Arsene Wenger hails Rob Holding, says 'I am sorry he didn't cost £55 million'

Arsene Wenger brushed off calls for Arsenal to bring in a veteran centre-back by praising defenders Rob Holding and Laurent Koscielny in a "great defensive performance" in Saturday's 0-0 draw at Leicester City.

Wenger decided to start Holding over Calum Chambers even though the newcomer from Bolton -- who cost just £2 million -- only made his Premier League last weekend when the Gunners conceded four goals in a 4-3 loss to Liverpool.

And while Arsenal are still looking for an experienced defender in the transfer market, and have been in talks with Valencia over Shkodran Mustafi, Wenger said Holding's performance showed that splashing cash is not always the answer.

"We have a whole team working on the strengthening of the team. I'm not the only one," Wenger said in his postgame news conference.

"Unfortunately no one speaks about the performance of Rob Holding. You should be happy, he is English and 20 years old. I am sorry he didn't cost £55 million, so he can't be good."

"We don't speak about the performances anymore and I think that is not right."

Angry Arsenal fans who travelled to the King Powe Stadium called for Wenger to make signings, but Wenger, clearly irritated by transfer talk, again defended his policies.

Asked if he is reluctant to spend money, the manager replied: "Why do you say I'm reluctant? If I buy you tomorrow for £45m, I have spent £45m, and I would have done well because I will have listened to you, but spending the money in itself is not a quality.

"Spending the money buying a top player is different and we are ready to do it. I just said I'd spend £300m if I find the player and I had £300m.

"Do not forget we are a club who has 600 employees who we have to have a responsibility to as well. It's a bit surprising you come out of games and don't speak about football. You have to speak about money.

"You have to respect the players who played and the performance from both teams. If we find the players to strengthen our team then we are not reluctant to spend the money.

"They [the fans] are highly influenced by the media, that's part of the process today. We try to make the right decisions, it's as simple as that."

Rob Holding and the Arsenal defence prevented Leicester City from scoring on Saturday.

Wenger brought Koscielny back into the squad after he was rested against Liverpool, when his absence was keenly felt in the defeat at the Emirates.

That led Wenger to rush the Frenchman back into the starting lineup even though he opted to keep Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud on the bench, with all three having returned late after the European Championship.

It turned out to be a crucial decision as Koscielny helped the Gunners repel the speedy threat of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez and made a crucial last-ditch tackle to deny Danny Drinkwater in the first half.

"The whole back four played well, and [Koscielny] guided the defence well. He had an outstanding game," Wenger told BT Sport. "And Rob Holding, Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal as well played very well.

"It was a game of high intensity, where both teams gave absolutely everything. On that front, I believe when you conceded four goals last week we have shown a great defensive performance.

"Overall we created the chances to win it. But you could see that they were not champions for no reason last year. It's a team that is very well organised, it's very difficult to create chances."

Arsenal's attacking performance was a lot less convincing, though, as Alexis Sanchez struggled to create chances in his role as the central striker. The Gunners immediately looked more dangerous when Wenger brought on Ozil and Giroud toward the end, but they still didn't create any clear-cut chances.

"Mesut Ozil is not completely ready yet to cope with the physicality of the game -- that is why we have to be a bit careful with him," Wenger told the BBC.

"We made many chances against a team that defends very well. Overall we still lack a little bit in our decision making and in the final ball but that will come. It's a positive game."

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger pulls plug on Olivier Giroud-Gonzalo Higuain swap deal

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has pulled out of negotiations to sign Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain in a swap deal for Olivier Giroud after news of the talks leaked, according to reports in Italy.

Quotes from Giroud’s agent surfaced on Tuesday, with Michael Manuello confirming that the French striker would be more than willing to move to Naples if Arsenal included him as part of a player-plus-cash deal for Higuain.

And now the journalist who interviewed Manuello and broke the story, Raffaele Auriemma, has provided a fresh update that will surely disappoint Arsenal fans.

‘Wenger has blocked everything,’ he explained on Radio CRC. ‘Arsenal were upset by the leak and amazed that after a few hours everything was out in the open, so have taken a step back.

‘Even [Napoli chairman Aurelio] De Laurentiis seems bitter, even angry, not because he wanted to sell Higuain, but because he feels betrayed by his market consultant, who blabbed about several different rumours.’

The news will come as a huge blow to Arsenal, who have already been snubbed by Jamie Vardy – who elected to sign a new contract at Leicester City instead – and are struggling to sign a new striker in time for the start of the new season.

Hosts France favourites for Euro 2016 despite Olivier Giroud up front, absentees galore and a dubious defence

The list of French stars NOT in coach Didier Deschamps' final 23 would make up a decent international side but there are issues at both ends of the pitch.

Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane inspired France to the title the last twice Les Bleus played host to major tournaments.

Now, Didier Deschamps – the captain who lifted the World Cup for Zidane and co in 1998 – is under huge ­pressure to complete the hat-trick at Euro 2016 with the next generation.

This time, the French build-up has been beset with problems on and off the pitch, with the whole spine of a team absent from their final squad.

Raphael Varane, Mamadou Sakho, Lassana Diarra and Mathieu Valbuena are all missing, while Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa were controversially excluded .

Yet such is the talent in French football, the hosts are still ­favourites to lift the trophy in Paris on July 10.

Deschamps won silverware as France captain — now he aims to repeat the trick as their coach

Now a nation waits to see who will be the inspirational heroes to follow in the ­footsteps of Platini, Alain Giresse and Jean Tigana at Euro 84, and Zidane, Thierry Henry and Youri Djorkaeff at France 98.

The new ­generation play at the top clubs across Europe: Anthony Martial at Manchester United, Antoine Griezmann at Atletico Madrid, Paul Pogba at Juventus and Kingsley Coman at Bayern Munich.

Leicester’s N’Golo Kante has also stormed into the squad and West Ham’s Dimitri Payet has earned a recall. His superb recent winner against Cameroon showed he is bringing his club form and dead-ball expertise to the international stage.

West Ham idol Payet's free-kick wizardry has earned him a France recall

The two ­problems: scoring goals and stopping them.

Top-scorer Benzema has been left out after his alleged involvement in the blackmail of Valbuena, so Olivier Giroud will lead the line.

If he is not good enough to win the Premier League for Arsenal, can he score the goals to win Euro 2016?

The alternatives are Martial or Mexico-based Andre-Pierre Gignac.

The Premier League-based defence is also a concern, with the centre-back pairing of Eliaquim Mangala and Laurent Koscielny looking as watertight as the banks of the Seine after the recent weeks of torrential rain.

In pre-tournament friendlies against Holland (3-2), Russia (4-2) and Cameroon (3-2), France had to score three times to win.

You can’t emerge ­victorious in an international ­competition like that.

But roared on by a French public seeking unifying success to take away attention from widespread industrial action and the threat of more terrorism, Deschamps’ team will be serious contenders.

Football transfer rumours: Arsenal's Olivier Giroud heading to Wolfsburg?

The Rumour Mill is usually at its most plump and juicy when there isn’t much football news to report upon elsewhere. When space needs to be crammed with half-truths and gossip, and people need their fill of news and so forth. So given there’s not much else around today for anyone to get excited about, you can only imagine there’s going to be some red hot stuff ahead.

We could start here, at the good old Guardian, where there’s word that new Manchester City head honcho Pep Guardiola is set to start the uphill battle of grappling the title from Leicester City’s grasp by triggering Athletic Bilbao defender Aymeric Laporte’s release fee, which stands at €50m. It says here - here - that: ‘The club’s sporting director Txiki Begiristain was pictured in Bilbao last month, with Basque newspaper EITB reporting that City have told Athletic officials that they are willing to meet his release clause. “It is a specific request of Pep Guardiola,” read the report.’

On to other places now, and word on the street is that Wolfsburg, afterre leasing Nicklas Bendtner, have learned their lesson about signing lumbering Arsenal fancypants strikers who probably think they’re a bit better than they actually are, and are… oh, wait, hang on … they’re keen on Olivier Giroud. Hmmm. Yes. Well. Other targets for them Wolves – not them Wolves – supposedly include Besiktas striker Mario Gómez, according to Kicker magazine. Sound the alarm.

Oooh, here’s one – France Football report that Liverpool are running the rule over Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Javier Pastore, a man who’s mulling his future in France due to… well, largely due to not playing that many games. Just the 10 starts this season, all in all, and you’d imagine young Javier more fancies his chances of dislodging Adam Lallana than Ángel Di María. Sorry Adam.

Andriy Yarmolenko. He’s good. So good, in fact, that his current chairman thinks it would be beneath him to play for some of the finest clubs dear old Blighty has to offer. Well, sort of. Dynamo Kiev president Ihor Surkis doesn’t think the winger will leave his club this summer, but if he does then it will be for one of the big dogs. “He is already a top player, so he should go to a top club,” Surkis said. “My position is that we should not let Yarmolenko go to such clubs as Everton and Stoke City. Dynamo is Dynamo and Stoke City is Stoke. We’re playing in the Champions League and Stoke City are fighting for survival.” Well, they’re 10th, but who’s counting?

