Category Archives: Arsenal News

Transfer Rumours: Arsenal backed to sign Willian this summer; Philippe Coutinho also linked with Gunners

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As speculation about Willian’s next club continues, Arsenal have emerged as contenders to sign the Chelsea star when the transfer window re-opens.

Willian is out of contract at Chelsea at the end of the season, with north London rivals Tottenham currently the bookmakers’ favourites to sign the 31-year-old on a free transfer.

However, Spurs are not the only club to have shown interest in the Brazilian in recent weeks, and the Gunners are second favourites with a number of bookmakers at time of writing in their ‘Willian Next Club market’.

Transfer specials are always popular with football fans at this time of year ahead of the transfer window reopening at the end of the season, with many taking advantage of various free bet offers for football transfers as seen at FreeTips.com.

Willian’s agent recently admitted there is uncertainty over the winger’s future. Responding to speculation about his client’s next move, Kia Joorabchian told talkSPORT: “I think all free agent players are in an awkward situation because do you sign a new contract, do you extend for a month, do you extend for a longer period?

“I think that will be something that will just play itself out closer to the time.”

Whether the odds on Willian to Arsenal shorten in the coming weeks ahead of his contract expiring remains to be seen.

Willian is not the only player being linked with the Gunners, however, with former Liverpool ace Philippe Coutinho also backed for a move to Emirates Stadium.

After dazzling at times with Liverpool, Coutinho has been strongly linked with a return to the Premier League after a tough couple of years in Spain and Germany.

The 27-year-old scored 21 goals and had 11 assists to his name in 76 games for Barcelona, but failed to make a good impression with the club’s supporters.

During his time on loan at Bayern Munich, Coutinho has scored nine goals and made eight assists from 32 appearances.

Barca are ready to accept a loss on the Brazilian, who cost them over £120million in 2018, and Chelsea are favourites to be his next club.

Although recent reports in Spain claimed Chelsea were close to agreeing a deal for the forward, a deal is yet to be struck.

Everton and Newcastle are also reportedly interested in signing the former Inter Milan ace, but as speculation the player’s future continues, Arsenal are second favourites with some bookmakers at time of writing, according to the latest ‘Philippe Coutinho next club odds’.

Coutinho to Arsenal is currently as short as 6/1 with some bookies despite being 16/1 elsewhere, which may make it a good time to take advantage of the free bets available on transfer specials as seen at FreeTips.com.

 

When The Season Restarts, Here’s Why Arsenal Are Worth Betting On

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With the current situation regarding coronavirus, it is affecting football matches all over the world. When will the season start again? Will the season start again? There are so many questions that need answering, but essentially we take the situation on a day to day basis.

The Premier League season is due to start again on April 30th, but even that looks ambitious now. Some reports are saying that the Premier League might start up in June, but again, only if the authorities deem it safe enough to do so.

And how will the matches be played? Will they be behind closed doors? The problem is that the TV companies have invested huge amounts into showing live Premier League matches, so that’s why there’s a push to have games played in closed stadiums.

But then that poses a set of other problems; How can you play a football match with no fans? How will the players react to not having any atmosphere? If we have to play games behind closed doors, then surely there is still a risk of contracting the virus?

It is a messy situation and hopefully, the footballing authorities will make the best decision for the clubs, teams, players and most importantly, the fans.

So what about Arsenal?

When (and if) the season resumes, there are reasons to be positive about our team. We had an awful start to the season under Unai Emery but since the arrival of Mikel Arteta, we’ve been far better. There is much better team morale, we’re playing better football, and the fans are much happier. 

And that’s why once the reason starts up again, it’s worth backing the Gunners!

There are 10 games of the Premier League season left, and most of those games are winnable – there’s Aston Villa, Watford, Brighton, Southampton, Norwich and Wolves left to play, and whereas earlier in the season no-one would have backed us, these are now matches we can (and should) win.

There’s also a North London Derby left to play, and with Jose Mourinho imploding as the days go by, that would be a game we’d be looking to get all 3 points.

But how do you know how much you could win betting on Arsenal?

This is where this great online betting calculator comes in! With this free bet calculator  you can work out how much you could win by entering the stake (amount you want to bet) and the odds. It will then automatically calculate the overall return for stake not returned (SNR) and overall return for stake returned (SR), so you know exactly how much you will be pocketing once your bet comes in!

And if that wasn’t handy enough, there are also links to selected bookmakers where you can take advantage of free bets to boot! (excuse the pun…)

Hope you all stay safe during this difficult time, and don’t forget to stay home and save lives.

 

Does Granit Xhaka have too much power at the club? Is he the ‘John Terry’ of Arsenal?

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We know Granit Xhaka is hugely popular amongst the other players…

Since the start of the season, things have started to unravel at Arsenal.

Things weren’t great in the closing chapters of last season, when our Premier League form was disastrous and we somehow missed out on 4th place, after dropping points against teams we should have easily beaten – and then we collapsed in the Europa League final.

It all started when Laurent Koscielny went on strike.

When has a player ever gone on strike at Arsenal? We’ve had issues with players like Ashley Cole, Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor, but they’ve never refused to play or follow club orders. After 22 years under Arsene Wenger, this was a first and it was under Unai Emery.

With Koscielny’s departure, went our captain. And if losing our best defender wasn’t enough, it spawned another problem. Who would be the next Arsenal captain?

