Van Persie Hoping For Injury-Free Season

The Dutchman’s Arsenal career has been plagued by injury and he was much missed last season as he spent much of the time watching from the sidelines as Arsenal’s early season title challenge faded towards the end of the season.

The striker was clearly disappointed about the way last season turned out, but speaking to the club’s official website it is obvious he is philosophical about the experience.

“Last year I missed too many games and I am still disappointed about it,” said van Persie before adding, “But that is life. That is football and things can happen. I accepted it."

Van Persie returned to action at Euro 2008 and managed two goals in four appearances for the Netherlands as he looked to regain his best form.

With a new Premier League season looming, the Dutchman is hoping this is a sign of things to come and he can keep injury-free. The striker said: “This is a new year with new chances. Hopefully I can be injury-free this year. Last year I played 16 games and scored seven goals — that is nearly one out of two. It is not too bad.”

With Eduardo still out injured and Emmanuel Adebayor’s future at the Emirates uncertain, there will be high hopes over van Persie this season, a fact the striker is well aware. Speaking of his hopes for the new season, the message from the Dutchman is clear. He said: “I just want to have the same results this season with a few more matches.”

Arsenal begin their season on August 16 with newly promoted West Bromwich Albion the visitors to the Emirates.

Vela & Wilshere Hit First Arsenal Goals

Mexican starlet Vela scored three and Wilshere (pictured) hit two, but they were both outdone by Nicklas Bendtner who cracked four first-half goals. Theo Walcott completed the scoring for a young, experimental-looking Arsenal side.

Wilshere, 16, opened the floodgates as early as the first minute, setting the Gunners on the way to a 7-0 interval lead before Bendtner was rested at the break with four goals to his name. By then Vela had also contributed a couple of classy finishes, and he completed his hat-trick seven minutes into the second half.

Then Wilshire won and despatched a penalty just after the hour mark, before setting up Theo Walcott for Arsenal's 10th on 69 minutes.

Burgenland's Junuz Foric then scored a consolation goal, and Alexander Martna added a second in the final minute.

The Arsenal starting XI was similar to the one held to a 1-1 draw at Szombathelyi, with Bendtner and Vela deployed as twin strikers, Denilson and Aaron Ramsey operating in central midfield the Hoyte brothers - Justin and Gavin - paired as central defenders. Wilshere and Armand Traore played on the flanks.

Arsene Wenger sent on Henri Lansbury for Traore, and at half-time replaced Manuel Almunia with Vito Mannnone, Gael Clichy with Mark Randall, Denilson with Walcott and Bendtner with Jay Simpson.

Toure Will Be Ready - Wenger

The Arsenal squad are currently in Austria, where the team enjoyed a friendly win over Burgenland yesterday. Toure did not feature in the match, but Wenger revealed that the defender has returned to training after a bout of malaria.

Toure contracted malaria in his home country of Cote D’Ivoire while on holiday, but Wenger is confident that the 27-year-old will feature against West Brom on August 16th.

He told the press: "Kolo has started to practise again, so that's quite good news for us. It will take two weeks for him to play, but he will be ready for the first Premier League game."

The centre-back had a check-up on his condition in a Vienna hospital, but his manager played down the seriousness of the issue.

Wenger continued: "Most of the players have that (malaria) in their blood in Africa. He had a little resurgence of it because he caught it in Africa. They recover quickly from that. After two days he was okay."

Diaby To Fill Flamini Void

From some sections in the media Abou Diaby, 22, has been touted as Vieira's heir: due to their leggy and powerful nature.

The Parisian looked promising when Wenger snapped him up in the 2006 January transfer window, but he has never looked the same since he suffered a terrible broken and dislocated ankle.

To the frustration of many Arsenal fans though, Diaby was continually deployed on the left flank last season - presumably in a bid to build up his left foot. Since then, he has scored with his left peg, so to a certain extent, this aim has worked.

Since the departure of three defence-minded midfielders in 2008, Diaby may be confident of securing a starting role this term.

Setanta Sports quote Abou as saying: "I prefer to play central than left or right, there is a possibility for me to play central and we will see after."

On the subject of where Wenger sees the former Auxerre man playing, the twice-capped international said he hadn't been told:

"I prefer to play as a central midfielder and now I need to work and do everything good to play here and do my job well. I think that we have got a similar game because he [Fabregas] likes to go forward and I like to go forward because I am an offensive player as well and we need to find a compensation – one goes, one stays."

Cesc: I'm Leaving? No... Not Yet

Arsene Wenger’s men have now gone through three campaigns without securing a single piece of silverware, a fact that has already seen the likes of Thierry Henry and Alexsander Hleb move on from north London.

And while Fabregas is happy with life at Arsenal, the 21-year old’s success with Spain at Euro 2008 appears to have cut short his patience for domestic titles, with the youngster admitting that he has not closed the door on a move to Bernabeu.

"I didn't say 'no' to Ramón Calderón.What I said was that now's not the time to join Real Madrid,” Fabregas told Marca.

"To be chased by Madrid, one of the greats teams of all time, is huge."

He added that the prospect of gaining a trophy in Spain could be the tipping point for any future move, but equally important was his aim to help Arsenal avoid such a fate.

"Going four years without hoisting a trophy is too much for someone like me," he said.

"This year's favourites for the Liga are Real Madrid," he added.

Fabregas has also backed Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo to repeat his successes in England should he complete a move to the Spanish capital.

"It was because of Cristiano that United were able to win the Champions League and the Premier League" he continued.

"He'd surely help Real Madrid win titles, too."

Will Wood

Hleb Denies Cesc Rift

In the wake of the Belarusian’s move from the Emirates to Barça, it was reported by certain publications that Hleb had described his good friend Fabregas as ‘selfish’.

However, Hleb claims that the quote was a fabrication, and he denied having spoken about Fabregas in derogatory terms.

Hleb left Arsenal due to the frenetic nature of London life, following another first-team colleague Mathieu Flamini out of the Emirates exit door.

Flamini, Fabregas and Hleb are all though to be close, and the 27-year-old playmaker moved to refute the allegation that he spoke ill of the young Spaniard.

He told the press: "I don't know where they got all this from. There's a certain type of English press that only invents things and this is one of those cases."

Arsenal Back In For Inler

Arsenal are in desperate need of a top class centre midfielder following the exits of Gilberto Silva, Aliaksandr Hleb and Mathieu Flamini.

The Gunners have been linked with a whole host of names, including Gareth Barry, Miguel Veloso, Marcos Senna, Torsten Frings, Yaya Touré, and even Xabi Alonso.

The North Londoners have also been associated with Inler in recent weeks, and The People now claims that the club have re-entered the race to sign him, along with Newcastle.

The 24-year-old Inler was a virtual unknown when he signed for Udinese from FC Zurich last year, however the midfielder had a superb first season in Serie A, and earned widespread praise from the critics.

Inler’s fine performances have led to interest from a number of other big European teams, including Liverpool, Juventus and Inter, however most recently there were reports in the English and Italian press that the player could be set for a move to Newcastle United.

Only a couple of weeks ago Inler revealed his intention to stay at Udinese, stating: “My head is at Udinese. I want to have a good season with my team.”

However, were Arsenal to table an official bid for the Swiss star, it remains to be seen whether he could turn down a move to the Emirate Stadium.