Arsenal can now move forward after their star striker, Robin Van Persie, signed a new contract with the club. There had been rumours that Van Persie was on his way out of Arsenal after he was said to be frustrated by the reluctance of Arsene Wenger to play him on a more regular basis.

Van Persie has reportedly signed a deal that could keep him at Arsenal until he is well into his 30s and he is now set to get a pay rise to the level of somewhere around £80,000 a week. This is good and positive news for Arsenal because it means they are keeping one of the club’s best players.

A lot has been said since the close of last season that Arsenal needed to make good a massive gulf in class between themselves and the best clubs in Europe. The only way they were going to do this is by firstly trying to get their best players to sign on at the club and commit their future to the cause.

Arsenal fans will be hoping that other players will follow suit but it is unlikely that Emanuel Adebayor will be sticking around for much longer if a bid from AC Milan does actually make the table. He has made no secret of his desire to stay at the North London club, unlike Van Persie, and will be hoping that a repeat of last year does not happen where he was forced to stay at Arsenal as a deal could not be concluded in time.

Van Persie said: “I have been at the club for five years now and there is a really great feeling at Arsenal. We have a top class manager, a squad full of superb young players and brilliant supporters.”

Van Persie joins Arsenal’s captain, Cesc Fabregas, in stating his intent on remaining at the club and trying to help them get back to an era when they were by far and away the best football side in Europe. Many Arsenal fans will still look back on the era when they were possibly the most feared side in the world and the news of Van Persie’s commitment means that are one step closer to re-achieving this.

What Arsenal now need to do is not conform to what they always do each season in the transfer window, sit on their heels. They have some very good players in the squad and the addition of Andrey Arshavin last January was a superb and clever signing. Arsenal need some big and high calibre players to come into the team.

It has been all too obvious in recent matches that they are missing players that can boss and dominate the midfield, allowing the more creative influences to bomb forward and wreak havoc in the opposition defence. No doubt Wenger probably has a long list of player targets that he is working on but he has to realise that his philosophy of blooding youth in the Premier League needs to be tampered with and helped along because at the moment it is not working.

The other danger for Arsenal is that if they do not act and act quickly then they stand to lose ground to a lot of other sides in the league next season. Manchester City are making huge strides under the leadership of Mark Hughes as they continue to assemble a hugely impressive squad, which on paper looks like it could push for a Champions League spot. This is all not to mention the number of talented managers there are in the Premier League, all trying to break into the top six. For example David Moyes at Everton and Martin O’Neill at Aston Villa will be doing every thing they can to try and take ground away from Arsenal.

So the question is, how long will it be until Wenger gets going and starts bringing in some players that the club has needed for a long time? The answer is unknown but it is something that he is going to have to do soon or Arsenal risk having their worst season in the Premier League since it began, next year.

Arsenal have a lot of young and hungry players that are all very grateful to be at the club they are. However, the point is that this will only take the club forwards to a set point and sooner or later they will be found out on a weekly basis. The news of Van Persie’s commitment should be a sign to the manager and the entire club that Arsenal need to act and show that they mean business.

On their day they are still the best football side to watch in Europe as the passing and play links up perfectly, but the point is that these days are not consistent enough to have any impact on a big competition. Until the right players are brought in, Arsenal will have no chance of making a good go of success. There are too many clubs at the moment better positioned than they are and if they have not realised this yet then there are some very naïve people running the football club.

There has never been a better time for Arsenal to lay out one or two markers of intent and they need to stop trying to buy players when they are in their teens and turning them into the next Thierry Henry, it is not going to happen. The time has come for Arsenal to get out the chequebook and sign three or four high calibre and experienced players.

If they do this then they stand a chance of actually hanging onto their top four place next season but if they do not and Wenger continues with his current vision, which clearly is not working, then Arsenal will slowly slip down the Premier League table and eradicate any immediate chance of knowing what it tastes like to lift a trophy again. It is a sad scenario but it is one that will happen.

Arsene Wenger will stay at Arsenal ahead of next season after reports yesterday confirmed that he had held talks with the club. Wenger spent all day talking with Arsenal Chief Executive, Ivan Gazidis, and it emerged that he has stated his commitment to the club.

Wenger was being linked with a summer switch to Real Madrid after admitting that he would be interested in such a project on French television. However, it now appears that Wenger will snub any potential move from Madrid in order to stay at Arsenal and continue his attempts to restructure a club that was once so dominant.

This is big news and should inspire all at the Emirates to start putting in a bigger effort in order to recreate the golden age Arsenal dominated at the start of the 21st century. Wenger has been in charge at Arsenal for 13 years and there were echoes coming out of the club that it was maybe time for him to move on, as he had not won a trophy for four of those years.

There really is no one better to manage the current crop of players at Arsenal and no one understands their capabilities and what they are trying to achieve better than the Frenchman. He has been complimented for a number of years as having the best football brain in the game and when he gets his side right there is not another team in the world that can get close to them.

