Cesc walks out.
Arsenal want away captain Cesc Fabregas attended the Gunners 2-2 friendly draw with Boca Juniors at the Emirates last night, only to leave the stadium at half time in controversial fashion, as highlighted by the Daily Mail.
Fabregas was witnessed to vacate the stadium accompanied by a minder, whilst avoiding questions regarding his future from reporters. Although much speculation exists as to the exact reason for his premature departure from the game, Arsene Wenger swiftly moved to diffuse any potential impending criticism of Fabregas by saying: “Cesc loves this club dearly and he loves Barcelona deeply, too. An honest player can love two clubs. But he cares deeply about this club and that is why I hope we can keep him.”
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Mata latest.
The future of Arsenal target Juan Mata remains very much up in the air after sources close to the Spanish winger reportedly revealed to Goal.com that he would likely rebuff any firm approach from Tottenham which the White Hart Lane side have been rumoured to be preparing.
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp yesterday declared in interest in adding Mata to his squad but with Tottenham unable to offer the lure of competing in this coming season’s Champions League, they are likely to be informed any move they plan to make for the player will be a non-starter.
Subsequently having retained a longterm interest in Mata, this leaves Arsenal as the favourites to sign the player should he opt to leave Valencia, which is by no means certain. Whilst Valencia remain in a precarious financial position, the club’s hierarchy have assured coach Unai Emery that sufficient support will be afforded to develop a strong squad, which he would like to contain Mata.
Arsenal have yet to formalise their interest in Mata with an offer and as yet it is unclear as to whether they will.
Wenger content with friendly performance.
Arsene Wenger has taken confidence from the manner in which his side performed during their friendly against Boca Juniors, despite the Gunners concession of two highly preventable goals costing them victory according to Goal.com.
Although second-half mistakes by central defensive duo Sebastien Squillaci and Johan Djourou allowed Boca to recover from a 2-0 deficit to hold Arsenal to a draw at the Emirates, Wenger preferred to focus on the positives which he perceived the game to represent for his side.
“You never want to concede goals but overall I do not give too much importance to that. What is important for us is to find a collective rhythm,” which Wenger went on to declare he believed his side had achieved over the course of the game before inevitably tiring after half time.
“When we could we managed to play at a good pace for 60minutes, after that it was much more difficult. It was expected, we came back from a training camp in Germany with heavy work and I knew the second half would be much more difficult.”
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