Sanchez, 28, picked up an abdominal injury in training ahead of Arsenal’s FA Community Shield victory against Chelsea at Wembley on 6th, August, 2017.

Wenger confirmed that the Chilean forward will now miss the Premier League opener against Leicester City on 11th, August and trip to Stoke City on 19th, August, 2017.

“He had a little abdominal strain that he caught on Sunday morning in training and he had a scan two days ago,” Wenger told a news conference. “He is out for a while, could be two weeks but he will not be available for Stoke.”

Sanchez, who was Arsenal’s top scorer in the league with 24 goals in the 2016/17 season and has been linked with a move to Paris St Germain with reports in the Independent claiming the French side is willing to bid  £80m and offer him up to £400,000 a week.

The Gunners boss, Arsene Wenger ,however insisted that the club have received no offer from PSG for Sanchez, claiming that Les Parisiens are instead focused on landing Kylian Mbappe from AS Monaco.

When asked whether he has spoken to PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi,the French man answered “No, we have not. It’s a long time since I spoke to Nasser, because it’s certainly very busy to complete the transfer of Neymar and it’s a long time that I didn’t speak to him”.
The Chilean has 12 months remaining on his contract and Wenger is adamant that his star player will leave the Emirates Stadium.

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Meanwhile, Chelsea had to settle for a 0-0 draw away to Dynamo Kiev but reigning European champions Barcelona won in Belarus and Bayer Leverkusen played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with Roma in Germany.

Arsenal striker Oliver Giroud celebrates after scoring his team’s opener in the second-half against Bayern Munich at the Emirates (Picture: Getty)

Bayern arrived in London having won every game this season and they dominated possession for much of an absorbing Group F encounter.

However, they only remained on level terms at the break thanks to a stunning save by Manuel Neuer to keep out a header from point-blank range by the unmarked Theo Walcott.

But Arsenal, in desperate need of a win after defeats to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos in their first two games, took advantage of a howler by Neuer to get the crucial breakthrough with 13 minutes remaining.

The Germany goalkeeper came and missed a free-kick, allowing substitute Giroud to bundle the ball into the net.

Arsenal then secured the points that keep alive their chances of progressing to the last 16 when Ozil’s finish from Hector Bellerin’s assist crossed the line despite Neuer’s best efforts to keep it out.

The Gunners remain bottom of the group with a trip to Bayern to come next, but the four sides are separated by just three points after Olympiakos won 1-0 in Croatia in the night’s other game thanks to a late Brown Ideye goal.

“We had an absolute necessity to win the game and we did it in a disciplined way,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

“Bayern had more possession than us, but we decided to make it tight in our final third and catch them on the break.”

Mourinho targets officials

Chelsea remain in a precarious position in Group G after a 0-0 draw with Dynamo Kiev in chilly Ukraine as the recalled Eden Hazard and Willian both hit the woodwork for the visitors.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho also felt that his side should have been given a penalty after Cesc Fabregas went down in the Dynamo box during the first half and later told UK television that the referee had been “weak and naive”.

The Premier League champions are third in the group, a point behind Dynamo and three points adrift of Porto, who beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 in Portugal thanks to goals by Vincent Aboubakar and Yacine Brahimi.

But with home games against Dynamo and Porto to come, as well as a trip to Israel, Mourinho remains confident his side will go through.

“We have the destiny in our hands,” he said. “We play two matches at home and one in Israel, so the qualification depends clearly on us.”

Barcelona strengthened their position atop Group E with a 2-0 victory away to BATE, secured by two fine second-half goals from substitute Ivan Rakitic, both set up Neymar.

“It was a very good game overall from the team. We pressed well and I don’t think BATE had a single chance,” said Rakitic.

The other match in the group was without doubt the game of the evening, with Leverkusen taking a two-goal lead and then falling 4-2 down before fighting back to snatch a precious point against Roma.

Javier Hernandez opened the scoring from the penalty spot for the Bundesliga side and increased their lead in the 19th minute, but Daniele De Rossi replied with a double for Roma before the break.

A tremendous Miralem Pjanic free-kick put the visitors in front and Iago Falque appeared to have secured a first win of the campaign for the Italians in the 73rd minute.

But Kevin Kampl reduced the deficit and substitute Admir Mehmedi rounded off a breathtaking game by making it 4-4 four minutes from time to keep Leverkusen in second place and leave Roma bottom of the group.

Zenit St Petersburg closed in on a quarter-final place with a third straight win in Group H as Artem Dzyuba, Hulk and Danny netted in a 3-1 victory over Lyon, for whom Alexandre Lacazette had equalised.