How ‘bout some sexy new contracts? John Terry wants one, and what John Terry wants from Chelsea, John Terry usually gets, but even this one might be beyond his creaking ol’ limbs. Erik Lamela fancies one too, hoping to stick around with Tottenham despite their abject, disgraceful and catastrophic failure of a season. And Riyad Mahrez is in line for a spanking, shiny, digit-filled deal too. He’s probably earned that one.

And finally, here’s word from South Wales, where the local journal has it that Francesco Guidolin has impressed Watford sufficiently that they are considering replacing Quique Sánchez Flores with him. The Pozzo family, Watford’s owners, know the Italian well after he spent four years managing Udinese.

Olivier Giroud backed by Arsenal manager to go on a scoring spree after Hull brace ends drought

The Frenchman went 11 games without a goal before his double in the FA Cup replay and Arsene Wenger says it's a weight off the striker's shoulders.

Arsene Wenger has backed Olivier Giroud to go on another scoring spree now the France striker has been set free by his brace at Hull.

The Arsenal boss admitted his Gunners are striving to “stay alive” in three competitions this week – starting with Sunday’s quarter-final with Watford.

And Giroud is set to play a central role after coming back from the dead and ending an 11-game barren run with his double strike on Tuesday.

The £13million forward has form for following famine with feast – and scored seven in seven in one burst in the autumn.

And along with fellow forwards Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott, Wenger reckoned his fellow Frenchman is ready to fire again as the Gunners continue their quest for a record third consecutive FA Cup.

Drought: Giroud was closing in on a dozen games without a goal

“It is a weight on the shoulders when the players don’t score,” he admitted. “So the fact that they score will of course take that weight off. But it is a bit cyclic always, especially for Giroud. Giroud has cycles so it was a weight off his shoulders.

“Football has to be instinctive and you have to play with freedom. When you play with a bit more freedom, when the goals are natural. Every striker will tell you that.

“With Giroud, this season for example he has had games where he has gone boom, boom, boom, boom boom and after he had a little spell where he didn’t score and now I hope he has a repetition of his former spell and start to score again.”

Super cool Giroud always appears unfazed as he approaches defenders and life with a Gallic shrug.

But Wenger admitted: “Between what he says and what is real, even I don’t really know what is going in there. You know that if you don’t score and you are a striker, somewhere you are not happy.”

Walcott revealed after the Hull win that Arsenal, who ended a five-match run with a win at Hull, had held a fiery team meeting to get their faltering season back on track.

“We manage this club in a very modern way,” Wenger insisted.

“We do many meetings with the players. Sometimes we encourage them to do as well their own meetings. Incidentally, I was completely aware of that. Just like to reiterate that was before the Swansea game that we lost. That was not unusual and, as well, not a miraculous result!”

In pictures - Hull 0-4 Arsenal:

Gunners host Watford before mission impossible at Barcelona in the Champions League and then a crucial league match away to Everton.

Wenger said: “We want to stay alive in all of them but then again lets be focused on the next one. I don’t know if the FA Cup is our best chance of a trophy. I don’t think like that.”

Asked if his players could be complacent about finishing in the top four for a 20th consecutive season, the Gunners boss insisted: “The players are not in the comfort zone and want to do well and they’ve not given up (on the title) or the Champions League.

“I feel we can have a run but we know how quickly it can change – we lost two games and suddenly looked like we would be in the Championship next year so it is game by game and all we know is we can not afford any more slips ups.”

Arsenal’s Wenger hoping Olivier Giroud back in ‘boom, boom, boom, boom, boom’ cycle

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has backed his strikers to hit the goal trail in the coming weeks after finally finding their scoring boots.

The club face Watford in their FA Cup sixth-round contest on Sunday looking to become the first team in living memory to win the competition three times in succession.

Wenger’s side reached the last eight courtesy of a 4-0 replay win at Hull City – which saw Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott both score twice apiece to end their respective barren spells in front of goal.

Frenchman Giroud now has 20 goals for the season as he celebrated the birth of his second child with a double at the KC Stadium – but he had gone 11 games without a goal before then.

Similarly, Walcott had just six goals to his name this season before his fifth-round double – while Alexis Sanchez’s strike to earn Arsenal a point at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend was his first in the Premier League since October.

But now they are all back among the goals, Wenger believes the pressure has been lifted ahead of a pivotal week which sees Arsenal travel to Barcelona needing to overturn a 2-0 home defeat to advance in the Champions League before a trip to Everton on in the Premier League.

“Look, it is a weight on the shoulders when the players don’t score," Wenger said.

“So the fact that they score will of course take that weight off. Overall, I am pleased that they scored.

“But it is a bit cyclic always, especially for Giroud. Giroud has cycles so it was a weight off his shoulders. And Walcott too.

