Arsene Wenger Hasn’t Made Tactical Plans to Stop Gareth Bale: The Nightly EPL

The more that time passes, the more I wonder how out-of-touch Arsene Wenger is with modern day football management. He admitted in his press conference this morning that his team hasn’t made any tactical plans to stop Gareth Bale. Instead, it appears that he’ll trust the Arsenal defenders to stop Bale. But how many times have we seen this season where Arsenal defenders look completely bamboozled by opposition strikers?

If the tables were turned, I’m sure Andre Villas-Boas — or most other Premier League managers — would try to stop Bale either by having 2-to-3 men marking him when he approached the penalty box, or physically trying to intimidate him to knock him off his game.

We’ll see on Sunday whether Wenger made the right decision or not.

Here are tonight’s Premier League news headlines:

• Arsène Wenger backs Arsenal to cope with Tottenham’s Gareth Bale — The Guardian
• Randy Lerner gives up £20m of own wealth to help Aston Villa cut financial losses — Telegraph
• André Villas-Boas: Chelsea sacking made me a better Tottenham manager — The Guardian
• Infographic shows how much soccer was on US TV in 2012 — Gilt Edge Marketing
• Sir Alex Ferguson says Manchester United director role is ‘long time away’ — The Guardian
• Santi Cazorla: English football is much more fun, in Spain it is boring — The Mail
• With football transfers, two heads plus data are better than a manager alone — The Guardian
• Goal-line decisions could be shown on big screens in stadiums — The Independent
• Arsenal fans start a campaign to put up a blue plaque at White Hart Lane — 101GG
• Meet the three other survivors from English football’s 1,000 club — The Guardian
• Sunderland captain Lee Cattermole may require surgery — BBC Sport
• Troubled striker Nile Ranger has his Newcastle contract cancelled — The Guardian
• Harry Redknapp not concerned by hostile reception expected at Southampton — The Independent
• Manchester City let Real Madrid train at their stadium ahead of Man United clash — The Mail
• Manchester City still concerned over Vincent Kompany’s fitness — The Guardian
• Subbuteo team collections – Andrew Rockall — The Football Attic
• Chelsea players thanked me for outburst, claims Benítez — The Guardian
• Fulham’s Alex Kacaniklic joins Championship Burnley for rest of the season — The Mail
• Benítez unrepentant after criticising Chelsea board and fans – video — The Guardian
• Jason Puncheon signs new Southampton contract — The Mail
• Aston Villa announce loss of £17.7m in year ending 31 May 2012 — The Guardian
• Fulham defender Philippe Senderos signs new deal at Craven Cottage — The Mail
• Martin O’Neill wants Mignolet to commit to Sunderland — The Guardian
• Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe could be shock starter against Arsenal — The Independent
• Community Shield to debut goalline system with replays shown on TV — The Guardian
• Tony Hibbert could be out for season — Everton FC
• Harry Redknapp dismissed QPR drinking allegations — Sky Sports
• Swansea City planning Liberty Stadium expansion to 22,000 — Wales Online

The Nightly EPL is tomorrow’s news today. It’s often tomorrow morning’s British newspaper headlines that are published the night before. We do all the work for you, combing the Internet and aggregating the news for you. Read The Nightly EPL on EPL Talk every night before bed, so you can stay on top of all the news that matters.