Wenger salutes magical Walcott

Arsene Wenger praised Theo Walcott’s two-goal contribution to Arsenal’s 5-2 derby win over Tottenham, but admitted he considered substituting the winger to spare him more abuse from his own supporters.

Walcott came in for heavy criticism from the Arsenal fans at the Emirates Stadium as Spurs raced to an early two-goal lead.

But after the home side drew level, Tomas Rosicky and Walcott completed a comfortable win.

Wenger confessed he thought about making a change when it became apparent Walcott was shouldering the blame for a disappointing start but believes the player’s performance demonstrated his value to the team.

“The crowd was starting to get on his back, and you wonder if you do him a favour if you leave him on,” said Walcott.

“But I felt that he is a player who can be straight, go behind the defenders, and nobody else is like that.

“He is a very direct player, and you know that sometimes he can miss a first touch and still considering the balance of our team I felt it was important to keep him in the side.”

Walcott admitted he had endured a difficult first 45 minutes but was satisfied with his response.

“You always have to get on with the game. When things are not going too well, I can hold my hands up and say I didn’t have the greatest of first halves,” he said.

“But it just shows the character, not just me but the team. I was trying to forget about that and work hard in the second half and if you work hard hopefully good things will come and it happened for me, hopefully it will happen to everyone else now.”

In a reversal of roles, Robin Van Persie, the scorer of Arsenal’s second goal, set up Walcott for the team’s third.

And the Holland forward said: “If you speak about Theo, I think it’s funny he gets so many critics. He gave me loads of assists and I know and everyone knows he can score.

“He showed that in this game, he scored two goals and will score more. I said a couple of weeks ago he will score 20 goals and he will, trust me.”

Bacary Sagna set Arsenal on course for victory after Louis Saha and Emmanuel Adebayor had put Spurs in control.

And Wenger believes the race for third place is back on after Arsenal reduced the gap on Tottenham to seven points.

“It is still possible, if we keep our run going. Why not? But before the game it was ‘impossible’,” said Wenger.

“I always thought it was possible, but it would be down to consistency. Everybody on in the Premier League can lose points. They have a different schedule to us, but if we continue to play like that, then why not?”

Wenger revealed Belgium defender Thomas Vermaelen and Czech Republic forward Rosicky picked up knocks and would miss this week’s internationals.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp admitted he had been surprised at the way his side collapsed and demanded an immediate response.

“We seemed to buckle after they scored, which isn’t like us. We don’t do that often. But they’ve got good players. They’re a good side but when you’re 2-0 up, you expect to win the game,” he said.

“It’s going to be tight, but we’re in a great position. We’re still seven points clear of Arsenal and Chelsea. If we can finish third, that’s a great season for us.”

And he added: “We’ve got to come back like we did earlier in the season. We need to bounce back and recover.

“But everyone’s going to various parts of the world to play internationals, There’s hardly anyone in all week. It’s a crazy build-up to massive games. It’s difficult, the schedule. We’ve got people going to Mexico. One to New Zealand.”

Arsenal, Chelsea feeling heat as league resumes

The Premier League title duel between Manchester United and Manchester City could be relegated to sideshow status this weekend as all eyes descend on the turmoil bedevilling Arsenal and Chelsea.

With Manchester City facing lowly Blackburn on Saturday and United travelling to Norwich 24 hours later, few will be surprised if City’s two-point lead at the top of the table remains intact come Sunday night.

Yet the stakes could not be higher for Arsenal and Chelsea, whose campaigns are teetering on the brink following a series of poor results which have left their managers Arsene Wenger and Andre Villas-Boas facing stinging criticism.

Arsenal followed their 4-0 thrashing at AC Milan weekend with a dismal FA Cup exit at Sunderland last weekend, a result that effectively ensured the Gunners’ trophy drought would enter an eighth year.

While conventional wisdom suggests Wenger has built up enough reserves of goodwill during his 15 years at Arsenal to be the author of his own exit strategy, the recent chorus of criticism directed at the Frenchman will become deafening if Tottenham prevail in Sunday’s north London derby at the Emirates.

Spurs, who beat Arsenal 2-1 at White Hart Lane earlier this season, have not done the double over the Gunners for nearly 20 years.

A victory for Harry Redknapp’s side would see Spurs open up a 13-point lead over Wenger’s men, a vast gulf between third and fourth place that underscores the acute sense of two clubs heading in opposite directions.

Arsenal defender Johan Djourou has challenged his team-mates to prove that the club remain “the kings of London.”

“When you play (Tottenham), you forget the table; it is a battle and the best team will win,” Djourou said.

