Arsenal chief Ivan Gazidis admits they've earned a good draw for their Champions League group.

The Gunners are joined by Dutch champions AZ Alkmaar, Greek side Olympiakos and Belgian title holders Standard Liege.

Gazidis said: "A lot of people might say we are the favourites to win this group but we have not played any of these teams before and they are all champions of their respective leagues.

"Our ambition is to become the first London club to win the Champions League. We have believed in ourselves through this close season even though we have been written off and a lot of pressure has been placed on us.

"One of things we have this year is real focus game-to-game and I think if we can maintain that we can achieve great things."

Former Arsenal player Charlie Nicholas said the draw could not have been better for Arsene Wenger.

Nicholas told Sky Sports News: "It's a lovely draw for the Arsenal, there's absolutely no doubt about that.

"After coming under a little bit of pressure against Glasgow Celtic I was sitting here looking at the prime draw and this is it. There's a little bit of travelling involved to Olympiakos, but Belgium and Holland are a little hop over the water.

"It's an absolutely fantastic draw. I know they've not played AZ Alkmaar or Olympiakos before, but I don't think it gets much better than this.

"You take nothing for granted at this level, but this is one where Arsenal will be able to change their team a little bit and use their squad players.

"It's a very, very good draw for the Gunners."


Very good indeed. :dance:

Lionel Messi is set to again become Barcelona's best paid player.

Marca says both parties are putting the final touches on Messi's new contract, which could be signed in a matter of days.

Messi will see his salary jump to €10 million, making him the highest paid at the Nou Camp ahead of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is on €9.5 million.

Barca will also have an anti-Manchester City clause inserted into the new deal which will see his buyout mark jump from €150 million to €300 million.


ANTI-MAN CITY :laugh3::laugh3::laugh3:

Barcelona are set to land Shakhtar Donetsk defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy.

Sport says Chygrynskiy will join Barca on Saturday after agreeing a five-year contract.

The two clubs thrashed out terms yesterday over a fee worth €25 million. Aware of the effort made by the Treble champs to win his signature, Chygrynskiy has agreed to significantly reduce his personal demands.

He will move to the Nou Camp on an initial deal worth €1.2 million-a-year.



Good player; will certainly strengthen their defence a lot.

Welcome into the brotherhood johann :bigsmile:

LOL!

I bet a lot off clubs will be having that now

LOL thats a good idea and I think alot of clubs will pick up on it

Cheers Brad!! :thumbs2:

Group A

Bayern Munich
Juventus
Bordeaux
Maccabi Haifa

Group B

MANCHESTER UNITED
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C

AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D

CHELSEA
Porto
Atletico Madrid
APOEL Nicosia

Group E

LIVERPOOL
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debrecen

Group F

Barcelona
Inter Milan
Dinamo Kiev
Rubin Kazan

Group G

Sevilla
RANGERS
Stuttgart
Unirea Urziceni

Group H

ARSENAL
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard Liege


Thats who i reckon will go through from the group stages

I ll be backing Everton for the Europa

Man u have a very tough group imo, CSKA are no push overs and all that travelling

I agree none of them are pushovers.

Can't see them getting knocked out in that group though

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson admits they face a battle to get out of their new Champions League group.

United were drawn in Group B - not so much the Group of Death as the Group of Jetlag - with the prospect of long-distance trips to Besiktas in Turkey and CSKA Moscow as well as strong opponents in German champions Wolfsburg.

Ferguson is not a fan of long away trips in Europe, and he told the club's official website: "These are difficult ties especially the trips to Russia and Turkey.

"CSKA have developed strongly in the last few years and games in Turkey are always difficult.

"We also know the quality that we're up against with Wolfsburg, with what they achieved in the Bundesliga last season."

LOL funny how we was saying earlier that this was a great group. Having doubts now are we? :pat:

David bentley banned from driving for a year

West Ham have signed Livorno striker Alessandro Diamanti for an undisclosed fee on a five-year contract.

Diamanti, 26, scored 18 goals in 37 league and cup matches last season as Livorno were promoted to Serie A.

Diamanti said he was looking forward to linking up with Hammers boss and fellow Italian Gianfranco Zola.

"I am very happy to be at West Ham. This is a big club and I want to give everything for the supporters," he told West Ham's official website.

"I chose West Ham because the club have the tradition of playing great football. Also, because the West Ham fans are really passionate and that is the way I am."

Zola is desperately short of strikers, with Carlton Cole the only fit centre forward in the first-team squad, and the Hammers had been strongly linked with a move for Diamanti after failing to land Bordeaux's Marouane Chamakh.

Eduardo has been charged over diving :shocked:

and were back :wavey:

Wow, Tibb seems massively ****ked :/

My avatars gone

oh well

The man united come back against arsenal :dance:

Lol at Diaby


Im gutted Dunne deal hasnt gone through yet wanted him to play tommorow



Heitinga for 5m!!! bargain

[rquote=2497738&tid=133229&author=Nathan]Lol at Diaby


Im gutted Dunne deal hasnt gone through yet wanted him to play tommorow



Heitinga for 5m!!! bargain[/rquote]

Am happy about that

great deal

Just watched Madrid and was quite bored

Tommorow will be good

We would of got to 250 pages today as well :bawling: lol

3-2 over Bolton, was ****ting myself once they went 2-1 up.

Krygiakos made plenty of mistakes.

And before someone says, yeah I don't think Davis should have been sent off and the way it was going we wouldn't have won if he hadn't have been.