Arsenal Thread

[supergrass]

It's good to have committed players though. Pennant isn't a perfect player by any means, but Henry, Petit and others all needed a bit of fine tuning before they got going (not saying that they're perfect or anything).

Hopefully coming back and working with Wenger will help him. I was impressed with him at Leeds, and that hat-trick he got for us against Southampton. I hope he gets a chance.

[TheArsenal]

Arsenal's league fixtures, along with scheduled domestic cup dates. Schedule likely to change.

Sat Aug 14 Everton A

Sat Aug 21 Middlesbrough H

Tue Aug 24 Blackburn Rovers H

Wed Aug 25 Carling Cup 1

Sat Aug 28 Norwich City A

Sat Sep 11 Fulham A

Sat Sep 18 Bolton Wanderers H

Wed Sep 22 Carling Cup 2

Sat Sep 25 Manchester City A

Sat Oct 2 Charlton Athletic H

Sat Oct 16 Aston Villa H

Sat Oct 23 Manchester United A

Wed Oct 27 Carling Cup 3

Sat Oct 30 Southampton H

Sat Nov 6 Crystal Palace A

Wed Nov 10 Carling Cup 4

Sat Nov 13 Tottenham Hotspur A F.A. Cup 1

Sat Nov 20 West Bromwich Albion H

Sat Nov 27 Liverpool A

Wed Dec 1 Carling Cup 5

Sat Dec 4 Birmingham City H F.A. Cup 2

Sat Dec 11 Chelsea H

Sat Dec 18 Portsmouth A

Sun Dec 26 Fulham H

Tue Dec 28 Newcastle United A

Sat Jan 1 Charlton Athletic A

Mon Jan 3 Manchester City H

Sat Jan 8 F.A. Cup 3

Wed Jan 12 Carling Cup Semi-Final (1)

Sat Jan 15 Bolton Wanderers A

Sat Jan 22 Newcastle United H

Wed Jan 26 Carling Cup Semi-Final (2)

Sat Jan 29 F.A. Cup 4

Tue Feb 1 Manchester United H

Sat Feb 5 Aston Villa A

Sat Feb 12 Crystal Palace H

Sat Feb 19 F.A. Cup 5

Sat Feb 26 Southampton A

Sun Feb 27 Carling Cup Final

Sat Mar 5 Portsmouth H

Sat Mar 12 F.A. Cup 6

Sat Mar 19 Blackburn Rovers A

Sat Apr 2 Norwich City H

Sat Apr 9 Middlesbrough A

Sat Apr 16 Everton H F.A. Cup Semi-Final

Wed Apr 20 Chelsea A

Sat Apr 23 Tottenham Hotspur H

Sat Apr 30 West Bromwich Albion A

Sat May 7 Liverpool H

Sat May 14 Birmingham City A

Sat May 21 F.A. Cup Final

source:- Arsenal.com.

[FLiam]

Arsenal are believed to have agreed a deal with Ajax for their outstanding full back Hatem Trabelsi.

The 27-year-old had been looking to leave the Amsterdam ArenA on a free transfer, and the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Juventus and Milan were all ready to pounce.

However, the Dutch courts ruled that Ajax had a legal option to extend his deal - meaning he was still tied to the Dutch champions.

Newcastle United tried to land the Tunisian earlier this summer, but their move faltered when they tried to bypass the player's agents and go straight to Ajax.

As Sir Bobby Robson was lining up another bid, Arsenal have stepped in and agreed a fee of around £3 million for the right back.

Trabelsi is now expected to agree terms over the next week and should complete a move soon after.

Wenger has moved for the African as he obviously feels he needs extra cover at right back with Lauren currently filling that role, although it would be expected that Trabelsi would emerge as first choice.

Bayern Munich full back Willy Sagnol, also a target for Arsenal, stated earlier this year that Wenger was looking to replace Lauren.

Despite Trabelsi's imminent arrival, Lauren - who can also play in midfield - is unlikely to be surplus to requirements at Highbury as another reason for Wenger signing a new full back is to make sure Kolo Toure remains in the central of defence rather than having to provide cover.

Trabelsi, however, will not be the first summer signing for Wenger as he is expected to complete the siging of Celta Vigo goalkeeper Manuel Almunia in the next few days.

The 27-year-old has already agreed terms on his £500,000 switch and should arrive in England over the weekend.

source: planetfootball.com

Not bad, not bad.

[TMM]

Quite frankly, I don't rate Trabelsi as a better player than Lauren. From what I've seen of Trabelsi is average...maybe above average at times, but Lauren is still better. Let him go to Newcastle, we don't need him.