“You know this season for example he (Giroud) has had games where he has gone boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and after he had a little spell where he didn’t score and now I hope he has a repetition of his former spell and start to score again.

“You know that if you don’t score and you are a striker, somewhere you are not happy.

“Alexis as well against Tottenham scored. He suffers maybe more than everybody when he doesn’t score.

“Football has to be somewhere instinctive and you have to play with freedom. When you play with a bit more freedom, the goals are natural. Every striker will tell you that."

While Wenger admits that he has spoken to his attacking players about their goals drying up, the Frenchman was keen to stress it is more of a team effort – creating the sort of chances the likes of Giroud, Walcott, Sanchez and the fit-again Danny Welbeck can tuck away.

“We speak about it but the best way to speak about it, to sort it out is to play better collectively," he added.

“When the quality of the cross, the quality of the final ball is better it is easier to score and sometimes what you forget when you get in the final third, you have 0.1 to 0.2 seconds to make the right decision.

“And when you have a little hesitation, just a fraction short – in midfield you have 1-2 seconds to make a decision sometimes – when it gets there, just to be very quick and very decisive, decisiveness can go when you are not successful for a while."

Football: Long double brings Arsenal down to earth

Arsenal's Premier League title ambitions were dealt a painful blow as they were not so much beaten as humiliated 4-0 by a Shane Long-inspired Southampton on Saturday.

SOUTHAMPTON: Arsenal's Premier League title ambitions were dealt a painful blow as they were not so much beaten as humiliated 4-0 by a Shane Long-inspired Southampton on Saturday.

Favourites to win the title after their 2-1 victory over Manchester City, they knew that they could go to the top of the table by beating an out-of-form Southampton after Leicester City's defeat at Liverpool earlier in the day.

But somehow they made Southampton - short of confidence and goals and reeling from a 2-0 home defeat by Tottenham Hotspur a week ago - look like the team aiming for the top.

Dutch-born Curacao defender Cuco Martina, only in the team thanks to an injury to first-choice right-back Cedric Soares, put Southampton ahead with a sensational long-range strike in the 19th minute.

Long, himself only playing because of injury to top scorer Graziano Pelle, added a second, Jose Fonte headed in the third, and Long made it 4-0 in injury time.

St Mary's is not a lucky ground for Arsenal, where they lost on New Year's Day last season and have not won since December 2003.

But this was a potentially damaging result and display and Arsene Wenger's men must now aim for six points and nothing less from home matches against Bournemouth and Newcastle United.

Yet Arsenal started well. Unchanged from the starting XI that had beaten City last Monday, the visitors could have gone ahead in the second minute, but Olivier Giroud headed the ball well over from Mesut Ozil's corner.

Southampton looked energetic and in the mood to put recent disappointments behind them, but their early attacks foundered on the Arsenal defence.

When the visitors broke away, Aaron Ramsey's clever disguised pass reached Nacho Monreal, whose deflected cross almost drifted over the head of Maarten Stekelenburg.

Monreal had another chance when Martina headed unconvincingly out of defence and the left-back under-hit his shot straight at Stekelenburg.

ARSENAL SNOOZE

But that error by the man from Rotterdam was soon forgotten.

When Per Mertesacker headed away a routine cross from the left, any danger to the Arsenal goal seemed to have been averted until Martina hit the ball first time with the outside of his right foot, sending it curling past Petr Cech and into the bottom-left corner from fully 30 yards.

No-one looked more surprised than Martina, who was making his first league start after being restricted to a couple of Europa League appearances since his £1 million ($1.48 million, 1.35 million euros) close-season move from FC Twente.

Southampton could have added a second three minutes before half-time when Long outpaced Mertesacker, but with only Cech to beat, lifted his shot high over the bar.

Seconds earlier Theo Walcott had nodded wide at the near post from another Ozil corner, but Arsenal's previous dominance was a thing of the past, and things got even worse in the opening period of the second half.

When James Ward-Prowse sent a free-kick onto the head of Virgil Van Dijk, only the flag of the assistant referee ruled out a goal. It was a close decision.

But Southampton were not to be denied and in the 55th minute they deservedly doubled their lead.

Long began the move, passing to Mane on the right and running into the box for the return pass. Laurent Koscielny, his marker, tripped after fleeting contact with Long, who was left unmarked to shoot past Cech.

It was 3-0 in the 69th minute as Southampton scored a goal that summed up everything wrong with Arsenal on the night.

As Ryan Bertrand swung in a corner from the right, no Arsenal defender attacked the ball convincingly, in contrast to Saints captain Fonte, who threw himself between Koscielny and Mathieu Flamini and headed past Cech.

Now it was just a question of how many Southampton would score and having gone close when he hit the post, Long added a fourth when he drilled home a deserved second.