Spurs 0 Arsenal 0; West Ham 0 Utd 1

An uninspiring day in the Premiership sees Manchester United return to the top after a Ryan Giggs second-half effort. West Ham played quite well but were never going to score although they have a good nucleus to push on under Mr Zola and become a decent team.

Arsenal’s trip to Spurs saw Adebayor pop a hamstring and Eboue become the 72nd red card in Wenger’s Arsenal tenure. The man is a first-class idiot, kicking out and then acting as if the referee’s a drunk for sending him off. The game petered out after the red card from an enjoyable contest into a bit of a nothing game, with Luka Modric guilty of a miss at the death that would have provided welcome relief for the Spurs fans.
Spurs remain in a precarious position, while Arsenal have ruled themselves out of the title chase for this season, they may focus on the Champions League now the elusive Holy Grail for Wenger after Barcelona beat them a few years back. Could even spell the end for Wenger and the core of his team. They will struggle to get fourth on their current form and with injuries and suspensions playing their part, it’s looking like a bleak finish to the Premiership season for the men in red.
United won’t be stopped this year, with home games against Fulham and Blackburn next, two or three trophies look extremely likely to wing their way back to the Old Trafford trophy cabinet. Remaining tricky games against Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool will all be at home and with the likes of Evra and Rooney still to come back, and the meanest defence in history, United could have this wrapped up sooner than we all thought a month ago, with Inter Milan to provide a sterner test than their average week domestically…..

Gerrard ruled out for three weeks

15 minutes post-Keane. That’s all it took. 15 minutes. Throw in a Lucas red card, a hobbling Torres and a faded, disjointed Riera and Kuyt and you’ve got the rest of Liverpool’s season.

Gerrard to miss three weeks with a hamstring tear

As Gerrard walked off to the merciless cheers of the home support and Everton pricked Liverpool’s bubble of optimism post-Chelsea, Rafael Benitez faced up to an awkward couple of weeks, starting Saturday. Gerrard had looked tired in recent weeks, that is true and in fairness, post-bar brawl has not looked the player he was in the pre-bar brawl games. While this is fair and Rafa is right when he says that the press who complained when he withdrew his captain against Wigan can see the result when he got injured, the fact is Gerrard shouldn’t have started this game.

For a man so spectacularly singular in his thoughts, he can be absolutely mind-boggling at times. He rests teams in the FA Cup. The fans get their backs up. He rests half his team for the FA Cup. The fans finally get to the stage where they can see a league title somewhere, however vaguely, in the horizon, and he puts out the same, knackered team that he started with against Chelsea, albeit it with superficial Dossena and Mascherano changes. Why? He’s left himself with Ngog as a squad player who will certainly be called upon this season, without any doubt. Even if Torres miraculously goes without injuries, he won’t be able to play all the time. And why not last night? Torres got beaten, soundly, by Lescott and Jagielka in both recent games. His role is so important post-Keane that a majority would rather see Gerrard missing for three weeks than Torres. And yet both play last night, and what’s worse, Torres gets another kicking, gets dominated by Jagielka (who has to be in Capello’s thoughts now based on January alone) and it will not be a surprise if he doesn’t start against Portsmouth, thereby resting him for Spain’s clash with England on Wednesday.

Rafa knows Liverpool fans wouldn’t take kindly to a weak team being put out against Everton. But when has he ever listened to his heart over his head? Last night was a big blow to Liverpool and a timely reminder to the young players at Liverpool that they won’t get many chances to impress. Like Keane, Rafa expects total accuracy with tactics, and tolerates little else. Except from himself.

Not Keane enough?

You have to feel sorry for Robbie Keane.
Sure, he has earned another generous signing-on fee for a few months inactivity at Liverpool. Sure, you hated him every time he did the bow and arrow, roly poly, I’m an asshole goal celebration.  And yes, he does have an accent that suggests he might mess you up for looking at his bird.
But at least he seems to love his football. And he seemed to love Liverpool. And yet the two couldn’t be reconciled, either because Rafa Benitez never fancied him to fit in and was prepared to leave him on the bench as a power play in his contract struggles, or because Irish players seem to have been cursed at the club since Graeme Souness took over in the not-to-be-spoken about era of the 90s.

Hee has the right kwall-ities and ees a very good profethional no?

