SOCCER NEWS ROUND-UP: Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger yesterday promised a return to the club's more traditional values in an attempt to end their current mediocre form.
The free-flowing football that brought Arsenal such acclaim at the start of the season has, he says, been found wanting because other sides no longer "let us play".
The Gunners have taken one point from the last two games during which the universal opinion was that the normally robust side were outfought.
Wenger is confident ahead of today's visit of Middlesbrough that his players possess the physical as well as the mental strength necessary to repeat last season's success.
"I think teams know that if they let us play we have a good chance of winning," he said. "They try and play a different way against us but I'm confident that we can adapt and deal with it. We talked about it at half-time against Tottenham and I thought we reacted very well.
"The team realise that they have to be strong in games like this. If teams want us to battle we will do it and we can cope in physical encounters. We are four points better off than we were at this stage last season but now it (the championship race) is getting really serious."
Arsenal have completed the signing of the Swiss sensation Philippe Senderos, according to his club Servette. The 17-year-old central defender attracted the attention of Wenger after captaining Switzerland to the European Under-17 Championships this summer. Yesterday he announced that he will move to Highbury next June after agreeing terms with Wenger - although a fee has yet to be determined.
• Mark Bosnich could be free to resume his career within four months if he accepts that he took drugs and agrees to undergo rehabilitation and counselling.
The Chelsea goalkeeper is expected to be charged with misconduct by the FA on Monday after testing positive for cocaine and faces a worldwide ban of up to two years if found guilty.
However, the FA disciplinary commission dealing with the case is likely to avoid handing down a specific ban and instead temporarily suspend the Australian if he chose to undergo rehabiliation.
The commission could then readmit Bosnich once it had a professional report confirming that he was clean and fit to resume playing, though they would probably insist on at least three months' treatment. Bosnich will have 14 days to answer any FA charge.
• The Gary Lineker-led consortium bidding to take over Leicester City FC yesterday accepted a deal with the British Inland Revenue preventing the embattled club being hit by a giant tax bill.
Recent reports suggested that a large one-off bill could scupper the bid to rescue the embattled First Division club, but the Revenue offered a package which would see the consortium making 10 per cent payments for the rest of this year and 15 per cent payments next year.
• Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor will let chairman Doug Ellis and the board of directors decide whether they are prepared to allow out-of-favour big money signings - Alpay and Bosko Balaban - to leave on free transfers.
Ellis has been renowned for driving a hard bargain but it is a sign of the current financial climate that he allowed former England midfielder Steve Stone, a £5.5 million signing from Nottingham Forest, to leave for nothing yesterday to join Portsmouth.
Stone was just one of a number of big wage earners at Villa who are currently playing a bit part in the club and, in the case of Alpay and Balaban, having no input whatsoever. Taylor is desperate to offload Alpay, who has been frozen out by his team-mates and this week was involved in a training ground spat with club record signing Juan Pablo Angel.
Full-back Alan Wright and midfielder Hassan Kachloul are also out of the first team picture and it is adding up to a substantial weekly wage bill for Villa which is providing little tangible return.
- Guardian Service
