AOC to sign, Wilshere withdraws from England squad

When I looked around this morning, I thought to myself that this looked like a pretty slow news day. Then @DarrenArsenal1 said on twitter that it looked like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was set to have a medical in the next few days and that was confirmed later on in the morning with many sources stating that he would undergo a medical either today or within the next few days. The bid is worth £6.5m, which could reach £10m with add-ons according to We are the North Bank. YoungGunsBlog has said on twitter that we had actually agreed terms with Oxlade-Chamberlain a while ago and had even handed him the number 33 shirt. No doubt we can expect the deal to be announced either tonight or tomorrow. I believe I’m right in saying Ivan Gazidis is meeting with a bunch of disgruntled Arsenal fans tonight, so it could well be announced then. I wonder whether that spells goodbye for Samir Nasri?

The fall-out from the Benfica match continues then. There’s interviews with Szczesny, Wenger and and Miquel as well as Van Persie being nice. As always, Arsenal Report have put up a report with some good analysis, I found the bit about the midfield interesting.

Speaking of signings, the centre-back search apparently rumbles on with Gary Cahill’s name being mentioned again. If he’s training with England at London Colney, can’t we just not let him leave? Speaking of centre-backs, Per Mertesacker’s name has gone around a few times in recent days with the German giving it a bit of a ‘come and get me’. Fees have been reported as cheap as £6m. I know Wenger has been looking for Premier Leauge experience, but that’s not a bad deal…

Some news on the official site then with Wenger speaking about the squad’s focus and confidence ahead of ‘le big kick-off’ this weekend and Szczesny speaking about our defence. In all fairness, I think our team has looked pretty good when it’s been mainly a first-choice squad playing. I suppose the problem is that you sometimes get players who aren’t first-choice playing and not all of them have the drive of a Lansbury or a Wilshere. Speaking about him, Jack Wilshere is out of the England squad so we’ll have to wait and see whether he makes this weekend at St. James’ Park. Thomas Vermaelen and Van Persie are also doubts apparently, I’ll wait until after the international break before I even bother counting injuries.

Also, how’s this for a goal?

One final thing, be sure to read Nick’s post from earlier today, reflecting on drawing Udinese in the Champions League qualifiers and his latest thoughts on the Fabregas saga. That’s it for today folks, as always you can find me on twitter @SavageGooner if you don’t already follow me. :)