in the start of 2011, the heat van Persie emits can be compared to supernova. The lethal forward has amassed 45 goals in his last half century of Premier League games. His 27 league goals so far this season have come against 17 different sides – equalling the Premier League record.
The only two teams to prevent van Persie from scoring this season have beenManchester City and Fulham. However, he scored Fulham in the curtain closer of last season, thereby scoring 18 different Premier League teams in the past 12 months.

The record-equalling goal against Wolves. Cheeky
Scott Heavey/Getty Images

The only Gunner that has managed such a magnificent record of scoring 17 teams in a 38-game season is Ian Wright–not even the king, Thierry Henry. It’s really awkward to know that a player of Henry’s talent didn’t achieve this feat despite being Arsenal’s top scorer in basically every season he played for the Gunners.
Wright registered a goal against every team bar Manchester Unitedand Sunderland during the 1996/97 campaign.
Van Persie has scored 34 goals in all competitions, and he’s in eighth place in the club’s all-time leading scorer charts with 129 goals to his name, 100 goals short of equalling Thierry Henry’s immortal record. Arsene Wenger has congratulated his star striker for this great achievement.
This clearly shows that Arsenal is currently reaping the rewards of full fitness to two of its key players, Theo van Persie.
Last season, Arsene Wenger had a potent attacking force called Theo van Nasregas. These players notched up a joint total of 59 goals in all competitions.
This campaign, Arsene Wenger was left with Theo van Persie and they have slammed in 45 goals for this club in all competitions.
If Arsenal doesn’t renew the contracts of Theo van Persie, I’ll go berserk.

Chelsea’s Ivanovic handed three-match ban

Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic on Thursday had his appeal against an FA charge for violent conduct rejected.

The charge relates to an incident involving Ivanovic and Wigan Athletic’s Shaun Maloney during the clubs’ Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, April 7.

The incident was not seen by the match officials but was caught on video.

A Regulatory Commission heard the Serbian defender’s appeal and judged that his three-match suspension should stand.

The ban will commence with immediate effect, ruling him out of Sunday’s FA Cup semifinal against Tottenham Hotspur as well as the Premier League games against Arsenal and Queens Park Rangers.