Arsenal Step Up Chase For Barcelona’s Toure

Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger is desperately searching for a central midfielder in the January transfer window after learning that influential captain Cesc Fabregas will be out of action for up to four months with a serious knee injury.

Barcelona-based daily, Sport believes that the Gunners are about to raid the Catalans again, although they are not looking for someone from their cantera (youth system) this time around.

Ivory Coast midfielder Toure Yaya has been strongly linked with Arsenal and Juventus over the past few months and it appears that the London-based outfit are finally preparing to make their move as they seek a replacement for Fabregas.

It is reported that the Blaugrana have set a price of around €8.5 million for the 25-year-old defensive midfielder, who is equally adept at attacking.

Wenger have also been keeping a close eye on Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso, Villarreal’s Marcos Senna and Udinese’s Gokhan Inler.

"I am Mad"

Emmanuel Adebayor was sent off during Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Sunday for a second bookable offense, after raising his elbow and foot against the Reds' defender Alvaro Arbeloa.

The Spaniard fell, according to the Arsenal striker, as is someone had "put a knife in him", and Adebayor was clearly furious with both the Liverpool player and the referee after the game.

"The defender threw himself on the floor as if I put a knife in him. I hope when the referee goes home and watches it on the TV, he will see it was a foul but I didn’t deserve a card," the Togolese said.

"Of course I’m annoyed. I cannot say he cheated but what he did wasn’t fair play at all.

"It was a mistake by the ref. He said it was for the leg but if I don’t put my body in there I would never score a goal in this league."

His manager, Arsene Wenger, was in complete agreement with the player's views, and felt that referee Howard Webb had cost his team two valuable points.

"It was a very soft sending off," said the Arsenal boss.

"Today we had the ‘Be a Gooner, Be a Giver’ charity appeal — you cannot say the referee was a Gooner today but he was a giver because he gave us yellow cards we did not deserve.

"Every week I sit in front of you when we play away from home and you say ‘People get in your faces and you cannot cope with it’. Have you seen anybody sent off?

"Do you want me to show you our players and the damage done to them after the game? It’s a joke."

Meanwhile, Arsenal also have a massive injury worry over skipper Cesc Fabregas, who suffered medial ligament damage after tangling with Xabi Alonso during the game.

Samir Nasri Makes Arsenal Return

Arsenal could close the gap on league leaders Liverpool to just five points should they claim a win when 'Pool visit north London on Sunday.

So far though this season the Gunners have had to battle with numerous injuries to key personnel, but now they are slowly getting their pivotal players back.

Eduardo da Silva, for instance, made a comeback this week in a reserve game, but was taken off at half-time after pulling his hamstring. The Crozilian forward is now expected to be back at the turn of the year.

Nearing Full Fitness

Summer signing Samir Nasri, who made an instant impact on his debut by scoring a goal after three minutes against West Bromwich Albion on the opening day of the season, will likely make the squad for the Liverpool game, while Ivorian centre back Kolo Toure is a near-certainty to miss it.

"There is a 95 per cent chance that Nasri will be available against Liverpool and a five per cent chance that Kolo Toure will come back," manager Arsene Wenger told Arsenal TV Online on Thursday.

"We also have a problem with Nicklas Bendtner, who picked up a knee injury in training. But we don’t know 100 per cent on that."