I think AW is in dilemma now... his youth policy is noble and financially sound but he may have missed out the expectation and patience, not only from the fans but also the PLAYERS. In the end, AW has to alter his policy and inject good players from time to time (but NOT as aggressive as others) to balance up the players gap and competitiveness.

That's why we got Arshavin

Arsene Wenger has made a fresh move for St Etienne midfielder Blaise Matuidi after fearing Cesc Fabregas is facing an injury lay-off.

Arsenal captain Fabregas, 22, faces a race to be fit for Saturday's trip to Manchester United and could be out for up to three weeks with a hamstring injury.

That has brought it home to Wenger that he needs to strengthen his squad and has gone back for long-term target Matuidi.

Gunners boss Wenger is keen to strengthen his central midfield and defence and still expects to offload Philippe Senderos before the window shuts with Everton still interested.

Wenger has already had lengthy discussions with St Etienne and 22-year-old Matuidi over a move to Arsenal.

St Etienne are demanding £6m while Arsenal want to pay half that figure and are prepared to take the deal right to the wire in the transfer window to drive a hard bargain.

France Under-21 starlet Matuidi, a holding midfielder, would jump at the chance of moving to Arsenal and is hopeful a deal can be completed.

Wenger has already revealed that he still has not given up on signing former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira, 33, from Inter Milan.

Arsenal will also have money to spend if they progress to the Champions League Group stages from tomorrow night’s qualifier with Celtic.

That could see them go back for Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh who has already snubbed West Ham in the hope Arsenal are still interested, otherwise he will stay put.

that's the common consensus... but i honestly doubt that diaby can stick to doing just defensive duty. diaby himself has admitted that he's a very attacking player and i believe even wenger thinks so... so if we play diaby there, our back 4 will have not enough cover and they will be stretched, especially if we make the mistake of committing too many midfielders forward to help out in attack, a scenario that is likely to happen given diaby's attacking nous... as i mentioned a few posts earlier, i don't think denilson is able to shoulder the main defensive duty on his shoulders, so a scenario where diaby is committed and denilson without adequate cover doesn't bode too well for me...

another thing is that diaby holds the ball too long most of the time, and this slows down our attack. and this is also dangerous because a holding midfielder's primary role is to distribute the ball out of defense, and do it quickly and cleanly, something i believe is lacky from diaby's play thus far. this was a point that starghazzer and i had previously pointed out as well....

am going to asia cafe with my (mu's) friend

Celtic's calls to ban Dudu are merely harsh words spoken in a heat of a moment, just like how a furious Arsene lashed out at Taylor after he smashed Dudu's ankle.

When the mind's boiling, the mouth spews acid.

If the authorities decide to give Dudu a ban as punishment, then we cannot complain too much. But if that really occurs, then retrospective reviews and punishments should be made compulsory for every controversial diving incident from now on, not just when it happens to Arsenal. Again, no one gave a crap when Babel, RVN, and Rooney did it to us.

Let's see whether the authorities have the balls to do it or not.

The Old Trafford crowd will give Dudu lots of boo-missiles whenever he touches the ball this weekend. A winner from Dudu would shut 'em up nicely.

Anyway, Eboue wants to stay... we want Manu to stay too !!
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-spo...do?ito=newsnow&
Gazi, deal please.

oh shut up already about the dive. lots of players dive.. heck even maradona used his hand to score the winning goal in World Cup. Nobody calling to banned him for life? fark la.. why the double standard?

Anyway, vermaelen was caught offside..  i LOL. hehehe

I'm quite worry about Sagna. Last nite, he got exposed a couple of times and that Donati goal was from his side. SAF will take note of that and use Evra/Rooney combo to attack on that side. it'll be a long hard day for Song and Sagna.

another "boring" group for Le Gunners..hahaha. Of coz im fancy we meet more elite opponent like
Inter, Real, Juve, Lyon. But its oso good to get "easy opponent on paper" first. But anything can happen in football.
AZ alkmaar is quite strong team oso. Their similarity wit us not juz by their kit (red + white sleeves)  
but they're oso attacking minded team juz like us

lol.your view is different than mine.
mine:he was brave enough to stand in front of the devil's fans and refuse to move away from the dugout when he was sent off.  

Arsenal's Djourou out for six months

Arsenal defender and Switzerland international Johan Djourou will be out of action for about six months after he underwent an operation on his left knee, the Swiss football federation said Saturday.

Djourou followed doctors' advice and was operated on his knee cartilage in Geneva on Friday, the federation said on its website.

The 22-year-old had been hoping for a permanent slot in the Gunners' extremely competitive back four following the departure of Kolo Toure over the summer.

But he quit the Swiss training camp before a friendly against Italy last month complaining of a revival in a recurrent knee pain.

Djourou hopes to regain fitness for a return to competitive football next March, in the hope of making it to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 if Switzerland qualify.

Switzerland are currently second in Group 2, level on 13 points with first-placed Greece whom they face in Basel on Saturday.

fark aa... that wasn't a dive.. that was a foul FROM rooney... not a penalty. if anything, it should be a yellow card for rooney.

Yep... someone should make noise. Rooney "deceived" the referee into giving him a penalty. He did all the theatrics and got England a goal.

freaking pisses me off. I hope Croatia crush England this Wednesday.

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Added on September 6, 2009, 7:05 pmwhat pisses me off even more is the fact that no one seems to talk about the incident!