Hleb insists he is happy at Birmingham

Alexander Hleb insists he is happy at Birmingham as the midfielder prepares to face his former club Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow.

Hleb was reported as saying he was disillusioned with life at Blues when away on international duty with Belarus.

It has led to the on-loan Barcelona player making a statement claiming nothing could be further from the truth.

Hleb said: "I am very happy, really happy. We have a very good coach. The team, the players - fantastic.

"Everything's good and I feel at home. I love it at Birmingham and I enjoy everything.

"Of course, we need to give a bit more in the games because we want to win, invest more, keep the ball more, score more, but we need to work hard on that.

"From the first day, it felt as if I knew the players for a long, long time. I never thought I would settle so quickly but it's happened and I'm very happy."

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish said: "I showed Alex the articles regarding him and he totally denied them. He said he has absolutely no problems with Birmingham.

"He knows it is not Arsenal or Barcelona but he knows we are trying to improve as a team."

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