Hopefully this show of commitment will be met by a growing ambition to go and make big strides in the summer transfer market. It is clear that Arsenal are lacking in one or two key areas and will have to spend some big money to get quality in. Wenger knows how to use this cash wisely, he is very shrewd but for now he needs to drop his approach to youth and buy in some talented experience.

Many players currently playing for Arsenal e.g. Andrey Arshavin, have stated that they only ever considered a move to the club because of the manager and the gifted way that his side try to play football. Arshavin himself is living proof of the fact that if you do spend a few million (15 in this case) then it can pay off, the Russian has been arguably the club’s best player in the later stage of the season.

There is no substitute for quality and experience, as displayed in a managerial sense or in a playing sense. If Arsenal were going to let Wenger leave then it could potentially be a longer time until they won their next trophy as opposed to if he stays. He has all the tools, Arsenal fans just need to hang on and be a little patient for a little longer.

Arsenal as a football club and a community need to take this news and drive on, taking it as the first positive in a new era. Time and time again managers have to break apart squads and build new ones and this could be the very early sign that something special could develop in North London once again.

Andrey Arshavin has come out and urged Arsene Wenger to go and sign more players like himself in order to propel the Arsenal side to greater success next season. Some big defeats recently have proved just how far Arsenal are away from the better sides in England and despite Wenger’s comments that he will be cautious in the transfer market, his own players are now urging him to spend big.

Arshavin arrived at Arsenal in January, costing around the £15 million mark. The Russian is by far and away up there as one of the club’s most high profile players and maybe even deserves to be called their best player in the last three months. It is very hard to think of another player at Arsenal that is capable of scoring four times by himself at Anfield.

Arshavin believes that the only way Arsenal will get better and produce more consistent football is to buy in better players as opposed to relying on the talent of youth. He said: “We must buy in the summer. Not more potential, but players who are ready to do it now – players like me.”

“We need two or three. If Arsenal want to win they have to do it – we are tired of waiting. At the moment young players come to Arsenal because they see it as a very big team, but if we carry on like this without winning trophies, young players will not want to come.”

Arshavin’s comments won’t shock Wenger but they may come as a bit of a surprise to a manager that has always believed that his players fully support his football philosophy. The point however, is that Arshavin is right. The reason Arsenal have been able to attract the Cesc Fabregas’ is because of the success they built in the golden era of going entire league seasons unbeaten.

If they do not rapidly improve next season then sooner rather than later the quality of players they can attract will go down. It has now been shown that Arsenal are not as good a side as many people would like to think and young players will realise this and start to move elsewhere.

Who Arsenal decide to buy this summer remains to be seen but the core of the side clearly needs looking at. They don’t have Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira or Thierry Henry any more who were the players that held the middle of the team together. The fact is they have never been replaced and until that core is solidified Arsenal will stay hot and cold instead of producing consistency.

Arshavin has adapted well to the Premier League since his arrival and is a player that it seemed Wenger signed reluctantly waiting until the end of the January transfer window to do so. This caution is not going to get Arsenal anywhere, the squad simply isn’t good enough so it is time for some big decisions to be made.

Wenger is a very smart manager but he now needs to be a little more adventurous and get some players in while Arsenal still have the calibre and stature to do so.

Arsenal and Chelsea will go head to head today in a London derby that promises to be a very special match. Even though neither side has any thing to play for with the end of the season rapidly approaching, this game has created anticipation and expectation that we would associate with a top of the table shoot-out.

Chelsea will want to rip Arsenal apart after the heartbreak of being dumped out of the Champions League by Barcelona. Arsenal on the other hand will want to do exactly the same thing to Chelsea after the current European champions, Manchester United, showed them up in mid-week.

There is added incentive for Arsenal because the side will want to show everyone that they are capable of beating the bigger sides in England and Europe. Arsene Wenger will want to prove that his ploy of playing young but talented players still has a big future in the game and he will want to show that he has lost not a bit of his tactical genius.

However, they may not be able to cope with the might of an angry and still reeling Chelsea. After the West London side were undone with a last minute goal last week and a bad bit of officiating they will surely be looking for a side to vent all of their anger and frustration towards and if they get their noses in front then it could be a long afternoon for Arsenal.

Andrey Arshavin has been ill all week and may not have recovered in time to play a part for Arsenal. Full-back Gael Clichy is still out and joins fellow players William Gallas and Eduardo on the side lines.

Chelsea’s new head of the ranting team, Didier Drogba, is unlikely to feature in the match as an ankle injury he picked up is likely to spare him an afternoon of being taunted by 60,000 Arsenal fans. Besides from other long term injuries Chelsea will play a full strength side.

So there is a sense ahead of the game that is an awful lot of lingering anger and bitterness that, for once, actually has nothing to do with the feelings of either side for each other. This is a very rare occurrence in football and therefore it is very difficult to predict what sort of game the fans will see as a result of it.

If there are some mistimed tackles and squaring up, we will know where the frustration has come from but taking it out on each other could well result in a couple of suspensions or even worse, bad injuries.

