Carles Puyol is confident that Barcelona will snatch Cesc Fabregas away from Arsenal.

The Barcelona captain made it clear the rest of the players want the club to sign the Arsenal captain.

Puyol said : “I am convinced that Cesc will soon be playing with us,”.

Barca hope to step up talks with Arsenal for the midfielder this week.

Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere believes the club must keep hold of Cesc Fabregas if they are to challenge for honours.

Fabregas has been heavily linked with a return to Barcelona, where he came through the youth ranks, but Wilshere believes the Gunners must keep hold of the Spanish playmaker if they are to challenge for the Premier League title.
"He's been over in England eight years, but Barcelona is his home. It's hard for him so I can understand where he's coming from," admitted the England international.
"But hes the Arsenal captain and he's been great this season and we hope he can be great next season.
"In some of our games he has been our best player by a mile, and we need to keep our best players if we want to win things.
"He likes Arsenal, and I'm sure he wants to be at Arsenal. If they can reach an agreement then I'm sure he'll want to stay. He needs to stay."
Punters may wish to use their free bet to back the Gunners to end their trophy drought, with their last title the 2005 FA Cup, if boss Arsene Wenger strengthens his side in the summer.

Lille striker Gervinho will announce this week which club he will be joining this summer and chances are it could most likely be Arsenal as we have been heavily linked with the player. Gervinho has hinted that he wants a move to the English Premier League and the three teams in contention of signing him are Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle. As we are the only team able to offer him Champions League football, it would be in his best interests to join The Gunners.

“During the week I’ll announce my decision so that everyone knows,” he told skysports.com.

“I love the Premier League, but I have interest from Spain and Germany as well, so let’s wait and see.”

Roma have new ambitious owners who have identified a number of stars to join their revolution next season.

Clichy has stalled on signing an extended contract at the Emirates and will be out of contract next summer. Wenger may be prepared to listen to offers for the 25-year old who will be aloud to leave on a free next summer.

Mediaset reports that Roma have approached the Gunners and requested a price on the former Cannes star.

Nicklas Bendtner is worth €11million (£9.6m), according to the Arsenal striker's father.

The Denmark international has been linked with Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich amid manager Arsene Wenger's ongoing interest in Real Madrid's Karim Benzema.

But Bendtner's father and agent, Thomas, does not think that the forward would leave Emirates Stadium in a cut-price deal.

Bendtner has himself never been shy in talking up his own ability and his dad believes that the player is worth a fee of just less than £10m.

"One hundred million crowns (approx €11million)," Thomas Bendtner told Danish newspaper B.T when asked about Nicklas' valuation.

"He has been valued higher before. But of course, if you are on the bench the price goes down.

"Nicklas has the qualities to live up to this sum and we can certainly find a club that is willing to pay."

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has announced that he will be “active” in the transfer market, and he is specifically looking for mature and experienced players.

Surely one of his targets must be a strong defensive midfielder to cover for Alex Song, and to help out the defence at set-pieces.

Well the Belgian star Axel Witsel may only be 22 years-old, but he has been playing first team football at Standard Liege for five years, and has played 18 games for his country. He is 6ft tall, strong and is looking for a move to the Premier League, preferably with Arsenal, according to his father Thierry.

He said: “I personally hope that this was his last season with Standard as he needs to grow and to do it he needs to leave the country.”

“He doesn’t have a specific target but he has a dream and it’s called Arsenal, but this doesn’t mean that he’s not open to other clubs.”

Witsel has won the Belgian League twice with Standard as well as the Belgian Cup this season. He was named Young-Player-of-the-Year two seasons ago and is obcviously a winner.

It has also been rumoured that Liverpool are considering an offer in the region of £9m, which seems a great price for such a talent.

Would Witsel be a good fit at Arsenal?