“They are in great shape this season, they have been playing a lot better than before but you have to forget about that and go to war.

“At the start of the season some people wrote them off because they lost a few games but since then they have been unbelievable. But it is up to us to show that we are the kings of London.”

While Wenger is expected to weather the current storm, Villas-Boas’s position at Chelsea remains shrouded in uncertainty despite the Portuguese manager’s insistence that he retains the full backing of owner Roman Abramovich.

The 34-year-old Chelsea boss lurched into another crisis this week as his team slumped to a 3-1 loss at Napoli which has left the Londoners staring down the barrel of Champions League elimination.

Villas-Boas’s selection for the match has come under severe scrutiny following the decision to omit Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole from his starting line-up.

Several reports have suggested Villas-Boas is struggling to get a grip on a full-scale dressing room mutiny, with headlines this week such as “Bench warfare” and “Battle at the Bridge” highlighting the strained relationship between the coach and his players.

Failure to beat relegation-threatened Bolton on Saturday could prove fatal to Villas-Boas, who has won just four of his last 14 games.

Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic is adamant that the club needs to unite behind the manager to have any chance of saving their season.

“Chelsea has to be the priority for everybody,” Ivanovic said. “We all have to think like this to try to make the position better.

“Things like this always happen when you are losing and they always leak out. But it is the manager who decides who plays and then it is up to us players to do our jobs.

“This is a critical period for this club and we will only get through it if we stay positive and keep working hard.”

Villas-Boas’s Bolton counterpart Owen Coyle meanwhile rallied to the support of his opposite number, backing him to transform Chelsea — provided he is given enough time to do so.

“There is no doubt that it is a season of transition at Chelsea because of what he wants to put in place and without wishing to use cliches, Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Coyle said.

“Sometimes it takes time, but I do believe Chelsea have got the right man in place to bring all that to fruition.

“The one commodity we ask for in football is time. Sometimes it is not given, but if it is – and I believe it will be at Chelsea – then I think they will reap the rewards.”

Fixtures (1500 GMT unless stated):

Saturday: Chelsea v Bolton, Newcastle v Wolves, QPR v Fulham, West Brom v Sunderland, Wigan v Aston Villa, Man City v Blackburn (1730)

Sunday: Arsenal v Tottenham (1330), Norwich v Man Utd (1330), Stoke v Swansea (1500).

Arsenal’s deadlock: Wenger won’t budge, Van Persie won’t stay, The Ox won’t play

The ‘In Arsene We Trust’ banners are finally showing signs of ceasing.

Few managers have enjoyed the kind of die-hard support that the trophy-less for seven years Wenger has enjoyed at the Emirates.

However, not any more it would seem.

A three-way deadlock involving Wenger’s transfer funds, Robin Van Persie and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

After reports emerged that Wenger has £50millon sitting in his transfer kitty, Gunners fans now want to know why he has not spent it.

The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust are demanding answers from club owner Stan Kroenke and the Emirates board, according to a report in The Sun.

Questions raised at a lively AST meeting on Monday night, included why bitter rivals Spurs are so far ahead despite having a 40 per cent lower wage bill.

Arsenal are expected to announce pre-tax profits of about £45m — boosted by the sales of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri.

It might be worth noting that having £50millon is one thing – buying the right player is quite another.

Wenger’s buy ‘em young watch ‘em grow policy worked only until he was winning trophies.

Then the young ‘uns upped and left.

Arsene Wenger meanwhile will reportedly refuse to be held to ransom over Robin van Persie.

Arsenal are determined to keep their prize asset this summer even if the Dutchman does not sign a new contract, according to media reports, and talks are underway to offer the striker a mega deal.

Then there is the question of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, an emerging talismanic figure for the Gunners. Wenger has also stated that he will not push the dynamic winger into playing too much, too early, much to chagrin of Arsenal fans.

Gunners boss Wenger ended up selling Samir Nasri to Manchester City for £22m last summer because he only had one year left on his deal and Wenger feared he could end up leaving on a free transfer.

But Arsenal are prepared to take the risk of Van Persie running his current contract into next season before it expires in 2013.

The Arsenal board know selling their captain, talisman and star striker would cause fury among the fans.

Van Persie would be 30 in 2013, is four years older than Nasri and so it will be a different dilemma for Arsenal this summer making it increasingly likely they will take a gamble on his contract situation.

However, Wenger shows no signs of buying an out and out top-ranked player ready to impact Arsenal’s cup fortunes.

Indications already are that all inquiries concern players with great potential – but no established stars.

The latest news on that front is his interest in 21-year old defender, Daniel Opare from Ghana.

