ARSENAL VS EVERTON ASIA TROPHY FINAL WHISTLE

EVERTON'S hopes of adding silverware to their pre-season campaign were ruined by Arsenal tonight.

Goals in either half gave the Gunners a 3-1 win at the National Stadium in Singapore to inflict a first defeat of the summer on Roberto Martinez's men.

Theo Walcott put Arsenal ahead mid-way through the first-half before Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil added goals after the break to thrill the huge number of Arsenal fans in the ground.

Ross Barkley fired home a consolation goal with 15 minutes remaining.

Everton had enjoyed plenty of possession in the first-half but could not find any cutting edge and Walcott made them pay when he raced onto a ball over the top and capitalised on hesitant goalkeeping from Joel Robles.

The Blues thought they had forced an equaliser just before half-time but Gareth Barry's goal was ruled out after the referee's assistant spotted an infringement following Steven Naismith's header that was brilliantly tipped onto the bar by Petr Cech.

Luke Garbutt forced Arsenal's new stopper into an even better save just after the re-start but quick-fire goals from Cazorla and Ozil soon ended hopes of a fightback.

Romelu Lukaku and Barkley were brought on just after the hour mark, with Roberto Martinez making six changes during the second 45.

And Barkley would smash home a consolation strike 15 minutes from time after excellent pressing from the Blues saw them win the ball back in Arsenal territory.

John Stones, the subject of a £20m bid from Chelsea yesterday, played 84 minutes of tonight's game before being replaced by Tyias Browning.

Everton (4-2-3-1): Robles, Coleman, Stones (Browning 84), Jagielka (c) (Hibbert 84), Garbutt, Barry, McCarthy (Osman 61), Deulofeu (Mirallas 46), Naismith (Barkley 46), Cleverley, Kone (Lukaku 61). Subs: Pienaar, Howard, Galloway, McAleny, Kenny, Williams, Robinson.

ARSENAL MADE END OF SEASON SIGNING (ALEXIS SANCHEZ)

Sanchez, 25, joins Arsenal from Barcelona where he made a total of 88 appearances, scoring 39 goals during his three seasons with the Catalan side.

With Barcelona, Sanchez won both La Liga (2012/13) and the Copa del Rey (2012), as well as the Spanish Super Cup on two occasions (2011, 2013), the UEFA Super Cup (2011) and the FIFA Club World Cup (2011).

Regarded as one of the world’s finest talents, Sanchez has just returned from the World Cup in Brazil, where he played an integral role in Chile qualifying from their group (which included the Netherlands, Spain and Australia) and reaching the round of 16. During the tournament, Sanchez scored two goals from his four appearances.

The striker, who has now made 71 appearances for Chile, scoring 24 goals, started his career with Cobreloa, based in Calama in north Chile, where he spent a season before moving to Santiago-based Colo-Colo, where he won the Chilean Primera Division in 2007.

After convincing performances in Chile between 2005 and 2007, Sanchez went on loan to Argentine side River Plate, where he added the Argentinian Primera Division to his honours.

Following his success in South America, Sanchez made a permanent move to Serie A side Udinese in 2008, where he spent three seasons, scoring 20 goals from 95 appearances, before making the move to Barcelona in 2011.

Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger said: “As many people have seen during the World Cup this summer, Alexis is a fantastic footballer and we are delighted that he is joining us at Arsenal Football Club.

“Alexis will add power, creativity and much quality to our squad and we are all looking forward to him joining up with us in a few weeks. He has consistently produced top-quality performances at the highest level for a number of seasons now and we are all excited to see him integrate into the Arsenal squad. I’m sure all Arsenal supporters will join me in welcoming Alexis to our club.”

Sanchez said: “I’m so happy to be joining Arsenal, a club which has a great manager, a fantastic squad of players, huge support around the world and a great stadium in London. I’m looking forward to meeting my new team-mates and to be playing for Arsenal in the Premier League and Champions League. I will give my best to Arsenal and want to make all the supporters happy.”

Sanchez travelled to London Colney on Thursday to complete his medical and will join up with his new team-mates at the end of July, after spending some time on holiday following the World Cup.

It is expected that Sanchez will make his first Arsenal appearance at the Emirates Cup, which takes place at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, August 2 and Sunday, August 3.

Sanchez’s Arsenal squad number will be revealed soon through Arsenal’s official Instagram account.

A full interview with Alexis will feature soon on arsenalwiki blog.

Everyone at Arsenal welcomes Alexis to the club and looks forward to seeing him in an Arsenal shirt.

Walcott surprises FA Cup final mascot

Nine-year-old Junior Gunner Lucas enjoyed the surprise of a lifetime ahead of Arsenal's game with West Brom on Sunday, when Theo Walcott paid him a visit with some special news.

Walcott sought out the Finsbury Park youngster in his seat at Emirates Stadium before kick-off, to tell him he had been randomly selected from over 30,000 Junior Gunners to be Arsenal's mascot for the FA Cup Final.

The Arsenal and England star explained to Lucas that he would get to visit the Gunners' changing room before the game, and lead them onto the pitch for kick-off.

He then invited Lucas pitchside to present him with an Arsenal strip and FA Cup Final tickets in front of the Emirates Stadium crowd.