Valencia are three points back in second place after beating Gent 2-1 in Spain thanks to a Sofiane Feghouli shot that went in off Lasse Nielsen and a Stefan Mitrovic own goal either side of a Thomas Foket strike for the Belgians.

AFP

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Real Madrid and Barcelona continue their dominance of La liga  with 5 and 6 players from both teams respectively.

The list includes; 2014 winner Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale  the only British player on the list for the third successive year, Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos,James Rodriguez for Madrid while Barcelona has  Lionel Messi,Neymar, Luis Suarez, Andres Iniesta,Javier Mascherano and Ivan Rakitic.

The premier League is dominated by Manchester City players with a trio of Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and Yaya Toure.

Chelsea is represented by winger Eden Hazard and Arsenal by Alexis Sanchez who helped his country Chile to Copa America success in 2015.

The Bundesliga has players  all from Bayern Munich which shows how they are a force in Germany Football. The list has Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer, Arjen Robben and Arturo Vidal, while Paul Pogba of Juventus from Seria A and Paris St Germain’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic from the French Ligue 1 complete the list.

Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho are both on a 10-man shortlist for the coach of the year award, alongside Barcelona’s Champions League-winning coach Luis Enrique and Bayern Munich’s Pep Guardiola.

Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli is the only national team coach on the list, which also includes Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri, Sevilla’s Unai Emery, Laurent Blanc of PSG, Atletico Madridchief Diego Simeone and Carlo Ancelotti, who left Real Madrid in the summer.

England women’s coach Mark Sampson is on the coach of the year for women’s football shortlist, alongside Englishmen Colin Bell (Frankfurt) and John Herdman (Canada), but there are no British footballers on the women’s player of the year list.

FIFA #BALLONDOR 23 candidates, one trophy. Who do you think will be crowned on 11 January? https://t.co/VNSyEfqCqo pic.twitter.com/W0qlYk2FIk

— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) October 20, 2015

BALLON D’OR SHORTLIST: Sergio Aguero (Argentina/Manchester City), Gareth Bale (Wales/Real Madrid), Karim Benzema (France/Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid), Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium/Manchester City), Eden Hazard (Belgium/Chelsea), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden/Paris St Germain), Andres Iniesta (Spain/Barcelona), Toni Kroos (Germany/Real Madrid), Robert Lewandowski (Poland/Bayern Munich), Javier Mascherano (Argentina/Barcelona), Lionel Messi (Argentina/Barcelona), Thomas Muller (Germany/Bayern Munich), Manuel Neuer (Germany/Bayern Munich), Neymar (Brazil/Barcelona), Paul Pogba (France/Juventus), Ivan Rakitic (Croatia/Barcelona), Arjen Robben (Holland/Bayern Munich), James Rodriguez (Colombia/Real Madrid), Alexis Sanchez (Chile/Arsenal), Luis Suarez (Uruguay/Barcelona), Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast/Manchester City), Arturo Vidal (Chile/Bayern Munich).

FIFA #BALLONDOR 10 coaches, but only one FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football https://t.co/VNSyEfqCqo pic.twitter.com/blidRGrqtz — FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) October 20, 2015

COACH OF THE YEAR SHORTLIST: Massimiliano Allegri (Juventus), Carlo Ancelotti (Formerly of Real Madrid), Laurent Blanc (Paris St Germain), Unai Emery (Sevilla), Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich), Luis Enrique (Barcelona), Jose Mourinho (Chelsea), Jorge Sampaoli (Chile), Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal).

The world player and coach of the year will be voted on a ceremony in Zurich on January 11, 2016.

Read more on fifa.com

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Despite United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward flying to Barcelona on Monday 17 august, 2015 to try and finalise terms on the deal, Pedro changed his mind and opted for Chelsea.

Chelsea football club released a statement on their latest acquisition; “Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of Pedro from Barcelona.

“The Spaniard arrives as a highly coveted winger who can also play as a central striker. He is proven at the very highest level and already possesses an impressive medal haul.”

Welcome to Chelsea, @_Pedro17_! #CFC pic.twitter.com/UGc6yYBQsx

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 20, 2015

A Barcelona statement read: “The club wishes to publicly express its gratitude to Pedro Rodriguez for his professionalism and dedication while with the club, as well as to wish him all the best in the future.”

Manchester United appeared to be in pole position to land the player who was identified as Angel Di Maria’s replacement but Chelsea hijacked the deal and signed him up. The 28-year old Spaniard signed a new contract with Barcelona in June but failed to dislodge any of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez in the first team which prompted him to move. Pedro used Twitter to thank his former club for helping him complete a transfer to the reigning Premier League champions

Very happy, I’m already Blue! Thank U all and specially @FCBarcelona for make possible to reach this point @ChelseaFC pic.twitter.com/fgERbDXLcJ — Pedro Rodríguez (@_Pedro17_) August 20, 2015

The stats show that Pedro will add a spark and improve Chelsea’s forward line when compared to Oscar and Willian.

