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William Gallas is going nowhere insists agent

When it comes to arguing, the French have a habit of doing very well with each other. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and his ex-captain William Gallas had a much publicised falling out last week, which saw Gallas dropped from the squad and stripped of the captaincy.

As a result, Arsenal suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester City.

However, despite rumours that Gallas’ time at Arsenal is at an end, his agent insists that he’s staying put and will fight for his place in the side.

Etienne Mendy, William Gallas’ agent, stated:

William doesn’t express himself and the English media take advantage of that.

They haven’t missed a chance to do that ever since his bad-mood gesture at Birmingham, and they envisage him leaving Arsenal. That is wrong.

He has taken the criticism and has already moved on. Anyway, William is never better than when he has his back to the wall.

As a result of Gallas’ being stripped of the captaincy, young Spaniard Cesc Fabregas has been made the captain of Arsenal.

Wenger bemoans Stoke “cowards”

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hit back at his side’s critics after the weekend defeat at the hands of newly promoted Stoke City. The Frenchman has been aroused by claims that his side did not show the kind of passion and desire needed to claim maximum points in the Premier League.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon Wenger pointed to the amount of injries which Arsenal have suffered as a result of what he termed “deliberate” tackles. Not only did the Gunners supremo bring up long term injury victim Eduardo and Diaby, he also pinpointed numerous challenges made by the Potters,which he believes had the sole intention of taking out one of his plays.

In particular, Wenger was incensed by tackles from Rory Delap and Ryan Shawcross whom he labelled as “cowards”. Theo Walcott fell victim to one of these tackles and was stretched from the pitch, however to claim that the Stoke team were trying to deliberately hurt the Arsenal players is senseless and inaccurate.

Looking at the video replays, many of the tackles which Arsene uses in his defence are genuine attempts to play the ball. Some were late, yes, but malicious no – and it is patently obvious that Wenger’s unnecessary attack on the Potters is a weak attempt to deflect his own side’s quite visible deficiencies.

Arsenal stunned at home by new boys Hull

They went into the weekend leading the way, but as Liverpool and Chelsea found their winning form, Arsenal floundered at home to new boys Hull City, going down 2-0 in their own back yard.

It all started typically for Arsenal as they took the lead early in the second half through Cesc Fabregas, but they everything started to unravel for the gunners and Hull scored two in quick succession. First former Manchester City player Geovanni struck a superb goal from 30 yards to shock the home fans, then Daniel Cousin’s header put the away side into the lead for a shock win.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was embarrassed by the result:

It is a shocking defeat for us and overall our commitment was just not good enough.

Human beings are not machines. Perhaps subconsciously we thought we would make it. They (Hull) deserve credit.

We cannot be happy as we were ahead but after I think we were careless and we were punished for it.

The win now moves Hull up to sixth, just three points off the top of the Premiership. They have already secured more points in the Premier League than Derby managed throughout all of last season.

English quartet learn their fate in Champions League

The four English teams in the Champions League learned their fate in today’s draw, with champions Manchester United being drawn once again with Scottish side Celtic. Man UTD have a fairly easy group for them to navigate as they’re in the pot with Villareal of Spain and Aalborg of Denmark.

Chelsea have been paired with Italian side Roma, and two easier ties against Bordeaux of France and CFR Cluj of Romania.

Arsenal have the toughest group of the English sides, being drawn with FC Porto of Portugal, Dynamo Kiev and a tricky trip to Fenerbahce. Liverpool, who only scraped through last night, also have a difficult group in the shape of PSV, Marseille and Spanish side Atletico Madrid.

David Barnard, the Chelsea secretary, stated about his side’s draw:

It’s a mixed bag but any team that reaches the group stages has to be given respect.

We are totally focused on Champions League, the determination is there and they are completely focused on making the final again this year.

Rick Parry, the chief exec of Liverpool, was optimistic about his side’s chances this time around:

It’s not easy but the three teams are fairly close by and there’s no challenging trips.

There are no easy games - you just take it as it comes. We are just delighted to be in it.

The full draw is:

Group A
CHELSEA
Roma
Bordeaux
CFR Cluj

Group B
Inter Milan
Werder Bremen
Panathinaikos
Anorthosis Famagusta

Group C
Barcelona
Sporting Lisbon
Basel
Shakhtar Donetsk

Group D
LIVERPOOL
PSV Eindhoven
Marseille
Atletico Madrid

Group E
MAN UTD
Villarreal
CELTIC
Aalborg

Group F
Lyon
Bayern Munich
Steaua Bucharest
Fiorentina

Group G
ARSENAL
Porto
Fenerbahce
Dynamo Kiev

Group H
Real Madrid
Juventus
Zenit St Petersburg
Bate Borisov

Liverpool and Arsenal through to Champions League draw

Both Liverpool and Arsenal made it through to tomorrow’s draw for the Champions League group stages in very different styles.

Arsenal cruised to a 4-0 win on the night, giving them a 6-0 aggregate victory over former England manager Steve McLaren’s Dutch side FC Twente. However Liverpool made decidedly more hard work of the affair, being held from the away leg 0-0 by Belgian side Standard Liege.

With 6 points from 6 so far in the Premiership, Liverpool’s results have flattered them somewhat. Both of their league wins have come from very late goals as they’ve looked decidedly unspectacular. This form continued tonight as the Belgian side looked the more impressive in the first half. Indeed if it weren’t for the Liverpool keeper Reina, they’d have been out of sight by half time.

The second half saw Standard Liege retreat into their own half, but Liverpool couldn’t make their possession pay as they barely troubled the Liege goal. New signing Robbie Keane missed a gilt edged chance, and Fernando Torres looked well below his best.

