Arsenal are poised to increase their bid for Andrei Arshavin to £12million after Zenit St Petersburg rejected their initial £10m offer.

Russian Arshavin was in London last week to prepare for the move and, with boss Arsene Wenger identifying him as a key target and Zenit keen to sell, a deal could be completed this week.

Wenger wants to add Arshavin to his squad to show that he can compete with Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

But he has been told by Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood that the club must divert funds into the redevelopment of Highbury, which has been hit by the property slump. With the collapse of sterling in recent months, Arsenal's transfer funds have been squeezed tighter than they anticipated.

Arsenal have offered £10m plus an additional £5m based on appearances for Arshavin, but Zenit do not want to settle for less than £18m and want a higher percentage paid up front.

Zenit spokesman Alexei Petrov said: 'I can confirm that Zenit did get an official offer from Arsenal about Andrei Arshavin. It was rejected as insufficient. 'They offered about £10m. No new offers have arrived from them since. At the moment, Arsenal are the only club to have approached us about the player.'

Wenger will have to persuade director Danny Fiszman and Hill-Wood to release more funds for the player and potentially break the club's transfer record - £13m paid for Sylvain Wiltord more than eight years ago.

Arshavin's signing may also go some way to convincing captain Cesc Fabregas that the club has the potential to attract big names, with talks on his future due this summer.

Fabregas is the player Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola wants for next season and they have already tried to sign him, when director Marc Ingla met with Arsenal director Ken Friar last summer.

But with Barcelona enjoying their best period for two and a half years, top of La Liga and playing some of the most stylish football in Europe, it is believed at the Nou Camp that Guardiola's special relationship with Fabregas will now tempt him back to the club he was at as a youth-team player.

Arsenal now face a critical six months, with Robin van Persie yet to sign his new deal and also attracting interest from Barcelona.

And Theo Walcott's contract runs out in 2010 and will need to be upgraded in the next few months to secure his future at the club.

Well, we defeated Ajax after an Adebayor inspired comeback. Official match report is here.

Early in the match, Ade had a sitter through a creative clearance fron cesc and a walcott jink but he played it straight to the keeper. These are the type of chances that Ade needs to learn how to finish off because they go a very long way in deciding a win from a loss.

Ajax scored 2 goals in 3 minutes trough shaky defending from Toure in particular. I give him the benefit of the doubt because that was his first game from injury. I expected the team to improve after the break and so they did. Does anyone know what Wenger actually says to the boys to spur them on these types of comebacks???? He believes so much in the team even when the chips are down.

Also, I know ade has had bad times and I may have said some bad things about him, but we really need dat dude in this team, because he offers us that physical presence upfront that van persie or even bendtner doesn't.

Away from that, Wenger talks about giving Gallas another chance as team captain. I don't think he is a bad choice, he just needs to work on his emotions.

Van Persie is talknig about a new contract being imminent. Good for him, I just hope he stays fit throughout.

Ex Arsenal double winning crazy keeper called Mad-Jens has decided to retire from international football. Honestly, jens is a great keeper who seems to perform when there is competition which was evident when he came into the side while Almunia was injured. He will be greatly missed.

Agent of swiss midfielder Gohkan Inler says that talks with wenger have opened while his club have dismissed it. I just feel that he'll end up at Arsenal no matter what.

So we have sevilla today....go gunners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

H.L:

Well, we got a victory against huddersfield despite going a goal down quite late in the game. The official match report is here. I personally felt that in the first half, we needed a defensive midfielder, a role which ramsey was playing today, but he is a playmaker in the first place,  so he kept on moving forward with randall. Fair play to huddersfield, they really gave the young guns a run for their money and these types of matches will really help them for their experience.

The second half saw a massive improvement in the side where we conceeded but had the mental impetus to strike back 3minutes later. Jay Simpson really impressed me. Previously I was not too convinced by him, but he showed me that he can make it. He offers something new to the team with his power which is shown in his build, accompanied with his pace and he's got some tricks up his sleeves. Nacer Barazite was just class, his turn and shot was something.

 Enough with the match, some news bits are here;

Arsenal legend Freddie Ljungberg is released from West Ham. Good old freddie never really got things going at upton park while increasing their wage bill. But he sure is laughing all the way to the bank with his compensation.

Theo reapeats Sagna, Henry and Rosicky that we can win something this year. Good luck with him, and as I said, I hope he helps us do it.

Le Boss wants us to do the double like manure while emphasizing the league and champions league and undermining the carling cup and the FA cup being the third priority.

Former arsenal wonder kid, "owusu abeyie" has completed his loan move to birmingham city. I had very high hopes for the lad, even once hailing him as  the next henry, but he never really had an end product.

Justin Hoyte wants to be as good as sagna. Dude has being at the club for a minute to say but has not really broken into it. He was challenging Eboue in the 06/07 season but Bacary is just another class ahead both of them.

Thats all for now so, I may or may not be posting the highlights, but be sure to keep tabs on here.

Peterman.

greetings all... to cut the long stories short;

rvp seems to be threatening the epl about his partnership with adebayor. well they both showed some good movement against r.madrid. i dont know if its me but anytime rvp is playing, i always get the chills especially when he gets tackled.

sagna says that we've become wiser and that we can now win the league. good for him hope he helps us do it.

saw an interesting article about how football in general was rubbish during the pre-wenger era, and how demento fergie wuld have retired if wenger hadn't raised the bar of football. that means wenger practically motivated fergie to keep on going, something i know fergie and man-ure fans won't agree with.

reserve coach banfield has some good words about jack wishere, his talent and wenger. that talent and not age or size wins out with jack being a prime example.

its huddersfield tomorrow and the 20-man squad list is out for the match.

be sure to tune in for more updates.

the title can mean a lot of different things. well this one just signifies the begining of an era[of blogging that is]. honestly this is kinda weird to me cuz I do read different blogs everyday but I now find myself doing one on my own. {btw I may or may not obey grammatical rules due to me being real so bear with me}

I now use this as a medium or as a way of saying "Welcome to my blog" and I do hope you enjoy my views on the world of Football{predominantly Arsenal}.

See you all later when I begin in full force. peace

Peterman.