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Man City v Arsenal, Saturday 12th September, 3pm


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Free video - http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/29600/arshavin

Andrey Arshavin will miss the next three Arsenal games after aggravating a groin injury while on international duty this week.Speaking to Arsenal TV Online on Thursday, Arsène Wenger admitted he was “upset” the midfielder had played a full 90 minutes for Russia in Wales the night before. The manager had taken him off against Manchester United 10 days earlier after he had picked up the problem during the 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford.There is better news about Tomas Rosicky, who returned to competitive action for the Czech Republic on Wednesday, and Cesc Fabregas, who made a scoring comeback for Spain. But the manager is unsure about the fitness levels of both players for the weekend trip to Manchester City.Thankfully, the quartet of French internationals have certainly come back unscathed from their travels.“We have had one piece of bad news,” said Wenger. “Arshavin has come back injured from the Russian game last night.“We are upset because he should not have played. He was not in a condition where he could afford to play 90 minutes. We took him off against Manchester United because he was injured already at half-time. He will be out for Saturday, Wednesday and certainly next Saturday.“As for Tomas, he played 54 minutes in good shape. Of course we have to be cautious. But the good news is he is back and he played. I don’t know if he’ll be in the squad for Saturday.“Cesc played [for Spain] but I have not actually seen him yet. One of the discomforts of the international break is that you don’t know when your players will come back or what state they will be in."Finally, Wenger confirmed that Theo Walcott’s back problem has cleared up. The England international only needs fitness now and he could be ready after the Champions League trip in midweek.“Theo is rid of the injury now,” said Wenger. “What is important now is to get him competitive again. He has not had any normal training sessions with the team. But I hope that will happen soon. He should be available next week.”
Arsène Wenger insists Eduardo has the mental fortitude to cope with the fall-out from his Champions League ban. The Croatian striker was suspended for two matches after being found guilty of attempting to deceive the referee when he won a penalty against Celtic last month.Arsenal have appealed against that decision but Wenger feels that Eduardo is already paying a heavy price for being singled out by Uefa. The 26-year-old has been jeered by opposition fans ever since the Celtic incident and had a decent penalty shout turned down when Croatia lost to England at Wembley on Wednesday night. “The situation has been created by the media impact of his case,” explained Wenger at his pre-match press conference.“That [the opposition taunts] is not the worst, the worst is that now he is not given penalties when they are penalties. That is much worse. The one last night against England was a penalty. “You want everybody to be treated fairly, and I do not believe he is treated fairly. There was a good opportunity to take a media campaign against many players, which the media did not do. You cannot give him the feeling that he has been treated fairly.”Eduardo is suffering at the hands of opposition fans at the moment but he has plenty of support in the wider football word. And Wenger has no doubt that the man who returned from the horrific injury he suffered at Birmingham last year can overcome this rather less painful obstacle. “Any situation you face as a top-level player you have to deal with, and you can only do that by being mentally strong,” said the Frenchman.“I do not believe it will affect his game. He is a player who has gone through much more difficult things than that.“On the one side, a good way to deal with that is that he is in good health. This is a minor event compared to what he has gone through before.”
Arsène Wenger has defended Emmanuel Adebayor over his move to Manchester City, insisting the striker is not obsessed by money.Adebayor has started his Manchester City career in superb form with three goals in four games, and will come up against his former Arsenal team-mates on Saturday.Wenger is well aware of the danger the Togo international poses. He scored 62 goals in 142 Gunners appearances before leaving for Manchester in July."Adebayor has started the season on fire and we have to put that fire out," admitted Wenger. But when asked if Adebayor moved for the money, the Frenchman was quick to defend his former striker. "I personally don’t think that Adebayor was obsessed by money," he said. "I must say that to be fair to him, and we can deal with that. We have a very fair financial potential. "If you consider the Premier League you cannot say we are one of the bottom clubs financially."
Arsène Wenger has confirmed that Johan Djourou will miss “six to eight months” after undergoing surgery on his knee.The centre half suffered swelling to the knee in training for Switzerland’s game with Italy at the start of the season. He has since been under the surgeon’s knife.Speaking exclusively to Arsenal TV Online on Thursday afternoon, Wenger revealed the length of his recuperation.“Johan is six to eight months,” he said. “He had big surgery, and it is a big blow for him and the Club. He will have to be patient this season.”
