Arsène Wenger has revealed on Arsenal.com that he will purchase a new goalkeeper by Friday. It is likely that this will be Uruguayan Sebastian Viera, especially since Dean Kiely – who was linked with Arsenal earlier this summer – has broken a finger (like Almunia), and thus would not solve Wenger’s problem that he has no keeper for the early Champion’s League matches, since Lehmann is suspended, Almunia is injured, and Taylor and Stack have left the club. Apparently the new keeper will not just be a benchwarmer, and that the keepers will all compete for first choice.

Arsenal continue their unbeaten pre-season run with a 3 – 3 draw against KSK Beveren. This was the first pre-season match for for some players, such as Gael Clichy and Robin van Persie. van Persie got two of the goals, with Lupoli getting the third. It looked like it was going to be another win for the Gunners, but a late goal by Beveren denied Arsenal the victory. Arsenal.com have a full match report here.

Arsenal continued their successful pre-season with victories over Ajax (1 – 0) and Porto (2 – 1) to win the Amsterdam Tournament. Arsenal.com have a full match report of the Porto game here.

The first match against Ajax on Friday evening was a fairly quiet affair, with Arturo Lupoli coming on as a sub scoring the winner in the last 10 minutes. Sundays match against Porto was better. Arsenal conceded in the first half due to some lax defending, but then Freddie Ljungberg came on at half time, and scored twice in a short spell to pull Arsenal back in front. Arsenal had a lot of flowing moves, and things are looking good for the coming season.

Hleb looks great. He set up Lupoli for the goal against Ajax, and played the full 90 minutes against Porto. He has very quick feet, and one particular move on the left wing against Porto was something directly out of the Thierry Henry book of Fancy Football Footwork

Freddie Ljungberg has extended his contract with Arsenal up till 2009. I’m glad to see he’s pledged his future to Arsenal. Hopefully we’ll see more goals from him this season. Full story here at Arsenal.com.

As reported on Arsenal.com, Arsène Wenger stated after Arsenal’s game against Utrecht on Tuesday that a new deal with Freddie Ljungberg is “99 per cent there”. This is good news, since it is vital that Arsenal hold on to as many of the experienced players as possible for the next few years, to help the younger players come up through the ranks. I’ve always admired Freddie Ljungberg, right from his debut as a sub when he promptly scored against Manchester United It will be good to see him in the red and white (or even redcurrant!) of Arsenal for the forseable future.

Arsenal extended their winning run on their pre-season Austrian trip with a 3 – 0 win over Dutch side Utrecht. As the match report on Arsenal.com points out, this match was against tougher opposition than the previous warm-up matches against lower-division Austrian sides. However, Arsenal were well up to it, with a penalty from Pires, and two more goals from Reyes and Henry. Arsenal move on now to the Amsterdam tournament this weekend, where once more they will face tougher opposition.

Sol Campbell will miss the start of the 2005/2006 Premiership season with Arsenal due to a calf injury. Arsène Wenger insists that Sol still features in his plans for this season, despite reports indicating that the defender is looking to move away from Highbury. Full details in this article on Arsenal.com.

Arsène Wenger has confirmed that there have been no offers or expressions of interest regarding Robert Pires this summer, contrary to the speculation linking Pires variously with Valencia, Galatasary, and Juventus. According to this report on Arsenal.com, Wenger has said:

“We have had no interest in Robert and we want him to stay… I want him to stay and that is it.”

So, it looks like he wants him to stay then

Arsenal continue their winning ways in their pre-season matches with a 5 – 2 victory over Austrian side Ritzing. Bergkamp, Henry, Reyes, Hleb, and Larsson scored for Arsenal. I saw the goals on Sky Sports News last night, and Hleb’s goal was great – he just dribbled through the defence and rounded the keeper before slotting it into the net past two desperately lunging defenders. Hopefully, a sign of things to come A full match report can be found here at Arsenal.com.

Arsenal continued their pre-season winning ways with a win over Austrian side SC Weiz. Two from Henry, and one each from Flamini, Bentley made it 4 – 0 at half time, and Bergkamp added a fifth in the second half. A full match report can be found here on Arsenal.com.

In his post-match comments, Wenger indicated that it was 50:50 whether Baptista would sign from Seville, that he was not interested in Guti from Real Madrid, and that he feels confident that the Robert Pires situation will be sorted out soon.