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Arsenal are refusing to give up on the season despite being knocked out of the Champions League in the second consecutive season at the last 16 stage. Arsenal were knocked out after a 3-1 aggregate defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich. The tie was effectively over after the first leg since the Premier league outfit lost 2-0 at the Emirates. They managed to draw the second leg 1-1 at the Allianz arena, but it was not enough to knock out the reigning champions. Despite the setback, Thomas Vermaelen has reiterated that the Premier league and FA Cup remain as potential trophies available for the club.

Arsenal have not won a major trophy since 2005 and they are keen to end this trophy drought. Mikel Arteta recently stated that the club will transform in stature if they ended this trophy drought. They are in the best possible shape for this according to Vermaelen, who has been heavily linked with a move away from the club in the last few months. Arsenal are third in the league title race with only four points separating them from leaders Chelsea, while they recently made it into the semifinals of the FA Cup after beating Everton. They will face Wigan in the semifinals with a potential data against Sunderland waiting in the finals.

“The result (against Bayern) wasn’t great for us to go through, but you always need to take the positives out of it. We worked hard and that is what you need, the spirit in the team is very good. We are still up there in the Premier League, we are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, you can feel the desire in the team that there is still something to play for. We can’t deny that we are the favourites anymore because we are the highest Premier League team, but this is the FA Cup,” said the Belgian.

 

Arsenal are still one of the top teams in the Premier League, as their odds of 11/1 to win indicate, but it would be fair to say that they are not considered the force they were a decade ago. This means that even though their title-winning odds are still quite high, they are still something of an outsider when compared with the likes of the Manchester teams and Chelsea – despite all the managerial changes and subsequent uncertainty which has beset those teams ahead of the kick-off.

A lot of football betting fans will instead be choosing to put bets on the Gunners to claim one of the Champions League places again – which they are one of the hot favourites for at 4/7 – but for the punter who prefers a little more danger, this is likely to be a uninteresting bet. Some may actually fancy Arsenal for the league at 11/1, although they would surely need to bring in several top class players during the summer transfer window before it would make any sense to bet on them to win it – while others may find the riskier mix of football and gambling that they are looking for by playing an online casino slot like Game On instead. Continue reading Betting on Arsenal

The Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen has come to the defence of the manager Arsene Wenger by saying that he is the right man to lead Arsenal. A lot of questions have been asked about the ability of the manager to lead Arsenal to trophies.

Even though Wenger has been one of the most successful managers in the Premier league at the moment, he has not been able to achieve success in the last eight years. Since the 2005 victory in the FA Cup, Arsenal have not been able to win any major trophy. They are looking likely to remain empty handed at the end of the season as well after suffering a shock 1-0 defeat against Blackburn in the FA Cup recently. Continue reading VERMAELEN DEFENDS WENGER

The captain of Arsenal, Thomas Vermaelen, has said that he will play in the match against Liverpool which is going to be played tomorrow.

Vermaelen didn’t feature for the Gunners in their last match against Brighton & Hove Albion because of the ankle injury. Vermaelen had discovered that injury while playing in the match against West Ham United last week. But, the skipper has confirmed that his ankle is fine now and he will return to action against the Reds tomorrow evening.

When asked about his fitness, Vermaelen said, “The injury that I had suffered against West Ham United wasn’t severe. I started training a couple of days back. I am feeling good and I will be available for selection in tomorrow’s match.”

“I had a bit of problem in my left ankle before as well. But, I kept playing with it and last week, it got worse. I landed on my left ankle while I was trying to make a clearance and I started feeling a lot of pain. But, now, it’s fine and I am looking forward to tomorrow’s game.”

Yesterday, the manager of Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, had also confirmed the recovery of Vermaelen. When Wenger was asked about the injury of Gunners captain, he had said, “Thomas is fit now and it’s really good news for us. He will be back in the match against Liverpool.”

