Phil Bardsley’s family passes away and now he gets injured

2016 is reaching it’s end with less than 2 months remaining before new year but these last few months have been extremely difficult for Stoke City’s Phil Bardsley as the English defender recently had to grieve the passing away of his grandfather who died on a car accident on October.


It was later confirmed that Stoke City had given the English defender all the time that he needs in order for him to grieve the recent death of his grandfather and it was initially expected that Phil Bardsley would be missing out for a number of matches but the 31 year has consistently been making performances in these last few weeks with regular performances against: Sunderland, Hull City, Swansea City, West Ham United and most recently Bournemouth.

Phil Bardsley has recently been given more time on the playing grounds mostly because of aninjury that his teammate Glen Johnson has picked up but it seems like Bardsley will be spending time on the sidelines for a significantly long period of time as Bardsley picked up an injury during his performance against Bournemouth. Continue reading Phil Bardsley’s family passes away and now he gets injured

WENGER CONFIDENT

Arsene Wenger has stated that he feels that the win over Wigan Athletic in this FA Cup semifinals could prove to be the turning point of the season for the club. Since they are coming up against a Championship club in the semifinals, Arsenal were overwhelming favourites to register a win and progress to the FA Cup finals, which was also the last trophy that the club lifted back in 2005. However, Wigan have come into this position after having beaten big clubs like Manchester City along the way and they proved that they are able to compete with the best.

Jordi Gomez scored a penalty in the second half to get Wigan a lead in the match. For long periods of the match, it looked like this advantage would be enough to see Wigan in the second consecutive FA Cup final. They were holders of the competition, but Arsenal came back into the encounter following a goal from Per Mertesacker in the 80th minute. They then went on to win the match 4-2 on penalties, which puts them in the finals against Hull City. Following this match, the club also managed to go on and register a 3-1 win over West Ham in the Premier League.

Wenger says that this win could be the turning point of the season.

“There was a lot at stake for us. You know how it is today in football. Had we gone out of course we would have been tremendously questioned and I knew it was a turning point of our season. To go out on Saturday would have been very difficult. But we have shown resilience and nerves, and that is an important quality at the top level. It means a lot for the club, and I want to win,” said Wenger.

Focus on Podolski

Lucas Podolski, born Lucas Josef Podolski, is a German footballer who plays as an attacker for Premier League side Arsenal, whilst also playing for the national German side. Podolski is known for his attacking talents and powerful shooting accuracy. He is currently the sixth highest goal-scorer in German history, scoring 46 times for his country.

The German joined Arsenal from FC Koln in 2012 in a long term deal, which was for an undisclosed fee, although it is rumoured the deal was close to eleven million pounds. Since then, Podolski has gone on to score 23 goals for Arsenal in 57 games. Throughout his career, the forward has a total of 135 competitive goals in 348 appearances. Continue reading Focus on Podolski

FOCUS ON DIABY

Abou Diaby born Vassiriki Abou Diaby is a French footballer who plays for his national team as well as the Arsenal, the English football club. He is known for his adaptation of attack and defense and described as a footballer with athletic, elusive and languid abilities that allow him to dribble around opponents or slip a pass quickly to a team mate during play. His position of play and his physical build prompt comparison with Patrick Vieira, the Arsenal legend.

Born on 11th May, 1986 in Paris Diaby is a towering midfielder standing at 6.3”who made his youth debut with Aubervilliers club in 1996. His senior debut was made with Auxerre in 2004 and the Arsenal contract was offered to him in 2006. Made the French under 19 in 2004, under 21 in 2006 and the French national team in 2007.

He was the member of the under-19 team that took the 2005 UEFA European under-19 Football Championship. Senior International debut started with UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier against Lithuania and his representation for France was the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He played all the 3 group matches with the starting lineup.

He was awarded a £2 million contract by Arsenal in January 2006 and prior to that he had already refused an offer from Chelsea the London rival of the Gunners. When he made his first appearance for the team he was awarded the shirt number 2 which was incidentally lying vacant after the retirement of Lee Dixon. His career statistics include a total of 190 appearances with 20 goals and 16 assists. For his national team he has played 16 times scoring once. His contract with the Arsenal team started in 2006 and will run till 30th June 2015. His 2009-10 seasons with Arsenal was his highest output in terms of number of games played and he played a phenomenal 40 matches out of 55.

DEFEAT IS UNACCEPTABLE

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that the 2-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea during the weekend was extremely unacceptable. Arsene Wenger saw his team defeated by two set piece goals in the match against Chelsea. This resulted in Arsenal losing the first match of the season. So far, they have made a great start to the season unlike in previous years when they had to pay a lot of price for going behind to early in the season. Fernando Torres opened the scoring in the first half, but Gervinho equalised for Arsenal just a few minutes before the break.

Arsenal were unable to hold on to the lead for much longer after Juan Mata extended the Chelsea lead in the second half through a wonderful freekick that appeared to take a small deflection of the defender Laurent Koscielny. Speaking after the match, the Arsenal manager has said that he is extremely disappointed to lose the match in such a way conceding two set piece goals. He has said that only they are to blame for the defeat. Arsenal did not manage to create a lot of opportunities in the final 10 min of the match, which was also disappointing for the Arsenal manager.

“It is unacceptable to give away goals like that in the big games. We can only blame ourselves. We lacked real authority and decisiveness at the back. I am deeply disappointed. We gave two cheap goals away, they had three shots on goal and scored two goals. Was it a mistake to leave out Per Mertesacker? Maybe. But we will never know. We cannot play the game again,” said the manager after the match. He has also said that the striker Olivier Giroud, who came on as a substitute, should have scored from a number of chances he had.