Quote:"But I'd give Arsenal credit for assembling a very strong squad there. Not only talented, but physically very strong, so they can take you on, whatever way you wanna play it, they've got the answer to you."
George Graham on the new Arsenal
"If I see one more shot of Dwight Yorke in that baseball cap I will put my foot through the screen." Match Review - see below
NEWS REVIEWS
FEATURES
LATEST POSTSCRIPT
(A weekly column )
14 MAY
The City was more confident about Arsenal prior to the midweek games. Arsenal shares were steady at £2200 and Man United's at 181/2p down 1/4p.
Arsene Wenger replied to the outspoken attack by Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards on referee David Elleray by saying that the game cannot survive if the honesty of officials is brought into question.Edwards, was reported to have said:"If Arsenal or Chelsea win the championship, I trust they will strike a commemorative medal for Mr Elleray because he would have done it for them."
Arsene Wenger said of Anelka this week:"I personally believe that for his development and career it would be very good that he stays at Arsenal as the club have shown a lot of faith in him and he has developed very well with us.I can say football-wise he is happy.
Kenny Dalglish says if teams finish level on top of the Premiership on points there should be a play-off."If you play 38 games in one of the most prestigious leagues and it's all square at the end a play-off is only fair."
According to the Scottish Daily Record:"Keane is definitely out of the Ewood Park crunch and is unlikely to make the final Premiership match against Aston Villa on Sunday." Must have bought him on the quiet!
"Of course I'd like my old club to do well, but not at our expense," says Leeds manager David O'Leary, who joined Arsenal for £4 a week and a Tube pass, and left 20 years and a record 722 appearances later.
Arsenal may be interested in Everton's cast offs Ibrahima Bakayoko and Olivier Dacourt, but might have to fight harder to gain the services of Michael Ball.
Kevin McCarron will win £10,764 from a £1m bet if Man U pip Arsenal to the title. He already has seven of the eight teams to win their respective divisions.
Bit of a spat between ex-Arsenal oldies George Graham and David O'Leary over Willem Korsten moving from Leeds to Spurs, with the latter accusing the former of doing a deal in-house.
David O'Leary is coming under pressure from his son:"He's coming home from school and all the other kids have been telling him to tell me that `we don't want that mob from across the Pennines winning the league'."
Dennis Bergkamp hit 30 this week.
Commentator Alan Green said players like Dennis Bergkamp or Tony Adams should have won the PFA Player of the Year Award.
George Graham warned that if the three top teams in the Premiership spend around £10m on new players in the close season, then it will take the others around four to five years to catch up.
David Platt's horse Handsome Ridge goes from strength to strength winning the last race on Staurday and the Shergar Cup for Europe at 5/1.
The Times reports that the Arsenal Ladies Team came in for verbal abuse from a contingent from Croydon Ladies. So Arsenal barred members of Croydon from watching their match against Tranmere Rovers.
One paper said this week that Arsene Wenger bought Vivas and Grondin to prolong the careers of Dixon and Winterburn.
Interesting satellite development, which Arsenal could well take note of, with the formation of Ajax Cape Town SA, with the Amsterdam club investing three quarters of a million. There will be a state of the art academy where youth development will be in the Ajax way, from under-eights upwards.
David Ginola said he wants to do the business for Arsenal on Sunday: "But because there is more of a French connection at Arsenal, I will say Arsenal - for Arsene, Manu, Patrick and Nicolas. There are no Frenchmen at all in Manchester!"
The lastest recycled transfer round - Heskey and Hughes (West Brom) crop up again being linked with Arsenal along with a Seedorf-Anelka swap. Gilles Grimandi is reported as having itchy feet.
Charlton's last gasp winner against Villa means that the Midlanders have to beat Arsenal to secure a place in the Inter-Toto Cup.
Congratulations to ex-Arsenal player, Chris Kiwomya for securing a very important hat-trick for QPR against Crystal Palace.
Less good news for Scott Marshall who is reportedly on his way from
Celtic after being blamed for two of the Rangers' goal in the
3-0 drubbing.
Thanks
Thanks to: Myles Palmer, Gary Jacob, Bob Bateman and Adrian Barker and everyone else who has sent things in
Transfers
Completed In
Fernando Macedo da Silva (Nano) 16 - Barcelona to Arsenal on a four year contract.
