No news is good news as Gunners close in on Arshavin

Arsenal appeared Friday to be close to finalising a deal to bring Russian playmaker Andrei Arshavin to the Premier League.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has been pursuing the much-admired Zenit St Petersburg forward and he was coy when asked if a transfer, which is expected to cost Arsenal around 20 million pounds, was close to being finalised.

“We do not want to talk too much about who we want to buy,” Wenger said. “At the moment I cannot give you any good news but in this job no news is good news.

“Nothing has fallen through. We are on alert in the transfer market.”

Wenger’s reluctance to splash out on big-name buys has been reduced by the Gunners up-and-down form in the first half of this season and, as well as a forward, he is hoping to secure the services of an additional midfielder before the end of the month.

“We are a little short because we wanted a player like (injured Czech) Tomas Rosicky to play 80 percent of the games and he has not played at all,” the Frenchman said.

“We want to spend money but as everyone knows, and as the the chairman has said, we have money available but we have limited resources, and you want to spend it in the best way possible.”

With injured defenders William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre out of action until the end of this month, Wenger ruled out a sale of Kolo Toure, who has become unsettled at the club following a bust-up with Gallas.

“That (Toure’s possible departure) is finished,” Wenger said. “We will not sell any players this month.

Wenger has reportedly been keeping tabs on Roma midfielder Alberto Aquilani but the Italian international now looks like signing a new long-term deal with his current club, according to Italian press reports.

Arsenal face Bolton at the Emirates on Saturday badly needing to keep a six-match unbeaten run on track as they strive to lift themselves back into the top four — they are currently three points adrift of fourth-placed Aston Villa.

Wenger still believes his squad can get back into the title battle and sees this weekend, with Manchester United due to take on Chelsea, as an opportunity to move closer to the leaders.

“It’s an interesting possibility for us to get us closer to one of the two at least, if not both of them,” Wenger said.

“Ideally I’d like it to be a 1-1, but more importantly for us, we have to focus on our game and get the points then any result will be positive because it will give us an opportunity to catch those two and the rest in front of us.”

Bolton boss Gary Megson is among those who believe Arsenal can get back into serious contention, despite the ten point gap that separates them from leaders Liverpool.

Megson said: “They’ve lost five games, which is not a huge amount, and they’re in a period of transition.

“But they’ve still got to play against the other three teams in the ‘big four’ and if they get results against them, then they would be right back in it.

“It only needs one twist of a weekend, and you’ve seen it twice already when none of the big four have won, so I don’t think Arsenal are out of it by any means.”

Bolton will be without suspended pair Kevin Nolan and Gretar Steinsson but midfielder Gavin McCann is available after suspension.