Stats show Pedro will add required spark to @ChelseaFC attack http://t.co/RRRarRYEd6 #Pedro pic.twitter.com/DJtxXSJrDc

— The Sport Review (@TheSportReview) August 20, 2015

Former team-mate Thierry Henry described Pedro as the perfect professional and believes he will adapt to the demands of the Premier League. “The perfect team-mate, the perfect professional – he is that guy,” Henry told Sky Sports. “He can adapt to the English system, he won’t have to learn, he will understand staying wide, putting pressure and all that type of thing from the front and the first time I saw him he was already on point. “He knows the system so he looked like he was playing for us forever when he first played.”   

.@_Pedro17_ has joined the #CFC squad at Cobham for his first training session this afternoon http://t.co/kj1qyVnXlchttps://t.co/r7ctaDwTaW — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 20, 2015

Like Rahman, Pedro could make his debut in English football this weekend as Mourinho’s side play West Brom on 23 August.

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Barca took a quick lead after four minutes of play when Ivan Rakitic swept home from eight yards before Alvaro Morata scored in the second half to draw juve level.

Luis Suarez celebrates his critical goal for Barcelona

With the game 1-1, Luis Suarez put Barca ahead after Gianluigi Buffon’s spillage of Lionel Messi’s shot.

Neymar ensured the game was put to bed after he slotted the ball past Buffon at the end of stoppage time.
The win means Barcelona is the first European team to have won two trebles with the first coming in the 2008-09 season under pep Guardiola.

Luis Enrique become the second Barcelona manager to have won the treble in his first season.

The former player and B team boss Enrique took over as head coach last summer after the departure of Gerardo Martino.

Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu was pleased with the way the season ended for his team.

“It has been a tough season with ups and downs,” he added. “We took a lot of decisions and I am happy because they were the correct decisions.

“When they are correct at the end of the season it ends with La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.

“I’m very happy for everybody and for all the people that have been supporting us.”

Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon praised his team after they were beaten by ‘the best team in the world’ in the Champions League final.

Gianluigi Buffon was on the losing side as Juventus were beaten 3-1 by Barcelona in Champions League final

“We didn’t manage to win, but not because we didn’t try. We gave everything we had,” said Buffon

“Barcelona are the best team in the world in my opinion, but we have proved that we could compete.
“We conceded early on, but we were always in the game.”

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Juve and Barca have already won domestic doubles in Italy and Spain respectively, so the jury is on who wins the biggest trophy to make a treble.

The Berlin Olympic Stadium where the 2015 Champions League Final will be played

Barca goes into the game with the favourites tag to claim their fourth Champions League title in the last decade while Juventus will be looking for their third European Title and first since 1996. Barcelona coach Luis Enrique is looking to emulate a feat that was achieved by former Barcelona manager pep Guardiola of winning the treble in his first season in charge at Camp Nou-2008-09 season.

“Winning the Champions League would signify a treble for us and it’s something that excites everyone. It’s happened just once in the club’s history, and this tells you how difficult it is to achieve,” Enrique said.

Chiellini out of final

Juve defender Giorgio Chiellini will miss out with a calf problem sustained in training.it was expected that Luis Suarez would come against Chielini whom he bit during last year’s world cup.

Andrea Barzagli who returned to training on Wednesday from a recent injury knock is expected to replace Chiellini.

Iniesta included in Barca squad

Andres Iniesta had been a doubt for the Spanish champions because of a calf injury but the midfielder was named in Barca’s squad after returning to training on Thursday.

Barcelona will look to a trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis  Suarez who have scored 120 goals this season compared to 103 for the entire Juventus team.

Barcelona attacking trio of Messi Neymar and Suarez

Messi who has scored 58 goals this season – 43 in the Liga, ten in the UEFA Champions League and five in the Copa del Rey will look to guide his team to win the champions league trophy.

Juventus have got a big task of stopping Messi after witnessing him destroying Guardiola’s Bayern Munich with two goals in the first leg of their semi-final before setting up Neymar for the third at the Camp Nou.

Juventus will be keen to avoid Messi’s magic and also prevent him from becoming the first player to score in three Champions League finals.

Juventus goalkeeoper Gianluigi Buffon will be on alert against Barcelona in the champions league final

“This is the game of our lives,” said Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, “I would always want to be starting off as a favourite, but we have our weapons to try and make Barcelona’s job more difficult,” added Buffon, who along with Pirlo won the World Cup at the same stadium with Italy in 2006.

