Theo Walcott to miss UEFA Champions League tie vs Montpellier

By Ashley Williams

LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) November 20, 2012: Theo Walcott has been ruled out of the Arsenal FC’s UEFA Champions League encounter against Montpellier on home soil on Wednesday as the winger is yet to recover from a shoulder problem.

Theo Walcott, who also represents England as striker, is an integral part of the Arsenal FC but he sustained the injury during this weekend’s 5-2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League. Walcott had carried on during the match despite of the injury and scored the fifth and final goal for The Gunners in the stoppage time.

Arsenal FC are due to host Montpellier at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday and manager Arsene Wenger said that Theo Walcott has not trained with the team but will have a scan to determine the damage caused by the injury to the striker.

Gervinho has been put on standby to replace the injured Walcott if he failed to make it.

Talking to media here in the pre-match press conference, Arsene Wenger said, “The injury he got during the game with his shoulder, we have to scan that today and see if there is no damage. He will be out for tomorrow. It should be short-term. We will miss [Andre] Santos as well, who has a muscle strain in his abdomen. The two players coming in the squad are Gervinho and [Kieran] Gibbs."

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UCL2012: Schalke hand Arsenal FC first defeat at Emirates in 3yrs

By Ashley Williams

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Ibrahim Afellay score goals for German club at Emirates

LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) October 25, 2012: The Schalke 04 played out of their skins to shock Arsenal FC and hand them their first defeat at the Emirates since 2009 in the UEFA Champions League 2012 match on Wednesday.

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With manager Arsene Wenger serving his European touchline ban and watching the match from the stands, The Gunners looked completely out-of-sorts on home soil as more misery was added after their Saturday’s English Premier League loss at Norwich City.

The match failed to produce any goals in the first half but Klaas-Jan Hunelaar and Ibrahim Afellay broke the shackles in the second half and propelled the Schalke on top of the Group B over Arsenal FC.

Going is getting tough for Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal FC who have two very important games coming up in the next few days where they are due to face off against Queens Park Rovers in the English Premier League encounter on Saturday before meeting Reading in the Capital One Cup clash next week.

Schalke had defeated their Bundesliga foes Borussia Dortmund in an away game but were pegged back by a ten-man Montpelliler who grabbed a 2-2 draw in their last UEFA Champions League encounter.

Arsenal FC struggled for the best part of the match and never found any sort of rhythm while kept them at bay from the Schalke’s goalpost but their opponents didn’t lose much of their chances as Klaas-Jan Hunelaar gave the tourists a well-deserved lead in the 76^th minute.

The Gunners needed to shoot and shoot it as quickly as possible with time running out fast but they failed to respond to the grim situation which provided Schalke forwards the chance to further pressure and Ibrahim Afellay completed the victory with a brilliant goal in 86^th minute.

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Arsenal off the mark as Podolski, Cazorla sink Liverpool

By Ashley Williams

LONDON (TheSportsNext) September 3, 2012: The lady luck has finally started smiling at Arsene Wenger and company as Arsenal FC won their first match in the Barclays English Premier League 2012-13 on Sunday when they outclassed Liverpool FC by two goals to nil, thanks to new signings Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla who struck goals in either half.

German striker Lukas Podolski proved his worth for The Gunners in the high-pressure encounter against Liverpool as he gave Arsenal FC the advantage in 31^stminute.

Podolski successfully converted a pass from Steven Gerrard and despite of the Liverpool FC showing great intention to level the odds it was Arsenal FC who once again were successful in making the ball hit the net.

Santi Cazorla doubled the lead for Arsene Wenger's side, which have seen indifferent last year or so in the English Premier League as well as the European soccer tournaments.

Cazorla hit the second goal midway through the second half to seal the first victory for The Gunners.

With this victory, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, who are yet to lose a game this season, are now placed seventh in the points table while Liverpool FC are languishing at 17^thplace.

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