Completed Out
David Grondin Arsenal to St Etienne - loan for one year
Probable
Oleg Luzhnyi - Dynamo Kiev - Arsenal - £1.5m
Possible
Olivier Dacourt - Everton - £5m
Nakarta - Perugia - £3m
Chris Sutton - Blackburn -£12m
Robbie Fowler - Liverpool -£12 -15m
Injuries
16/05
Vivas - knee
Manninger - broken arm
Nigel Winterburn - broken nose
Dennis Bergkamp's record (up to end March)
Goals - 9
Goal assists - 13
Shots on target - 31
% shots on target 57
Corners won 16
Points - 1286
Arsenal's record prior to Newcastle (supplied by OPTA)
Goals 43
Average/game 1.31
Shots 330
% on target 47
% goals to shots 10
Short passes 9072
Long passes 1232
Pass completion 79%
Crosses 422
Cross completion 21%
Goals conceded 12
Goals conceded/game .46
% of tackles won 66%
Blocks/interceptions 1688
Fouls 313
Yellows 47
Reds 5
Foul Play Table
Sheff Wed - 478
Leicester - 518
Aston Villa - 526
Wimbledon - 530
Man U - 584
Newcastle - 587
Arsenal - 598 (5 Red,47 Yellow,313 Fouls)
Riches League (Deloitte Touche) 1996/97 season
Manchester United £87.9m
Newcastle United £41.1m
Liverpool £39.2m
Rangers £31.7m
Tottenham Hotspur £27.9m
Arsenal £27.2m
Arsenal are third in the Premiership attendance League on 38,095
Goal Ratio League
Arsenal are 14th - 23 games and 24 goals
Goals/game 1.04
Minutes/goal 86 mins
Arsenal are second in the HOME POINTS league
Arsenal are fifth in the AWAY POINTS league
Arsenal are fourth in the S.Mirror's average attendance in 34 years league (!) - 31,149.
Arsenal have not lost at home for 24 games
Arsene Wenger is the 8th longest serving manager in the Premiership.
Arsenal are currenly third in the Mail 's Entertainment League
Anelka's Premiership record
Minutes 2018
Goals 12
Shots on target 38
Off target 37
Assists - 4
Passes - 592
OPTA Leagues
David Seaman 9th- 55
Lee Dixon -7th - 658
Nicolas Anelka - 10th -655
Dennis Bergkamp -9th -666
Most fouled
The NoW says Ray Parlour is the fifth most fouled player in the Premiership (on fouls for). He's been fouled 43 times prior to Preston. Ginola is top at 52.
Statistics - history (Premiership games up to Villa, from Carling OPTA)
Matches -16
Goals -15
Average goals/game -0.94
Shots - 218
% on target - 48
%goals/shots 7
goals against - 7
Average goals against/game -0.44
Tackles - 552
Tackles won - 70%
Fouls - 181
Yellows - 28
Red - 3
Arsenal are currently 10th in the MoS European League:
Played 27
Won 11
Drawn 11
Lost 5
For 31
Against 20
Points 54.3
NEWS
The Arsenal were mobbed in Thailand - and appeared to like it. This followed a 2-1 over the Malaysian national side,with Anelka and Petit scoring.
Fernando Macedo da Silva (Nano), whose father is going to be in London is going to Arsenal. The 16 year old Barcelona midfielder, excelled in the under 16 Championships, and is on a four year contract.
The Spanish Football Federation made noises about not liking it - backed up by Barcelona's Louis van Gaal, but they were powerless to do anything - due to the player's age.
Arsenal are building a veritable team of Euro-all stars -what with Volz, Pennant and Aladiere.
However David Grondin has re-signed back to St Etienne for a year loan - part of the deal announced last year.
Still in France - the 'Buffet Bill" is progressing. It will bring in legislation to protect clubs from losing promising youngsters - and change the financial basis on which clubs can operate.
Oleg Luzhnyi the Kiev back, is 90% certain to join Arsenal according to a Dynamo Kiev spokesman - but when we contacted Arsenal - they said the signing could not be confirmed.
Would Arsene buy a 30 year old?
And finally Arsenal shares dropped £200 over the last couple of weeks following events in the Premiership.
POSTSCRIPT -22 MAY
Arsenal had unexpected support from bookmakers on Sunday. The Man U triumph cost them a fortune in pay-outs. All the favourites had won the various divisions, so a lot hung on the last one. One punter won 600,000 for a £130 stake, predicting the winners of all the divisions.