The fans seemed to have a good idea. We watch our team week in, week out, and some obvious candidates appeared. Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin would have been popular choices, and there were even shouts for players such as Lacazette and Aubameyang, who had a lot of fight and desire, and would lead by example.

But what started was one of the strangest things we’ve ever seen – Emery would conduct a players vote.

What now?!

Unai Emery couldn’t make a decision that a manager should be making, showing his lack of authority and lack of decisiveness in the process.

And the million dollar question, why is this?

We know Granit Xhaka was annoyed that Emery didn’t just name him captain as soon as Koscielny left, with the process taking a couple of months. It has been rumoured that Emery asked at least one other player if they would be interested in being captain but they refused, resulting in the captaincy eventually going to Xhaka.

The players vote resulted in Granit Xhaka getting the most votes, and it’s clear that he is hugely popular in the dressing room.

Who does that sound like?

John Terry.

Is it that Granit Xhaka has too much power at Arsenal? Here are the facts:

  • He is loved and respected by his fellow players
  • He refuses to apologise for his unacceptable actions, despite the club telling him he should do so
  • He won’t relinquish the captaincy
  • He has constantly undermined the manager
  • He always gets picked, despite being out of form

The last few weeks have been revealing. Emery has stated several times that Xhaka should apologise – Xhaka refuses to apologise. Emery hasn’t stripped Xhaka of the captaincy – because Xhaka wants to remain Arsenal captain. Xhaka has made mistakes and played poorly this season – Emery is too scared to drop him.

People have been quick to judge Emery and say that he lacks authority, but it appears to me that Granit Xhaka has too much power and has gone power mad. He is like a John Terry figure who for whatever reason, is loved by his teammates, apparently, and we know that some of the senior players went to his house after his outburst at the Crystal Palace game.

What will happen next between player and manager? Well if things continue as they are then it won’t be Granit Xhaka leaving, that’s for sure.

 

Who do you want as Arsenal’s next manager? Here’s the Top 10 contenders!

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It’s clear to see that Unai Emery and Arsenal is a relationship that isn’t working.

When Unai Emery first came in, he talked a good game. Actually, scratch that, he talked a great game.

I remember when Ivan Gazidis revealed that Emery would be the next Arsenal manager, I was impressed with what the Spaniard had to say. He talked about having a detailed dossier on every Arsenal player, he talked about how he can improve each player and also discussed how Arsenal can improve overall as a team.

But since that faithful day 18 months ago, things have actually got worse. Much worse.

Under Arsene Wenger we were a free flowing attacking team, that couldn’t defend. Now, we’re a team that still can’t defend but now are sterile in attack. We have a player in Aubameyang who is a world class striker but he can’t score goals because he doesn’t get any service. If he was at Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City or even Leicester City, he’d be scoring at least a goal a game. Against Sheffield United and Crystal Palace, he’s been starved of any service.

It’s obvious things aren’t working out, and I would be stunned if Edu, Raul and the rest of the executive team weren’t sounding out possible replacements. They have to be surely?

And looking at the recent reports, there seems to be 10 names in the frame at the moment.

So below, I have listed the 10 managers who are rumoured to be on our radar:

  • Jose Mourinho
  • Massimiliano Allegri
  • Mikel Arteta
  • Thierry Henry
  • Patrick Vieira
  • Brendan Rodgers
  • Freddie Ljungberg
  • Rafael Benitez
  • Eddie Howe
  • Espirito Santo

But who would you like to see as Arsenal’s next manager? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

 

Why Jose Mourinho is the man to save our season and the perfect fit for Arsenal

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The Special One…

I wrote a couple of days ago that the man to turn Arsenal’s fortunes around is Jose Mourinho. If you read the comments section, you will see the vast majority of replies (I think all of them actually) were negative.

Now, he’s emerging as the favourite to replace Unai Emery.

Should you just call me Mystic Mike from now on?

In a nutshell, here are the reasons why Jose Mourinho would thrive at Arsenal and bring us success (and a guaranteed Top 4 finish):

  • Proven winner
  • Excellent man-manager
  • Is tactically astute
  • Gets the best out of players
  • Will get the best out of Mesut Özil
  • Can coach defence

He’s available, has roots in London and can start straight away.

So what are Arsenal waiting for?

Fans who have concerns about his temperament have been watching Arsene Wenger far too long to realise there is more than one approach. Yes, Mourinho can be confrontational but he has also been proven to rally the troops, get the team together and give them that siege mentality, and most importantly believe that winning is actually important.

The last point is something that has been lost over the last 10 years, and it wouldn’t do us any harm at all to have a squad that actually values winning. How often have we been called mentally weak? How many times have we been told we don’t have any leaders?

Jose Mourinho, whatever you think of him, is a born winner.

Look at his first stint at Chelsea. That team was immense. Look at Porto – he won the UEFA Cup and Champions League with them against the odds. Look at Inter Milan – most of their squad cried when he left.

When he gets it right, Jose Mourinho is the best out there, and for me he is better than Pep Guardiola.

Mourinho has won the Champions League twice, both times with teams who were nowhere near being favourites in that competition. He’s won countless titles and has a more impressive trophy haul than Guardiola.

Guardiola has been at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City – all of whom have had the most money and the most talented players. There’s no doubt he’s a talented coach, but he’s had far more resources and help along the way.

Mourinho has a track record of winning with any team, with any budget and with any personnel.

If the Arsenal board have any real ambition, they will seize the moment and bring in Jose Mourinho before the chance is gone.