Arsene Wenger has revealed that club captain Mikel Arteta will stay at the Emirates for one more year.
Reports have circulated for the best part of a year that the perfectly-coiffured Spaniard would extend his contract so the confirmation doesn’t come as much of a surprise.
It is though welcome news, particularly given the experience the 33-year-old brings to the squad.
Speaking about the deal, Wenger told Arsenal.com: “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.”
Arteta made only 12 appearances last season after picking up an ankle injury that eventually required surgery. He recovered full fitness towards the end of the campaign but found himself kept out of the team by the form of Francis Coquelin.
It remains to be seen whether the boss still attempts to recruit another defensive midfielder in the transfer market. Much could depend on the future of Mathieu Flamini who was yesterday linked with a return to France.
I really hope He will stay fit to contribute and provide cover for coquelin next season
Good experience, great to have helping the other players, but not expecting him to play much, as hope Coq stays fit the whole season.
We already have Cech, Mertesacker, Koscileny, Rosicky (who I think brings more to the team on the pitch itself than Arteta), and all the first team now have won things in their careers. Do we really need Arteta? He’s nit good enough to play for us anymore, and I worry that him signing a new contract will stop us seeking quality backup/competition for Coquelin
Have we not passed the point where we can accept Wenger knows how to run a football club and build a team yet?
Wenger had been criticized in the past for letting go of his older players too soon. And our performances on the pitch did reflect that in the past.
I know times have change, and our “young” players are not really that young and unproven compared to the past, and do not really need older players to bed them in. Nevertheless, if Arteta can contribute in 10 games (3 league cup appearance + 2 fa cup appearance + 5 league appearance vs lower-tiered team), I reckon this will be money well spent.
Nice to hear from Wenger once again. It seems like ages since he last spoke.
Looks like Wenger isn’t going to get a dm then. As long as he gets a striker, its manageable I guess.
This squad as it is will def not win the title.
I dont know about the current squad’s capabilities of winning a title or not before a ball is kicked but I agree about the DM situation; I think you can read a lot into AW’s quote: “He will stay with us for one more year because he has extended his contract.” To me, that sounds like Arteta will fill that alternate DM role to Coquelin until next summer, barring any long term injuries to either player.
Got any lottery numbers too while you’re at it?
Loool be positive all you want, but its the truth. A 5 year old can see it.
Typical positive fans talking about improvements and think other teams will stay still and wait for arsenal to surpass them.
Trez/Trezy (confirmation above they are the same) – fan(atics), ‘support’ers. Isn’t the clue in the name, that part of the definition is to be positive? That doesn’t mean you can’t say that you can’t recognise the weaknesses (we have had some fallow years after the stadium, and being spoiled by one of the greatest teams ever) but if you can’t be positive how can you be a fan/supporter? You could acknowledge the great players we have started to get and develop, the form going into the next season and the spirit in the squad. You seem to struggle with that,… Read more »
I say it as it is. I’ve been an arsenal fan my whole life, my grandfather and father are also lifelong arsenal fans.
I give credit when due, and criticize when necessary.
If anyone has a problem with it, tough luck.
That is the reason why arseblog is probably the best arsenal site around. Not overly “negative” like arsenal truth and maybe le grove.
Shame the comments section isn’t that way.
Being objective and realistic seems to be “negative”.
Objective and realistic is great though you aren’t helped by – ‘A 5 year old can see it’ and ‘Typical positive fans’ don’t help you. Attacks on you detractors are best dealt with by giving evidence and facts.
Have a go at the reply I gave to your ‘business as usual’ post below with something to back your opinions up and I’ll applaud you. And you can even think about responding to, even acknowledging my view that business as usual is looking pretty good at the moment, via the reasoning I have given.
Don’t watch, then.
I’ll do what i want…you can go bang your hea hard on the wall if it pains you.
Looking at the positive side….Le Coq is invincible and will probably play every important game next season shrugging off broken noses and the like, as he has done last season.
If another big money player like Schneiderlin joined us, the offers for our hard Coq would fly in, and he would be gone!
A tough one for Arsene…COYG!
Critique this team then – there are a lot of young players, some stars, lack of squad depth (risk of injuries would devastate the season), some older experienced players not playing much…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003%E2%80%9304_Arsenal_F.C._season
I’d love to hear the negative things you’d say before the season started.
I have no negatives
I was thinking of those that criticise the current team. I could do a similar job on this squad, I’m sure they can as well.