Arsene Wenger summed it eloquently when he said:"It's like losing a marathon by just one yard."
And: "It's terrible to think that we have 78 points like last year when we won the Premiership but with a better defensive record and better goal difference and we have still not retained it."
Wenger admitted the championship was really lost during the first part of the season, when players were still tired after the World Cup.
But that:"But this is the best team I've ever managed, by some margin."
There were mixed reports in the media as to where the actual cup was. One paper said it was on a motor bike in a Chorley service station. Another said it was in a helicopter, hovering depending on the result. While a third suggested replicas were at both grounds.
Some of Arsenal's potential opponents in the Champions League became clearer this week - Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen and, probably, Hertha Berlin; and from Italy, Lazio and AC Milan
Alex Ferguson said last year:" we will be studying what Arsenal did to finish above us." The general consensus is that United assembled a squad, while Arsenal assembled a team. And Arsene Wenger's next challenge is to build a great squad, as opposed to a great team.
One paper described the difference between Wenger and Ferguson as the difference between chalk and camembert.
Wenger outlined a potential dilemma next season. "I would like to use him [Kanu] as a regular but it's difficult to find the balance with the three of them [Bergkamp and Anelka]."
Besides warnings of the top three breakaway - in terms of quality, at least, there were warnings that the domestic league could beome a servant to greater happenings abroad, namely, the Champions League expansion, the possible World Club Championship,and perhaps a World Cup every two years.
One paper said that Wenger is getting close to asking Anelka to make a public statement that he is staying at Arsenal. It hints that both Bergkamp and Kanu can relate to him that playing abroad can be an unhappy experience.
Meanwhile congratulations are in order for the Nicolas. He finished fourth top scorer (along with Andy Cole) in the Premiership, after Yorke, Hasselbaink and Owen - all on 18.
Best banner at the ground on Sunday:"`We support Spurs (until 6pm
tonight).'
Manchester United only got £180,000 more than Arsenal for finishing top
- £3.68m to £3.5m.
Highbury's total attendance this season reached 1.93 million.
Gooner Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski were planning to finish their matches in time to watch Arsenal, in the World Team Championship. They didn't.
After receiving the PFA Award, David Ginola said:"All I want now is for Spurs to be playing at the same level as Arsenal next season."
We've heard so much of Kanu. Now Nano - or Fernando Macedo da Silva, the latest youth prodigy, 16 is reported to be arriving in the summer at Arsenal, from Barcelona. A midfielder, he was outstanding in the recent under-16 championship, and is allegedly on a four year contract.
The football memorabilia market is worth £5m a year, according to research by Axa, the insurer that sponsors the FA Cup. So keep on buying them programmes - and keep them pristine.
Kanu's goal at Middlesbrough was the third best of the season according to the S.Times. It notes that Olivier Dacourt, courted by Arsenal, has been booked 16 times and sent off once this season.
Tony Adams revealed his future ambitions this week - winning the Champions League, beating David O'leary's record of 722 games for Arsenal, and captain of a Championship winning side over three decades.
Jaap Stam said this week:"We've played Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Bayern Munich this season, but if I had to nominate the toughest side we have faced it would be Arsenal. They have quality running through the side, and enormous self-belief which shows itself in their determination to win every game."
Comment
I agree with Myles' comments.
Viera is the footballer of the year, no question. The guy's work rate is incredible.
Arsenal should shop Anelka before everyone realizes that DB10, Viera, Petit, et al., made him a scorer. He never really looks like he can create something out of nothing. "Little goals"
All the whinging is annoying. Why doesn't the boy stand up, tell everyone to piss off, and openly pledge to Arsenal, even if it's not true. He reminds me of Suraya Bonaly, the French figure skater with the messed up family, who spent all their time mouthing off to the press.
Fowler would be a risk, but worth it. Wenger would give him room to be himself, but demand loyalty. He has a knack with the rehab projects. Look at Petit. AW made Anelka. Nicky owes him. Imagine the havoc an in-form Fowler could create with DB10, Viera, Petit, Overmars spraying balls around. He'd get 25 goals, and create more with a little argy-bargy havoc in opposing defences. His presence would create more space for Dennis and Kanu.
Anyway, I agree with Myles' assessment of the striker situation. We need a troublemaker to keep the opposing defences looking over their shoulders.
Steve Phillips in Vancouver