Morning transfer talk: At Barcelona, manager Tito Vilanova says David Villa not going anywhere

Following Barcelona’s latest La Liga win, Sunday over Malaga, most of the talk centered around the find performances of Lee Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Sergio Busquets.

(MORE: PST analysis of Sunday’s win over Malaga)

But manger Tito Vilanova had a little something to say about another Barca man: striker David Villa.  The Spanish international is high on the transfer speculation scale because playing time has been sparse this year, as Villa continues the long recovery from significant injury.

Villa, 31, did nothing to dent his value last week with two goals in a 5-0 Copa del Rey win over Córdoba. That helped fan the flames of talk of “Villa to Arsenal,” where Gunners manager Arsene Wenger needs some help up front in efforts to hold off the list of able challengers for those coveted Top Six spots in England.

Vilanova says Villa is not going to Arsenal or anywhere else.

David is not going to leave. We are very happy with him.”

“The other day he scored two goals. We’ve always said that he’s coming off a long injury, and he’s getting more minutes all the time. But he’s suffering more physical problems again.

“We know how important he is, like last year when we missed him a lot in the second half of the season. I’m convinced he will help us a lot over the remainder of the season.”