Arsène Wenger has voiced his concerns over proposals to change Fifa’s transfer rules in the wake of the Gael Kakuta affair. Chelsea have been banned from signing any new players until January 2011 after they were found guilty of inducing the French youngster to break his contract with Lens in 2007. Kakuta was 15 when Chelsea are alleged to have made their first approach and there are now moves to increase the minimum age at which a youngster can change clubs. This worries Wenger. The Arsenal boss is renowned for nurturing young talent and he believes a new ruling would have a detrimental effect on the sport as the best players are denied the chance to develop at elite clubs. “I am against the process of stopping the players moving to the top level,” said Wenger at his pre-match press conference. “If you have a child who is a good musician, what is your first reflex? It is to put the child into a good music school, not in an average one. So why should that not happen in football?“If a player goes to Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, it's all clean and he gets a good education. That's why I am very sharp on cases like that. We have to respect the rules that are in place. You have always to look if you make one decision, what kind of alternative there is. If your players cannot move to the best clubs, I believe they will not improve. “What I'm fighting against, if you take for example Lens in this case, where did Lens find the player [Kakuta]? In a smaller club. Where did the smaller club take the player from? A smaller club? At the end of the day, to be a top-level player is to be with the best.
Arsène Wenger fears that superstars like Lionel Messi could slip through the football net if Fifa push ahead with proposals to restrict player transfers below the age of 18.The practice of signing youngsters from foreign countries has been a hot topic this week after Chelsea were banned from the transfer market until January 2011. Arsenal's London rivals were found guilty of inducing the French youngster Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007. Wenger's global scouting network has been a rich source of talent for Arsenal's youth ranks and - ultimately - their first-team, with Cesc Fabregas perhaps their most high-profile young foreign import. The midfielder moved from Barcelona to North London in September 2003 at the age of 16 and is now a fully-fledged Premier League star and Spanish international.At his pre-match press conference, Wenger pointed out that Arsenal's pursuit of Fabregas was no different to Barcelona's own pursuit of Messi, who joined the Catalan giants from Newell's Old Boys, a small club based in Rosario, Argentina. However the Frenchman believes that greater restrictions on overseas signings could stunt the development of future talent."Messi is a good counter-example of what Fifa is fighting against," said Wenger."They took Messi from Argentina at the age of 12, paid for his medical treatment and brought his entire family over. You can ask whether that is right or wrong, but Messi today is the best player in the world."In Barcelona he got a good education and was looked after medically. Should you forbid that? Maybe Messi would still have got a good education in Argentina, but not all the boys will."As for Fabregas, he has not wasted his time here but he could have also played in the Under-17s at Barcelona. We took advantage of a period of Barcelona that was messy."
Arsène Wenger believes Arsenal is the best place for young players to develop - because any shortcomings at the top clubs are quickly exposed.The Frenchman was pressed on his club's policy of recruiting fledgling talent from overseas when he faced the media ahead of this weekend's game at Manchester City. The topic has been a hot one since Chelsea were banned from signing players for 18 months after being found guilty of inducing Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007.Wenger staunchly defended his own club's transfer policy and explained why talented foreign kids have the best chance of realising their potential if they come to Arsenal. According to the manager, the conditions at London Colney eclipse those elsewhere in the world. And if they didn't, the media and Fifa would be the first to find out."Fifa can come here and immediately I open the door for inspection to show them what we do and how we treat the boys," said Wenger. "That's not the case everywhere."There are some places in Brazil where the boys do not have the same conditions or treatment we have here. It is less well medically, psychologically and footballistically. Here, if we have any little problem, you [the media] are here to punish us. "What I mean is you cannot escape. If you don't treat the boys well you would know about it."Some of the figures bandied about since Chelsea's ban suggest that Arsenal import a swathe of foreign talent every year but Wenger completely rejects that notion. The Frenchman is focused on finding and nurturing the very best, not clogging up the Club's academy and blocking the path of local youngsters."It is ridiculous because I heard some people say we sign here 30 or 40 players," said Wenger. "We have no room for 30 to 40 players; we sign one or two. And if you look today at the home-grown players nobody has more than us in the Premier League. We are ahead of everybody."If we buy a young boy - because there is compensation there - we give him a programme and give him a chance to play. We promote, we educate and we integrate. That is why we have success in the way we do it."
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