Arsene Wenger had decided to rest some of its key players in the FA Cup match against Brighton & Hove Albion. Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott had warmed the bench in that match. But, Wenger made it clear that all these players would be back against the Reds.

Arsenal had defeated Brighton & Hove Albion in a close match by 3-2.

 

 

The Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen has said that it is time that the Arsenal players stayed close and managed to put the poor run of form behind them. Arsenal come into the weekend’s Premier league encounter against West Brom having not tasted victory in the last three matches. As a result, they have slipped closer to the bottom half of the table, which is a far cry from the Champions League aspirations that the club had at the start of the season. Despite losing the likes of Robin van Persie and Alex Song in the summer, Arsenal were at least expected to make it into the top four positions by the end of the season.

Arsenal have been in extremely poor run of form since the month of October. Since then, they have managed to achieve just a few victories in the league and in the European competitions. Thomas Vermaelen has said that it is indeed difficult time for the club, but the players need to stick by each other and work together to get the results. He has also accepted the fact that there was a lot of negativity amongst the Arsenal fans, who have criticised Arsene Wenger in the wake of the poor run of results. Arsenal will once again have a tough match against West Brom this weekend.

“I agree that this is a difficult time, but the only thing to do is to stick together. There seems to be a lot of negativity among people outside the club at the moment, and I don’t want to go along with that because it’s not the way to achieve anything. Some people seem to like being negative, and it appears to make them happier somehow, but that’s not the attitude you’ll get from me or my teammates,” said Thomas Vermaelen.

 

The Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen has said that he expects the midfielder Jack Wilshere to become one of the best in the world after he successfully made his comeback after more than a year out with an injury. Jack Wilshere has suffered a long-term injury problem in the season before last. It has meant that he has missed the even major tournaments and crucial matches for Arsenal during this 18 month period. There have been many fears that he may never return play football again to the same level, but he recently made his comeback in the 1-0 win over QPR during the weekend.

He played more than an hour in the match, which was extremely pleasing for the Arsenal supporters. Even more surprising was the fact that he was the bright player on the pitch in an otherwise for Arsenal team, which failed to create many clear-cut chances. In the end, they managed to win through a solitary goal that helped them stay in touch with closer to the top of the table. Jack Wilshere was making his first start for Arsenal after 542 days, but Thomas Vermaelen believes that he can go on and establish himself as one of the best in the world.

“I think he can be one of the best midfielders in the world because what he did in his first year was great. And you could see he looked sharp. In midfield he was on the ball a lot and he can only get better in the following games and he can grow. He’s an amazing player,” said the Arsenal captain after the win over QPR on the official website of the club. Arsenal will be making little to Manchester United this weekend. Arsenal had just won one of the last three matches.

The Arsenal midfielder Thomas Vermaelen has said that he is extremely confident that Arsenal can do well when they face the first big test of the season against Manchester city on Sunday. Even though Arsenal have faced Liverpool at Anfield this season and won comfortably, playing against Manchester city will be the real test for the club according to Thomas Vermaelen. Arsenal won the first match of the season against Liverpool 2-0, which was followed by a crushing 6-1 win over Southampton. Lukas Podolski seems to be hitting top form for the club after drawing blank in the opening two matches of the campaign.

Manchester city, on the other hand, will be coming into the match on the back of disappointing results against Liverpool and Stoke city. It has been a tough opening few matches for Manchester city because they have conceded a lot of goals. They made a great start to the season last time around, but it has been very difficult at this time around. Further, they will be coming into the Arsenal match after having played against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in the Champions League group stages, which will not have any effect on them according to Thomas Vermaelen.

“Manchester City are the champions from last year so it won’t be easy. We have to go there and play our own game – I am confident we can get a result there. The team has a strong bond in the dressing room and outside as well. It feels good. All of the players, especially the guys who came in, look good. Everybody plays with a lot of confidence and that is good. We have to stay focused because there are a few hard games coming up,” Vermaelen told Arsenal Player ahead of the start of the Champions League group stages.