The rearranged Carling Cup quarter-final against Liverpool on January 9 means the North Westerners must play a minimum of ten matches in 43 days, more if they win the Carling Cup tie – or if they draw their FA Cup third round game with Arsenal on January 6.
Meanwhile Tuesday’s night’s postponement of the Carling Cup quarter-final tie at Liverpool provided the first midweek break Arsenal have had for 10 weeks.
Arsene Wenger thinks Emmanuel Adebayor could be the salavation of Arsenal’s season: “He is strong physically and technically and good in the air. And he doesn’t give up. That quality is important if you are going to be a top level team.” Wenger admitted: “I think Adebayor has found his feet. I brought him because I felt he had the qualities to cope with the English game.
“He has the ingredients we lacked. He scored at Man United with five minutes to go and he scored at Wigan with five minutes to go. That kind of quality is really important if you are going to be a top level team.”
The Evening Standard reports Wenger has ‘not given up’ on Arsenal’s title hopes despite going into the festive schedule 14 points behind leaders Manchester United.
Meanwhile, Thierry Henry, who won the French Footballer of the Year Award said on the Champions League, in the New Paper: “The first chance I had, I must score. I think about it very often. That missed chance annoys me because it made a real difference,” he said.
“The second one, we had been playing with 10 men for 50 minutes, and I had nothing left in me. Even if I am the first to know that you can’t judge a striker only on his goals, or assists, I still have the feeling that I let the team down, that I didn’t make the difference. That was how I felt when it happened.”
Meanwhile Tomas Rosicky, who returns to the Arsenal squad this weekend, has won the Golden Ball poll for the best Czech soccer player in the autumn season, the Sports Journalists Association of Czech Republic.
Goalkeeper Petr Cech is in the second place.
The Sun reports Arsenal want to sell Jose Reyes to Real Madrid next month to raise money for Arsenal’s New Year signings [what signings?]. But Real are refusing to stump up £10million asking price and want the Gunners to keep on-loan Julio Baptista in a straight swap. It says Wenger has already rejected that and hopes to thrash out a price for Reyes, 23, over Christmas.
It also says the club have ended their interest in Nigel Reo-Coker and want a left-back in January, with Wenger looking at Southampton’s 17 year old Gareth Bale or Wigan’s Leighton Baines.
Jeremie Aliadiere has a potential loan move to Boro, lined up, according to the Evening Gazette.
Preston manager Paul Simpson admits he was gutted after Arsenal’s Nicklas Bendtner snubbed a loan move, says the Sun.
Arsene Wenger will tell John Hughes next week if he will extend strike star Anthony Stokes’ loan deal at Falkirk, says the Mirror.
The Evening Times says Artur Boruc will not quit Celtic in the January transfer window – but the Polish keeper is likely to leave the club at the end of the season. The player’s agent, Radoslaw Osuch, says there will be interest in the summer, with Arsenal already keeping tabs on both Boruc and Craig Gordon. Celtic would want around £5m for a player who cost them £1.1m from Legia Warsaw.
Liverpool, Aston Villa, Newcastle, West Ham, Tottenham, Fulham, Blackburn, Sheffield United and Wigan have all registered an interest in Matthew Upson, the ex-Arsenal defender sold for around £1m. Birmingham will look for around £5 million, says the Malay Mail.
Meanwhile, the Nation reports BEC-Tero Entertainment, in co-operation with Arsenal, has launched the first Arsenal flagship store in Thailand, at CentralWorld.
The company, a subsidiary of BEC World, operator of Channel 3 television, also has the right to open Arsenal merchandise stores anywhere in the world, says the paper.
Arjan de Zeeuw, Wigan’s centreback has an interesting view on the change of styles in the Premiership.
“When I first came here, everyone played 4-4-2 and you knew what you were going to get,” De Zeeuw said recently. “Now you see teams with one up front and five in the middle most weeks. And one of the five will usually be in the Claude Makelele position, providing an extra level of defence.
“Everyone is more cautious now because there is such a big gap between the top three or four and the rest. Once you go behind against Chelsea [ even if they don’t take free kicks from where they were awarded], they won’t let you back into the game, so teams are thinking first and foremost about how not to concede.”