Walcott said afterwards: "It was brilliant to be the one to tell Lucas he'd be our mascot for the FA Cup Final. He is Arsenal-mad and a lovely lad, so I am very happy for him. I hope he remembers the day for a long time to come."

Mesut-Ozil-set to return after hamstring injury, time-Arsenals-trip-Hull-Sunday.

Arsenal have a received a timely boost in their quest for a Champions League spot after Arsene Wenger said club record signing Mesut Ozil could return for Sunday's trip to Hull. 

Ozil picked up a hamstring injury in the Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich last month and Arsenal have only won twice since as their title challenge has ground to a halt. 

Wenger took the opportunity to leap to the defence of the £42.5million man, who has had a largely underwhelming season.

Wenger said: 'He had a period where he was tired because he was not used to playing a full season. 

'He's a fantastic football players and I would put him on the list to be player of the season next season.

Nacho Monreal is also nearing a return, but fellow left back Kieran Gibbs is out of the clash.

Meanwhile, Wenger spoke of his relief at Everton's shock 3-2 defeat by Crystal Palace on Wednesday night, a results which sees the Gunners cling on to fourth place. 

'It is, of course, a big encouragement but there's there's a lot of work to do for us,' he said. 'We have a big game at Hull. 

'Mentally we are in better shape than a week ago because we had two important wins and that puts us in a better condition on the confidence front.'

Sagna Rejects Inter Move, Wants To Stay In The Premier League

Bacary Sagna is out of contract this summer and has failed to reach a negotiation with Arsenal over a new deal. He is demanding a 3-year contract worth at least £90,000 per week as a reward for his loyalty towards the London giants, as he has remained at the club while other big names have left for greener pastures.

The Gunners however are skeptical about meeting his demands, and are willing to offer the 31- year old just a 2-year deal worth £80,000 per week. Arsenal are keen to extend his stay, but there were strong reports which expected him to run down his current deal and walk away as a free agent in the summer. There were initial talks held with the likes of Inter Milan over a switch to the San Siro ahead of next season, as the club’s new president Erick Thohir looks to flex his financial muscle and oversee a major overhaul of the team.

They have already agreed a deal for Manchester United’s Nemanja Vidic, and want to sign Sagna too; however ESPNFC now report that Thohir spoke to the media where he revealed that Sagna has rejected Inter’s offer, and is looking to remain in England. Speaking about the matter, Thohir said, “Sagna has decided to stay in the Premier League”.

Though it’s a statement which should give some relief to Arsenal fans, you still cannot rule out a possible Sagna move to either Chelsea or Manchester City, who are also understood to be interested in him.

Wenger - We can repair the damage

Arsène Wenger believes his team should be judged on their season's work and not a handful of "accidents" on the road.
Arsenal have suffered heavy defeats at Manchester City, Liverpool and now Chelsea, conceding 17 times in those three away fixtures - but just 17 more in their 27 other top-flight games.
Wenger is concerned at Arsenal's failure to navigate tough away trips on Saturday lunchtimes but he has seen his team recover from serious damage before - and he's confident it will happen again.

An accident has happened, that doesn't mean that you're not a good driver

"An accident has happened, that doesn't mean that you're not a good driver," he told Arsenal Player.
"It just means that we have played about 40 games this season and it's not what happened on Saturday that reflects the quality of this team. We have 62 points that we earned hard with quality games and that's what we want to focus on, to get back to that quality. We go back to basics.
"Of course you need to analyse as well the fact that we were down to 10 men [at Chelsea] and the offensive quality of Chelsea on the counter-attack is very good.
"You have to put that into perspective, we just came out of two convincing results at Bayern Munich and at Tottenham with a very solid defensive performance so you have to think that [Chelsea] was an accident.
"How do you deal with the accident? You repair them, you repair the damage and you go for the next one. The response has always been very strong and I'm convinced it will be again on Tuesday."
 
Copyright 2014 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source

ARSENAL TO BLOCK SALE OF THOMAS VERMAELEN TO MAN CITY

Hands up out there how many Arsenal fans are sick to the back teeth of Arsenal selling their best players to their direct Premier League rivals. That’s everyone then, yeah? So Arsene Wenger and the club must draw a line under it now and refuse to sanction the sale of Thomas Vermaelen to Man City.

The current Arsenal captain may not fall into that best player category, because the Belgian has found it impossible to break the pairing of Koscielny and Mertesacker, but he is still a top class defender and would certainly strengthen City’s slightly shaky defence.

Metro reports that Manuel Pellegrini has identified the Arsenal man as the ideal player to partner Kompany at the back and we must not let it happen. Arsenal do not have to sell the Verminator because he has a good few years left on his contract, so Wenger must tell him he cannot join a rival.

If Vermaelen is so determined to leave the Gunners to get more playing time, he can go anywhere he wants except England. Anyway, knowing City they will probably buy three of the world’s most expensive defenders in the world and Vermaelen will still end up on the bench.

I would love it if our captain changes his mind and decides to stick with Arsenal, but it seems unlikely. The next best thing is to make sure he is not playing against us in the Premier League next season.