At least the good news for Gunners’ fans is Wenger is finally showing interest in shoring up his defence.

Wenger focuses on salvaging something from wreckage

SUNDERLAND: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger urged his players to fight on and salvage something from the season after their hopes of ending a seven-year trophy drought were effectively wrecked by FA Cup elimination on Saturday.

Needing to overturn a 4-0 deficit in their Champions League last-16 tie against AC Milan and trailing Premier League leaders Manchester City by 17 points, their campaign is all but over but the Frenchman refused to write it off altogether.

“We have to take the critics on board and stay together and face the critics. There is only one response … to stay united and fight and focus on the next game,” Wenger told a news conference after a 2-0 FA Cup fifth-round defeat at Sunderland.

“Let’s focus on our next game to finish well in the championship and fight as well – even if it’s a small possibility – in the Champions League.”

Wenger had described the heavy midweek defeat in Milan as their “worst performance in Europe” and there was little sign of improvement on Saturday.

While the manager praised his players for a “committed performance”, neutrals will have seen a disjointed showing at the Stadium of Light with little attacking flair and a shaky defence.

The FA Cup was the last realistic chance of silverware for the north London club whose most recent addition to the trophy cabinet was from the 2005 edition of the competition.

Defeat owed as much to Arsenal’s weaknesses as Sunderland’s determination, with Gunners defender Johan Djourou giving away the free kick that led to Kieran Richardson’s opener and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain then scoring at the wrong end.

DRAMATIC SLUMP

It came almost a year after the shock defeat by Birmingham City in the League Cup final which triggered a dramatic slump in form that Wenger has yet to reverse.

At the helm since 1996, he is still not under the same kind of pressure from fans and media that Chelsea’s Andre Villas-Boas is grappling with after a similarly underwhelming season but he is nevertheless under scrutiny.

Asked where the Sunderland defeat left Arsenal, Wenger replied: “It’s too early to say”.

Responding to a query over whether his club were in crisis, he said: “It depends what you call a crisis. I feel every time we lose a game we have a crisis. Our job is about winning and playing well”.

Arsenal’s season has not been helped by a string of injuries to key players and the treatment room filled up again on Saturday with Aaron Ramsey, Sebastien Squillaci and Francis Coquelin picking up knocks.

It left Wenger concerned about numbers before next weekend’s north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur who are rubbing salt into the wounds of their bitter rivals by enjoying one of their best seasons in years.

“We have a big game next Sunday,” Wenger said. “We lost three players again today and we are starting to get very short.”

Wenger urges Gunners response

Following a torrid week for Arsenal (6/4 Premier League top four finish with bet365), the club’s under-pressure managerArseneWenger has issued a rallying cry to his players as they look ahead to Premier League duty.

The Gunners were thumped 4-0 in midweek at the hands of AC Milan at the San Siro, which has all but put an end to the north London outfit’s chances of European glory this term.

Having disappointed in Italy, Arsenal then went down 2-0 to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in the FA Cup on Saturday to round off a difficult week for Wenger.

The French tactician is now looking for a response from his players in the Premier League, as they hope to secure a top four finish this season to qualify for the Champions League.

Arsenal face old rivals Tottenham Hotspur next Sunday in a massive derby clash at the Emirates (Arsenal 11/8, draw 5/2, Tottenham 15/8 with bet365), before taking on Liverpool in another high pressure game ahead of the second-leg against Milan.

Wenger has admitted his side have been underperforming but believes the squad must stick together.

He said: “We have to take the criticism on board, stay together and face the critics.

“The only response in our job is to stay united and fight and focus on the next game.”

← Wenger looking for a reaction

Wenger vows to fight on

Posted on February 19, 2012 by www.soccer - facebook.com

Arsene Wenger says Arsenal will pull together and fight after they were sent crashing out of the FA Cup at Sunderland.

The 2-0 defeat at the Stadium of Light wrapped up a miserable week for the Gunners, who look certain to go another season without winning a trophy, but Wenger insists they will fight on.

Arsenal will have to fight hard to make sure they finish in the top four to qualify for the Champions League, while Wenger is also calling on his players to battle against AC Milan in the hope they can overturn a 4-0 first leg deficit.

There are also calls from some quarters for Wenger to step aside as manager but the Frenchman says everyone should be united and look to finish the season strongly.

“We have to take the criticism on board, stay together and face the critics,” he said after the defeat. “The only response in our job is to stay united and fight and focus on the next game. ”

It’s very difficult tonight to say where it leaves us and what we will do, let’s focus to finish well in the championship and fight as well, even if it’s a small possibility, in the Champions League.”