As the game entered extra time it looked all the way as though penalties would be needed. Even inspirational skipper Steven Gerrard was below his mercurial best. Finally, with just two minutes remaining before spot kicks, Liverpool’s Dutch contingent combined to win the game through a Ryan Babel cross and a Dirk Kuyt goal at the far post.

Adebayor to stay at Arsenal

Emmanuel Adebayor has ended speculation over his future by vowing to stay an Arsenal, and even sign a new contract. Adebayor had been linked with moves to AC Milan and Barcelona throughout the summer, but the player says he wants to stay.

Adebayor, 24, was instrumental in Arsenal’s season in the last campaign scoring 38 goals in his 48 games.

Adebayor stated on the Arsenal website:

Now I can tell everyone that, yes, I will sign a contract.

I never told anyone I would be leaving this club, never ever. I’m very happy we’ve found a solution.

I have three years left on my contract and I’m putting two or three years more, so I’m very happy being part of this family.

Adebayor says he has a strong relationship with manager Arsene Wenger, and despite being linked with moves away says he has no intention to leave the London club.

Wenger stated this week that Adebayor had no intention to leave, and that reports of his moving away were made up.

Adebayor is an Arsenal player and will play for Arsenal next season.

For me (there has been) no trouble because when a player is a true professional he goes onto the pitch and tries to play the football he loves.

This is great news for Arsenal fans after they have already lost a host of players during the summer, and seen little in the way of new signings.

Fergie begins mind games with Big Phil

The season is some weeks off yet but Sir Alex Ferguson is already underway with the mind games. Speaking in an interview the canny Scott has already written off Chelsea’s title challenge for next season, insisting that Scolari’s team are too old to improve.

Instead Ferguson believes that Liverpool and Arsenal are more of a challenge. This is clearly Sir Alex chancing his arm with Big Phil early on, seeing if he can poke a reaction from the Brazilian.

Fergy stated:

Chelsea are an experienced side and I don’t see outstanding progress coming from a team in their 30s.

I wouldn’t write off Liverpool or Arsenal. It has been understated what Arsenal achieved last season.

They suffered injuries at a bad time, Arsenal - in February they lost most of their midfield.

Who is to say that it would not have been closer if Arsene Wenger had kept his players fit?

Ferguson’s intentions are obvious, even to newcomers to the game, as he obviously will be very wary of Chelsea and will consider them his main challengers. Especially after the blues have spent £24 million on two Portuguese players, Deco and Bosingwa.

Fergie however went onto say that Chelsea will find it hard to improve, even with the experienced Scolari at the helm.

I’m not concerned about Chelsea, I just don’t know how far that team has got to go.

They have lots of experience and big-game temperament and in a sense Scolari is fortunate, joining a big club with a team of internationals.

Arsenal exodus continues as Gilberto joins Panathinaikos

Arsenal midfielder Gilberto has ended his 6-year stay at Arsenal by signing for Greek side Panathinaikos. The fee for the Brazilian is reported as being around the £1 million mark.

Gilberto becomes one of the highest paid players in Greece:

I’m hungry to win more titles.

I came to Greece because I have big ambitions, it’s very important for me to be able to continue to give my best. I couldn’t say no to the offer.

Gilberto made 244 appearances for Arsenal, and scored 24 goals from midfield.

In his time at Arsenal he one the Premier League in 2003/2004 and he also lifted the FA Cup in 2003 and again in 2005.

However he struggled to get into the first team last season as Fabregas and Flamini formed a successful partnership in midfield.

His departure follows Flamini to Milan and Hleb to Barcelona. Arsenal will have the money to strengthen now, but time is running out as the new season kicks off next month.

Who will win the Premiership this season?

With last season’s title race going down to the final day between United and Chelsea, this season promises to be just as close. Will it once again be a two horse race though, or will Arsenal and Liverpool finally be able to sustain a challenge?

Manchester United will no doubt start again as favourites, even though they’ve yet to add any big guns to their squad this summer. If they can hold on to Ronaldo, with Real Madrid getting ever closer to luring him away, they’ll surely be the pace setters again this season.

Chelsea now have themselves a genuine successor to the special one in ‘Big Phil’, so would be expecting to run United close, if not win the title themselves. They’ve already bought Deco from Barcelona, and Big Phil stated today that Drogba and Lampard would be staying next season. You expect Chelsea to get their cheque book out again too; they usually spend at least £50 million each summer.

Arsenal meanwhile are struggling to hold onto their stars, with Adebayor looking like departing to Italy or Spain. Their start last season was extremely impressive, but they fell away badly as their Champions League challenge also faltered.

Perennial under achievers in the league, Liverpool, will be hoping that this year, as they do every year, will be their year. Fernando Torres capped off a great season with a winning goal in the European Championships, meaning he’ll be looking for success again this season.

It’s difficult to see beyond the top four though, as their stranglehold on the Champions League places gets stronger every year.

Andrei Arshavin worth £20 million?

There’s little doubt that Andrei Arshavin was one of the stars of Euro 2008, giving one of the performances of the tournament when Russia knocked out Holland in the quarterfinals. His current coach, Dick Advocaat, has slapped a £20 million value on the player as the Premiership’s elite queue up to tempt him away from Zenit St Petersburg

Arshavin however appears to be favouring a transfer to Spain, and Barcelona. Rumours are abound that currently Arshavin is in London speaking to two of richest clubs in England, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Dick Advocaat said about his acceptance that Arshavin may be leaving the club:

We can’t keep hold of the player if someone offers good money - in the region of £20m to £25m.

According to the player’s agent, Dennis Lachter, Chelsea are no longer interested after they sign Deco from Barcalona:

I don’t believe that after this acquisition of Deco the club have retained their interest in Arshavin.

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