With four consecutive Serie A titles behind them, Allegri’s side carry a wealth of experience.

“They have that Italian competitive edge. It is always difficult to overcome that because they are very, very competitive,” said Barcelona’s Javier Mascherano.

“They are very tactical. They understand football and on top of that they have a lot of talent.”

Barcelona Possible lineup
Ter Stegen; Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba; Rakitić, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suárez, Neymar.

Juventus Possible lineup
Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Barzagli, Evra; Marchisio, Pirlo, Pogba; Vidal; Tévez, Morata.

Out: Chiellini (calf), Cáceres (ankle)

Four of their squad have already won the Champions League with other clubs — Andrea Pirlo with Milan in 2003 and 2007; Patrice Evra and Carlos Tevez with Manchester United in 2008 and Alvaro Morata with Real Madrid last year.

Pirlo remains a threat in midfield and his potential battle with Xavi Hernandez, on his final appearance for Barcelona, promises nothing but master class from the two veteran midfielders.

“We already have a historic double and we want more,” Xavi said.

We hope for the best in the final with the each side gunning for the trophy.

Read more on uefa.com

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The FA CUP

Holders Arsenal won the FA Cup for a record 12th time on Saturday 30^th may, outclassing Aston Villa 4-0 at Wembley with stunning goals from Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez setting up victory.

Theo walcott-celebrates after scoring Arsenal’s first goal against Aston Villa

Per Mertesacker and Olivier Giroud were also on target as the Londoners sealed their biggest winning margin in a final of the world’s oldest knockout competition.

Arsene Wenger also became the most successful FA Cup manager of modern times, guiding his side to a sixth triumph in their 19th final.

The Coupe de France.

The only team from outside the top divisions, Auxerre, came up against Qatar-backed Paris Saint-Germain in the Coupe de France final.

The Ligue 2 side defended for their life and had some good attacks; though they were not good enough as they were eventually beaten  1-0 by PSG.

PSG celebrate winning the Coupe de France

Auxerre had not played any big side and it was a tough call to beat up the Ligue 1 champions in the final.

Paris Saint-Germain has been dominant in French football; particularly since Qatar Sports Investments bought the club in 2011going on to lift three Ligue 1 Titles to date.

Laurent Blanc’s side were not exactly  dominant against Auxerre having had a poor start in the first half but went to win thanks to Edinson Cavani’s second half goal.

DFB-Pokal Final sends Kloop out with a loss.

The German Cup final in Berlin saw two of the best attacking sides in Bundesliga coming up against each other.

Wolfsburg who finished in second-place in the Bundesliga played against Borussia Dortmund who were in seventh place.

With Jurgen Klopp’s last match in charge, Borussia Dortmund was expected to win the cup for their manager against Wolfsburg.

The BVB team had a perfectly start after they took the lead over Wolfsburg in the first five minutes through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Wolfsburg however had other ideas as it took them only 17 minutes to equalize,then score two more goals going into halftime to give the DFB-Pokal final its 3–1 full-time score.

Wolfsburg celebrate winning DFB-Pokal Final

Dortmund experienced the same showings which have been ever present in their Bundesliga games of not killing off games.

They failed to contain Kevin De Bruyne and Bas Dost handing Wolfsburg the trophy and a sore sending off of their manager Jorgen Klopp.

Dortmund had hoped for a positive ending for Klopp, the manager that has brought much success and improved style of play, but things did not go as planned. Klopp earlier stated that this was his last season with Dortmund and that the time was right for him to leave.

Dieter Hecking’s Wolfsburg deserved the win with his side being one of the best attacking sides in Europe.

It’s the only trophy he has won as a manager since taking the Regionalliga Nord (German fourth tier) in 2002 with VfB Lübeck, it’s Wolfsburg’s first DFB-Pokal triumph and it’s the first time since 2011 a team other than Dortmund and Bayern Munich has won a domestic trophy.

Barcelona’s Treble chase still on in Luis Enrique’s first season

Barcelona outgunned Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final 3–1 in a battle of the Catalans against the Basques. Lionel Messi produced one of the individualistic goals this season and a good team goal capped by Neymar tap-in put Barça chances of a treble to just one game away from the treble in Luis Enrique’s debut season.

Barça played their full strength team and got a well-deserved 2-0 lead in halftime against a highly motivated Bilbao side.

Barcelona celebrate beating Athletic Bilbao 3-1 in the Copa del Rey final

The second half saw Barcelona containing the game but Bilbao tried to play their way back

Messi ensured Barcelona got a win after he scored a third goal and Bilbao could just master a consolation goal from Inaki Williams.

With the attacking trio of Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez all fit for the Champions League final against Juventus on 6th June in Berlin,we wait to see who which team will take the trophy.

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