Lame analogy….aside from that squad being FAR more settled than this one and having a world class striker in Thierry Henry, it was FAR more BALANCED than this one. We did not have an average striker upfront and the so called “old players” were definitely better than arteta.
Besides if you read that article, you’d see quite a few papers tipped us as favorites.
Not lame at all. I’m sure you’d have been able to criticise it at the time, they failed the previous season, blew the league after being top (see 2012/13), only won the FA Cup (familiar?), bought an experienced keeper (Lehmann, not as good reputation as Cech) plus a bunch of kids, several players need an upgrade – Cygan, Clichy, Reyes, Kanu, some players past it and not likely to play much – Keown and Parlour, [ignoring the World Cup winners (Gilberto vs Ozil, Per)]. You can see the analogies if you are able to think them through. Some papers will… Read more »
The season before that, we didn’t get pummelled 6-0, 6-3, 5-1, 3-0 by teams in the top 5(that is if you’re using 2012/13 as basis) and like i said earlier, they’re was this genuine feeling that we’d have actually won the league if we had players fit unlike with the 2012/13 team where people were still doubting if we could sustain our lead at the top(something Henry alluded to after the Chelsea game). Again, as i mentioned earlier, we had the best striker in the league and a very solid midfield. Oh and our real competiton was only man u..chelsea… Read more »
Hindsight is easy.
You know you would have criticised, just as you have this year, if you are honest.
I like the fact that we have multiple (concordant) strong personalities in the dressing room now.
That he can also play a mean game of football is a bonus.
Hair today, gone next season
haha *hair today gone next season* ..hilarious,..or did i just hear my own joke there
You are talking about our Captain here! 🙁
Love me some Mikel! Remember that time he played against Everton with one of his teeth knocked out and he just spit out what was left of it and carried on? Badass and classy. Also dances like a drunk dad at a wedding (I saw a video of him and Santi).
It was an away game againts Hull city and we won 3-0.
The role of DM was redefined with the emergence of Coq where he has no distributional role, he only has to set in the back while the ball would be pass by the CD to wide areas, for that matter I think Arteta will be able do that, and not that he is unable to pass the ball which he masters decisively, it is just the task was simplified in the new system
Glad to have him for one more year..
Good luck to him.
It is great news that we are keeping him, because it would be very difficult to replace what he brings to the team, experience, leadership, great hair, devilish good looks and a smokin body. I don’t think we could tolerate the hit to our Handsomeness rating if he left too soon.
Now we wait for a top striker to fall in our laps, no need to invest In another Dm. If We can’t take our chances, we won’t be defending any lead.
Couldn’t agree more. The ‘back 6’ looks pretty damn good now. Attack is already full of awesomeness except for a central striker who can seize upon chances / half-chances when they present themselves, and put the ball into the back of the net.
In summary, Thierry Henry is right.
We Still need a DM cover for coq. AW has set set expectations of buying so low that now fans are used to it and now content.
But if man city was 2nd in PL and still bougt – a striker (Enes Unal) why shouldn’t we get schneiderlin?
Totally agree, all the fans who were calling for us to sign a DM have suddenly changed their tune just because Wenger says we don’t need one. He also said we didn’t need a CB last summer which cost us a lot of points and ended our title aspirations before they even began. I don’t think Arteta is a bad player but for us to make the next step we need to get a better defensive minded midfielder. I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger ended up getting one in January like he did with Gabriel, only problem is we could… Read more »
please dont compare schneiderlin with enes unal, an 18 year old from turkey. he’d hardly be 2nd choice when aguero is injured/resting.
He has nil pace against counter-attacking and pacy teams. He and Flamini can’t do it. We are in trouble when we play top teams when Coq is absent and we play either Arteta/Flamini or both.
Mancity v Arsenal 6:3
Liverpool v Arsenal 5:1
Chelsea v Arsenal 6:0
Dortmund v Arsenal 2:0
I couldn’t agree anymore Howard. I’m all for experience, however, let’s make it the right kind of experience.
We are talking about a man who has never won an international cap and whose defining career moment was joining an Arsenal side in decline.
Mr G has reiterated it well.. we have experience in abundance in all areas of the pitch. We need another combative destroyer in our midfield and a devastating striker then we can be competitive at any level in my opinion.
I remember him carrying us through many of those games when we were ‘in decline’. Thank God he was here. As for ‘never won an international cap’ gently remind yourself who’s been packing the Spanish midefield in recent years..!