[fineintent]

I guess it couldn't hurt Arsenal to sign Trabelsi - Arsenal have a brilliant defense, until someone gets injured. More cover should tide them through the season - they sometimes seem stretched and it will be sometime before someone like Ryan Garry is ready for first team football. I'd try picking up another centre back as Cygan doesn't cut it - he is slow as hell.

[TMM]

Cygan wants a move back to Lille supposedly. He has said that he enjoys life at Arsenal, but isn't getting first team action. However, he said he'll only move back to Lille.

Personally, I think he should go. He performed well last season, but he's slow and get's blown away by the pace of the Premiership players. I hated him in his first season, but he improved A LOT last year.

[supergrass]

Cygan started well but had a shake in confidence and just never really got over it. He's not bad cover, but I think we can do better. I'd let him go.

Apparently Trabelsi may only be cover, not sure on that. But either way Wenger apparently wants 2 right-backs so that Toure can play in the middle all the time rather than have to cover Lauren if he's out injured or suspended

[FLiam]

Wow, this htread is dead.

What does everyone think of the signing of Almunia?

[TMM]

Well, I've seen one little bit of footage of Almunia, and thats the one and only save they show on Sky Sports News. I don't know. I'm going to wait til I see him play to pass judgment, but for around £500k, it can't be that bad.

[supergrass]

It's only as back-up, and didn't Lehman play all or at least most of the games least season anyway? If Wenger's impressed we'll just have to go along with it and support the new guy.

Moving on to Vieira, does anybody think there's any truth in rumours saying he wants to go to Real Madrid? They seem to bring this story up every year, and Vieira is still with us. I'm hoping it's boring speculation again, why would we sell Vieira when we couldn't possibly buy anybody better? It'd be a huge step backwards.

[TMM]

Not a bad pre-season friendly I think...10-1 isn't that bad is it?

Apparently, van Persie was amazing according to the Sky Sports News guys. Can't wait for the season to start.

Oh, and maybe Jeffers CAN do something, or is that just wishful thinking?

[Johnny Drama]

who was 10-1 against?

[TMM]

Barnet 1-10 Arsenal

van Persie

Reyes (hat trick)

Jeffers (hat trick)

Bergkamp (two)

Quincy Owusu-Abeyie

Some guy played £4,000 to play for Barnet against us. He's just some random guy who plays Sunday League or something and won a competition. Pretty cool I thought...

[supergrass]

On the subject of Jeffers, I personally don't doubt his talents, but I just don't think he fits in well at Arsenal. He plays more as a traditional centre-forward, in the style of an Alan Shearer or Ian Wright (though he's not quite up to their standards yet), who'll wait for crosses and score tap ins. I don't think this fits in with how Arsenal play, they don't want to cross balls, they pass through teams.

Nice to see Van Persie and Reyes looking good, I'm hopeful for next season. This could see us go further in Europe.

A few non-league clubs do what Barnet did in auctioning a place in the team, good way to raise a little cash.

[Jook]

Arsenal were awesome from the highlights I saw on SSN. I know, it was only Barnet, but it's made me even less optimistic about United's 2004/05 season

[FLiam]

We did look pretty good, van Persies goal was brilliant and Reyes got another hat trick and one of his goals he did a superb turn and outdid a defneder.

On the subject of Jeffers, sell him. I still don't like him, he is way down the pecking order anyway, it's Henry, Reyes, Bergkamp, van Persie, Aliaidere then him. Just flog him somewhere, I don't like him.

[Jook]

I love how Jeffers scores a hattrick yet that's still not good enough

Naw, seriously, Arsenal should get shot of him. Not only is he shit, but he's a wanker off the field too. He's my friends cousin, and he's meant to be a complete arsehole.

[RawIsWar]

Jeffers sucks anyway, i never knew why Arsenal bought him in the first place

[supergrass]

If he played enough games he'd score plenty of goals. But when you're at the top of the league you don't have time to wait for players to come good, they have to do it straight away.

With Jeffers' wages I doubt anybody will have him. That and we'll probably want a decent price for him after we over-paid. I can't see anybody bidding more than £3m for him.

[TMM]

Apparently, Patrick Vieira has cleared out his locker at Highbury.

You know by now that Patrick Vieira was at the Arsenal training ground on Friday and cleared out his locker. I was asked not to reveal that, so it remained unknown until it was published elsewhere. If I was chasing exclusives I’d have published that bit of info myself.

This is from Arseblog which is run by a guy who has 'contacts' on the inside. Now, until I hear anything concrete (specifically along the lines of seeing a photo of Vieira holding up a Real Madrid shirt with his name on the back ) I'm not going to lose much sleep.

On the subject of Jeffers, I backed him the moment we signed him, because I know the guy has talent. It'd be handy if he actually USED THEM in a game that meant something though!

Edited July 18, 2004 by The_Monkey_Molester