Patrick Vieira looks a step closer to a remarkable Emirates return, following claims by Arsene Wenger that the French midfielder is keen on the move.

Speaking at a pre-Emirates Cup press conference Wenger said: “I speak to many players who have been here because I keep good connections with them.

“He has gone through a difficult period in the last season and I am aware he wants to come here.

“I think Patrick is a legend here and he would always like to come back to this club. That would be his first choice.”

The 33 year old made 406 appearances for Arsenal, winning three League Championships and three FA Cups in the process. He also captained the club between 2002 and 2005 and would bring a wealth of experience to Wenger’s young side. However, the Arsenal boss has never re-signed a player and said any possible deal is still a long way off.

“At the moment we need to look at the level of experience in our squad to make this kind of decision,” he said.

“There is a football decision and then there’s the psychological impact of a player of that stature coming in.

“We are nowhere near to making a decision like that. But it is a possibility. We don’t rule it out and we don’t say we will do it. That’s my decision at the moment.”

In other transfer news, Bordeaux president Jean-Louis Triaud has been quoted as saying Arsenal have made a bid for striker Marouane Chamakh. Wenger was questioned about these claims during the press conference, but as ever he remained tight-lipped.

“He is responsible for his statements,” said the Gunners boss.

“I wouldn’t like to comment on any phone calls I made during the day because, at the moment, I have a hundred phone calls. The only thing I can say is that we are nowhere near to signing anybody at the moment.”

In two weeks time Arsenal will travel to the Italian capital to try and continue their Champions League campaign, taking a slender 1-0 lead into the Stadio Olimpico. Some have questioned whether this lead will be enough against one of the great sides in Italian football. However, having witnessed the Gunners best performance for some months against Roma on Tuesday night there is plenty more to take away with us on the 11th March than just a one goal lead.

Many had expected, including myself, that Roma would come to the Emirates and defend for their lives having had such a poor record against English sides in the past, with their 7-1 defeat to Manchester United just a few years ago a possible stark reminder to what can happen to the Giallorossi on English soil. However they came to play on Tuesday night, certainly aiding Arsenal’s game plan, as unlike so many sides that come to the Grove now Roma opted not to try and grind out a result.

The game was as open as they come which suited Arsenal and the hope would be that if the game is anything like the first the Gunners can steal an away goal. Despite only taking a one goal advantage into the game my belief is that we will be more than capable of nicking a vital away goal, as long as the ball doesn’t drop to Nicklas Bendtner! It would be easy to criticise the Danish forward for his three missed opportunities but I won’t as I feel he has come in for enough stick in recent weeks and hopefully won’t get too much game time once Eduardo and Emmanuel Adebayor are back to full fitness.

I was extremely impressed by the way Arsene Wenger set up his team in mid-week as well, despite Bendtner having to play on the left wing. Samir Nasri reveled in his role just behind Robin van Persie and caused the Roma defence all kinds of problems. So as the old saying goes if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and I’d hope Wenger sticks with the French youngster in the same role for the trip to Italy.

The positives coming out of Tuesday’s game for me outweigh the negatives of not taking a bigger lead into the second leg. Arsenal’s injury plagued squad have enough quality to see them into the quarter-finals of the Champions League based on what we have seen. The Gunners have a mixed away record this season in Europe but always seem to pull it out of the bag when they are in Italy, last seasons win against AC Milan the prime example.

Arsenal’s Premier League title dreams have all but gone but the dream is still alive in Europe, as well as the FA Cup, and if they can get an away goal and then a kind draw in the quarter-finals with the big named players set to return before the semi-finals and final there is no reason why Arsenal can’t go one step further than the 2006 disappointment.

The season hasn’t even started yet and Arsene’s already in complain mode about the schedule, so we play a Champions League game in the first week. Big Fucking Deal. Other clubs play an extra game in this stretch so even if we win our game we’ll still be “behind” them and that hurts psychologically? Nobody’s buying that and Wenger shouldn’t be selling it. It provides deserved ammunition to other managers when pointing out Wenger’s at times bitchy attitude. Maybe I’d even have let this slide if he hadn’t made Gallas captain but not after that shit.

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Yesterday it was made clear that Arsene Wenger is in contract talks with Arsenal for an extension of his current deal which expires at the end of the coming season. All this rubbish which has surfaced since Henry and Dein left saying that AW was going to follow them out the door has been nothing but pure speculation on the parts of anybody but Wenger himself.

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