The Way We Were ( Not) There are folks out there in the social Matrix, who will only “ever reveal” your disadvantages and misdemeanours, because it helps elevate their personal low esteem and internal loathing. Mikel Arteta from the day he arrived in 2011, has had one purpose , to make Arsenal better. He’s done so by ensuring Arsenal reached its target of coming (4th) to help us pay for our stadium. He also has another purpose which to encourage players by being their Mentor ( Ramsey and The Ox). Those who are prone to writing crap on social media… Read more »
I think the market for a DM to ultimately take over Arteta, looks tight this summer. Don’t expect a signing. Wenger extending Arteta a season may be the exact scenario I mentioned. He will hold for another half season or so. Wenger will have Coquelin with Arteta covering and possibly Flamini still. Contrary to the media and many around these blogs, that is still reasonable strength in depth. It isn’t the sort of transformative signing that many may hope for but some of the few players that can bring a difference are either signed (Kongdogbia, I believe Khedira) or not… Read more »
We will fall 2 players short again this year as we always seem to.
The great shame will be that the great players we currently have will be another year older and just like many before them in the past 8 years or so will have missed a golden opportunity to be part of a truly great side for the sake of the club going just that extra mile in tranfers.
Exactly!!! This is what i’ve been saying. Everyone knows we need a gk, dm and cf.
We’ve signed cech, instead of signing a world class dm, we go renew arteta’s contract.
Wenger will probably not sign a striker because of his love for giroud.
I knew we were going to get carried away by our end of season form.
But it’ll be business as usual….just watch.
Business as usual?
Buying one world class player a season (Ozil/Sanchez/Cech), one or more internal players being successful (Coq/Bellerin/Monreal), other good purchases (Gabriel, Debuchy), not losing players we want to keep (Cesc, RVP in the past), winning trophies as a club and internationally (WC, Copa).
I’ll take that business as usual, what else do you want?
No business as usual meaning we either have a piss poor start to the season, get knocked out in the second round of the ucl on away goals rule and have a good run towards the end of the season and get msybe 3rd or most likely 4th place and everyone starts saying how we’ll win the league next season. Thats what’s been happening for 3 seasons now.
Let’s see. The case for an improvement are: No World Cup this time to damage the start of the season (and Gabriel in place, no reliance on Calum Chambers). Though the Copa is a pain given Sanchez. Better fitness with Shad. Plus 2013/14 had a great start (top of the league) then tailed off, opposite to last season, so it hasn’t been the last three seasons. See my comments above on ‘business as usual’, the current business as usual is pretty good! And has changed from the season previously, once we bought Ozil at almost three times our previous highest… Read more »
The only improvement we’ve made so far is in defence (including Gabriel).
This squad as it is will not win the league. I’ll keep saying it over and over again.
Chelsea (painful as it is to admit) are still the team to beat. They have a complete squad and only our midfield is on par or maybe slightly stronger (creatively that is).
You think Chelsea isn’t going to strengthen? ? You think they also don’t have young players waiting to make the grade??
Face it…at the moment, despite our “improvements”, we are still a step behind them.
Cech seems like an improvement to me. Lampard and Terry have both said he will make a difference. We have improved in the knowledge of each other (automatisms). It is the players but how they work together. No-one claimed ASams/Bould/Dixon and Winterburn were the best players but they played together very well. We are getting used to winning [but see all the points in my previous comments eg fitness – if Debuchy, Giroud, Walcott and Ozil all have a full season we will be very close]. I think our defence is the equal of Chelsea now, with Cech and Coquelin… Read more »
Remy is a better striker than both walcott and welbeck. He’s someone that’ll get you 15 league goals if played regularly. Cech is part of the defence. Chelsea have better fullbacks than we do, Terry ia probably slightly of kos and def better than per, kos is better than cahill who is better than mert. Collectively, there’s no argument…only few teams if any can claim to be better defensively than a Jose Mourinho team. Giroud, walcott and welbeck will not win you the league. God forbid we lose both theo and Alexis at the same time and its over. This… Read more »
I agree, if the striker had been playing with us for a season or two. But it isn’t fantasy football and you can’t drop a new one in and expect him to fly, see Falcao, Balotelli etc. We were very lucky with Alexis last season.
Giroud isn’t my ideal striker (slow, one-footed) but a new striker would be equal to him overall – better skills, less integration. A full season (or close) of him, Walcott and Welbeck will give us a solid chance, a lot closer to Chelsea, or in front if things go for us.
off topic, but did everyone see this (blogs writes for ESPN so I hope he doesn’t mind the post):
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/blog/five-aside/77/post/2515926/lionel-messi-cristiano-ronaldo-diego-godin-most-minutes
Check out how Sanchez and Per rank.