If the football promises to be as hostile and as intense as the pre-match build up and feelings then this derby promises to be one hell of a game. Let’s hope that the fact these two teams don’t really like each other too much doesn’t mean that the match will boil ever and in a farce as opposed to an exhibition of the sport we all know and love.

The fans are still likely to be angry and upset so both of these teams should be going all out to give them back a little bit of respect and something they can take pride in.

Penalties are always controversial, no matter what the scenario. Top of the table clashes, league encounters, cup thrillers. One touch of the hand, one touch of the player, one touch of the shirt. The outcome of a game can be changed in seconds.

Nothing was more evident than in the final matches of the season when teams were chasing every point, every goal. There was many a controversial decision by the referees in a number of crucial games and thoughts were turning in some quarters to the use of live video replays. And then, by some miracle, an alternative materialised.Something only a few had dared to voice before. A gentleman player!

How refreshing it was to see Arsenal’s new star, Andrey Arshavin gesturing “no” to the ref after he was allegedly brought down in the clash with Portsmouth at Fratton Park. It had been 51 years since Pompey had beaten the Gunners and both had everything to play for – Arsenal a fourth spot and a guaranteed place in Europe and Portsmouth vital points to try and stay up.

Arsenal were already one goal up, thanks to a stunning opener by Nicklas Bendtner when Sean Davis was judged to have fouled Arshavin in the box. The striker, captain of Arsenal for the first time, immediately got to his feet, wagged his finger as if indicating “no penalty” and looked in the direction of the corner. No play-acting, no writhing on the floor, no tantrums, just pure honesty. Unfortunately, the referee thought otherwise and pointed to the spot, with the subsequent penalty being slotted away by Bendtner for his second.

Arsenal went on to win 3-0 so in this particular instance, the penalty decision did not prove the decisive factor. However, Arshavin won plenty of praise and respect for his reaction, reminiscent of a young Robbie Fowler a few years ago, and has been hailed as a “rare gentleman” in the world of football.

No-one is suggesting that every player should follow his example. The referee is there to manage the game and in Arshavin’s case, it was probably an instant reaction. But it does open the question as to whether referees do need a helping hand and why not in the shape of a third eye? After all, Wimbledon now has the benefit of the line recall and rugby can call on the video replay in the event of a questionable try.

When penalty calls are made, it’s often the crowd which gets it right. Why? Because they have probably had the benefit of watching play close up on the giant TV screens whereas the referee needs to be in all places at once. Would it be that much of an intrusion to halt the game for a few seconds, rewind the tape and then make the call?

Opponents say right and wrong decisions are all part of the game and football should not be made robotic. Referees are supposed to be experienced and trained professionals but everyone knows they make mistakes, mistakes which can prove hugely costly for many a team fighting for either victory or survival. The time is surely going to come when video recalls will become the norm in all sport and football can’t put all the burden on referees or refreshing players like Arshavin.

When two English sides face each other in any competition other than the Premier League it always brings up elements of the game that we all love. The aggression, the passion, the desire and the entertainment, these are all virtues that the Champions League quarter-final between Manchester United and Arsenal on Wednesday promises to deliver.

United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, clearly wants the Champions League more than anything else, despite having won the competition twice already. Having just been knocked out of the FA Cup by Everton, United will have a renewed fire to go out and dominate this tie from the first minute to the 180th.

Arsenal go into this tie with massive injury problems. Both Mikael Silvestre and William Gallas are out and the combination of Emanuel Adebayor and Robin Van Persie up front are unlikely to play together. This no doubt will satisfy United fans but it places an incredible pressure on the rest of the Arsenal squad in what will be a huge atmosphere.

The current European Champions have only kept one clean sheet in their last seven games and are under huge pressure. United are going through a rough patch, of that there is no question. They have started to play better football but the Premier League game against Tottenham on Saturday showed they are still vulnerable in areas.

They benefit from the defensive pairing of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, both likely to start the game, who are clearly the best partnership that Sir Alex can offer forward.

The other massive blow to Arsenal is the fact that Andrey Arshavin will be cup-tied, this is a player just starting to justify why Arsene Wenger paid £17 million for his services, he would also have been one of the first names to go down on the team sheet.

It is looking like Arsenal will have to field a much more make shift team than United, placing pressure on their skipper, Cesc Fabregas. Regardless of who Arsene Wenger picks to play in the tie, Arsenal have to consolidate and keep United out. If the big occasion gets to one or two of the less experienced Arsenal players then United could effectively kill off the tie in the first leg.

United will be buoyed by the win they gained over Porto in Portugal, becoming the first English team to win there. This is accompanied by the fact that effectively their reserve side kept out the attack of Everton in the FA Cup semi-final, until eventually being defeated by a penalty shoot-out.

This match is very difficult to call. All of the odds are stacked firmly in Manchester United’s favour but Arsene Wenger is not a stupid man and if he gets his team and tactics right it could be a lot more difficult for United to get through.
One thing is for sure though, it will be one hell of a game.