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Former Swansea manager Michael Laudrup reckons that Arsenal will struggle to cope with the pace of Barcelona in the second leg of the Champions League match between the two teams.

Arsenal are at a serious disadvantage after suffering a 2-0 loss in the first leg at the Emirates. Few teams have managed to overcome a home defeat in the first leg and gone on to qualify for the next round of the Champions League. Arsenal’s work is made even tougher by Barcelona’s impeccable record of more than 30 matches unbeaten in all competitions. They are overwhelming favourites to retain the title for the first time in the hisory of the competition.

Mikel Arteta is suffering from a chronic calf injury which has left him out of the playing grounds since November of 2015 but he is expected to make a return starting from January. However, even when he is able to get back into the pitch and play alongside his Arsenal teammates, the Spanish midfielder is already thinking about his future outside of the game as to what he is planning to accomplish when he decides to hang up his boots and everything is pointing towards seeing Arteta take up a coaching role in the Premier League club.

Ever since Arteta picked up his injury, he has been working with the Arsenal academy trying to earn his coaching badges.

The representative of Nemanja Vidic has claimed that the Red Devils had offered contract extension to his client, but, the Yugoslavian defender declined it and moved to Internazionale.

Vidic joined Internazionale in July 2014, but, it did not prove to be a successful move as he just couldn’t establish himself there.

There was a change in management mid way through the previous season and the new head coach coming in, Roberto Mancini, did not show trust in Vidic as the veteran was kept out of the starting XI more often than not.

Vidic is currently out of scenes, recovering from the surgery he had gone through a couple of months back and there are talks that Inter is planning to put him on sale once he is fit.

MikelArteta signed a 1 year contract extension with the Premier League club Arsenal and this is a very surprising thing to have happened taking into consideration that the Spanish midfielder was on the verge of leaving the Emirates Stadium after only being able to make 7 Premier League appearances in the previous season.

Wenger told the Arsenal website: “He will stay with us for one more year because he has extended his contract.He’s one of the leaders in the club because he’s the captain of the team. I expect him to contribute much more than last season, but he also faces a battle. With the number of games we have ahead, we could use his experience, his desire and his quality as it will be vital for next season.”

Mikel Arteta has praised the quality shown by young right back Hector Bellerin since being thrust into first-team action since January. The Spaniard was not expected to get many first-team opportunities this season.

This was after Arsenal signed Mathieu Debuchy from Newcastle United for around £ 10 million, but the French international has largely been on the sidelines due to recurring injury problems. This combined with a shortage of central defenders has seen backup right back Monreal being moved to the centre. Arsene Wenger has trusted inBellerin and the 19-year-old has more than delivered with some fantastic performances especially against Manchester City.

Former Liverpool midfielder and current Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp has been extremely critical of Mikel Arteta’s performance big matches.

The Spaniard is currently out with yet another long-term injury in a stop start season. He has featured in only seven league matches and it has raised concerns about his future. Since he is out of contract at the end of the season, the former Everton man has been linked with a return to Spanish football with Real Sociedad reportedly interested in his services. Real Sociedad are now managed by David Moyes, who took him from the Spanish club to Everton several years ago.

Florent Malouda does not think that the Chelsea coaching Staff was responsible for not him not getting playing time at the club towards the end of his career there.
As per Malouda, the coaches just did what they were asked to do by the Blues hierarchy and thus, there is no point putting blame on them.
Opening up to the press in France the other day, the veteran winger said, “They froze me out over there. They did whatever was possible to make sure that I suffer humiliation. They did not let me train with the first team. What they actually wanted to prove to me was that I didn’t have any right to make a call on my future.”

Arsenal and Arsene Wenger accomplished a milestone during the previous season as they secured the FA Cup which ended their drought of trophies which saw them not being able on lifting any major pieces of silverware in over 7 years. Even though Arsenal failed on securing the Premier League title, it still was a fairly impressive season for Wenger as they were at the top of the English League for a substantially long period of time and one of the reasons why the team of Wenger dropped places was simply because of the astonishingly high amount of injured players.

Arsenal have been tracking the Bayern Leverkusen midfielder Lars Bender in the last few weeks. The player could be signed for a reported £ 17 million in the summer. He play as the defensive midfielder for the German club. This transfer interest has started speculation about the future of midfielder Mikel Arteta. Manager Arsene Wenger determined that the future of Arteta is a major concern. The Spaniard, who came from Everton in an £ 10 million deal, only has a contract up until 2015. Wenger says that it is looking highly unlikely that Arteta will renew the deal since he might want a lengthier contract.