The issues last season first half of campaign which cost us were mainly due to lack of familiarity at centre back in concert with Per (sans Kosicleny) We leaked most of our goals from set pieces, corners and wide areas. Had Coquelin played, it would still not make much difference. We also dropped some games we should have been water tight with even with Coquelin. This issue has partially been redressed with the addition of Gabriel as back up to the main partnership of Meterscielny but also cemented more firmly with the addition of the ‘WORLD CLASS” Cech. No surprise… Read more »
Can’t understand the negativity here. For one thing, the window is wide open and is generally quiet. There is a TON of business to be done at a lot of high profile clubs. Man U would have snapped Cech up but we got him.
And this squad we have can beat anyone when fit, it astonishes me how easily people can ignore that since the last window we have effectively added Cech, Gabriel, Bellerin, Coq, Welbeck, Alexis!
A little more nerve, please.
Well said sir.
We are always two players short. In any case most simpletons tend not to afford room for growth within the squad. If you consider last season, we had Alexis brought in as a catalyst. But we also had Bellerin and Coquelin step up. There is no reason to believe that Campbell may/may not do a Coquelin or say Gnabry may be/or not our next Bellerin. but there is also Ox who will need playing time even with Walcott extended. And then there is Akpom’s precocious talent and hunger. Plus there is Welbeck whom again many seem to so readily discount… Read more »
Wonderful! Arteta is a great captain, and I look forward to seeing him play in an Arsenal shirt again. And I now many if you disagree, but I’m pretty happy with the way our squad looks. I would not be surprised, if we didn’t sign anyone else.
*know
Looks like we are going to have to strengthen up front now, with Welbeck’s injury keeping him out for the start of the season, and Sanchez’s late return from holiday.
In Arsenal we have an outstanding club. .. a really great club. And some of us love our club so much we want it to be the world’s greatest. We don’t just want to be 2nd…. we want to be 1st in the PL and 1st in the CL But anyone giving constructive views and hard truths gets loads of thumbs down and eventually their post is hidden. Anyone showing false optism, with respect to the title challenge gets all the thumbs up . I think arseblog should change the thumbs system, if nothing inappropriate has been said post should… Read more »
Pessimistic wild speculation about what Wenger will or will not do, or declaring the club can’t win with this squad hardly constitute ‘hard truths’. They’re just negative baiting.
I think Wenger has proven quite clearly over the last few summers that any of us pretty much know fuck all about what he’s going to do for transfers..
That’s the trouble with posting on a fan(atic)’s site. You have to post something pretty poor to get 50 more thumbs down than up. However something that makes us think will always get thumbs up, from me and most others (though some will thumb you down, it’s just like today’s newspapers). So post away, preferably with some evidence to back your point up. Comments like ‘ we are rubbish now’ makes me think of parts of the 70s, 80s and 90s when we actually were. Things like ‘Arsene doesn’t know what he’s doing’ makes me think of all the experience… Read more »
Oh please….and comments like “Diego Costa is an inferior version of Giroud” are smart comments and deserve thumbs up?? What evidence do you need to give to prove that giroud is not world class?? When you bring out evidence, all of a sudden the “world class term” is stupid and doesn’t make sense. It made sense when Henry was scoring 38, made sense when van rapist was scoring 37….doesn’t because giroud can’t score 30 a season.
That is how “positive” fans think.
Sure, he is limited due to only having one foot and being slow. But he does know the other players well and how they play. Which is worth something. And he’s ours. Plus the stats from this season show he’s got a better goals to games ratio (given his injury) than the likes of Diego Costa and Harry Kane, averaging a strike every 96 minutes, compared to 102 for Costa and 103 for Kane. So get some facts and we can judge. But fans and supporters are by definition positive. And it isn’t fantasy football, adding a new player doesn’t… Read more »
6 minutes better than Costa. At the end of the day, costa scored 20 in 26 and giroud scored 14 in 27 games.
Still does not explain how any inferior version of Giroud is doing in his first season what Giroud has not managed to do in 3 seasons.
Costa’s not inferior. I’d never argue that.
if coquelin gets injured and we have to play chelsea or man city with arteta in the holding role get ready for another thumping. why does wenger always want to leave the team one signing short? last year it was a center back. this year it looks like it will be dm cover. it’s so irresponsible when the funds are available.
If LeCoq gets injured…
Pray for it mate , so your dreams can come true….