Keane tried his heart out, he ran and ran, as he has always done. He scored tidy finishes and that cracker against Arsenal. And he would have scored more had he been alowed to play more.But the sings were always there. On his debut for Liverpool, getting the chance to play for his boyhood club in the Champions League away at Standard Liege, Liverpool were huffing and puffing at 0-0. An away goal is seen as crucial in the Champions League, albeit Liverpool are the one club that seem to turn 0-0s into aggregate wins with ease. With 67 minutes on the clock, Keane’s time was up and Steven Gerrard awaited to renew his potent partnership with Torres.

The following match against Sunderland, on his league debut with the scores tied at 0-0 and 76 minutes on the clock, Nabil El Zhar readied himself and Keane was withdrawn. Torres would score the winner just minutes later and the tone for Keane’s Liverpool career was set. The match winners were Torres and Gerrard. They were Benitez’s luxury, the ones who he’d leave on because they had that spark to win the game. Keane never fitted into the luxury bracket.

Premiership: Full Steam Ahead

Ah the FA Cup, the romance, the giant-killing. Literally. Mr Kanu and Crouch (all 13-14 feet of them; hence the clever giantkilling reference – get it? Ah…..) were among the Portsmouth team who cantered to a defeat at home to Swansea. 2-0 and the holders are out while the likes of Aston Villa, West Brom and Arsenal will have to do it all again after being held to draws by ‘weaker opposition’.  Manchester United and Chelsea will have been thrilled to see their three rivals held, after Liverpool’s draw with Everton, and now attention turns to an important week in the Premiership….

Tuesday:

• Sunderland V Fulham
• West Brom V Man Utd – highlights of Man Utd V Spurs below -
• Tottenham V Stoke
• Portsmouth V Aston Villa (Sky Sports 2 – 8pm)

These fixtures will all be of significance for teams in varying degrees of form. League leaders Man Utd were comfortable winners over Spurs at the weekend despite falling behind early in the game.  Of greater importance to Alex Ferguson is the mounting injury list which claimed the impressive Fabio Da Silva and the less impressive Danny Wellbeck (already beginning to look like Utd’s answer to Nicholas Bendtner) at the weekend. With the likes of Ferdinand, Evans, Brown and Saha already out, Utd’s back line will again see Neville and Vidic paired at the back. This means that Darren Fletcher will drop to right back. While most people will look at this fixture and say Utd are bankers, West Brom like to play a bit of football. What they lack in talent they make up for in attitude and I fancy them to at least run United close tomorrow night. Tony Mowbray will see this as a crucial game with the relegation battle set to feature anything up to 14 teams at present. A win over Utd would likely take the Baggies, who’ve take nine points from their last 15, out of the relegation area and would set the team up for survival with buckets of confidence going into the weekend clash with freefalling Hull.

Johnny Evans (left) joins Wayne Rooney (centre) on the sidelines as Edwin Van Der Saar (right) looks on and Cristiano Ronaldo (far left) goes down under the car's challenge

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Sunderland (no wins in four) entertain Fulham (no wins in three). Another six pointer, with Fulham only five points above the relegation area despite their recent impressive run. Sunderland have lost Chimbonda (back to Spurs) and are clinging on to star striker Kenwyne Jones despite Spragia’s boast that the club would not be selling players in January. Fulham still look good, and if not good, solid and with Andy Johnson beginning to get a few goals, will fancy their chances at the Stadium of Fright.

I fancy another surprise at Fratton Park. It takes a brave man to bet on Portsmouth but having signed Pele today (18-year-old lad from Portugal, not legend to all erectile dysfunction sufferers) as well as solid players in Pennant and Mullins, coupled with Ashley Young’s suspension for Villa, Martin O’Neill’s men may be running out of legs. I hate that expression. Villa look tired,. There you go, bit better. Despite fielding a full-strengt side, Villa were held by Doncaster at the weekend and a trip to Portsmouth won’t look too enticing just a few days later. With Wigan, Blackburn, Chelsea, a replay against Doncaster and a trip to CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Cup within the next four weeks, it’ll be a bruising month for Villa and may see them slip behind the Premiership contenders, starting with a win for Tony Adams’ men tomorrow.

Ashley Young was getting sick of sitting on the sidelines

Kaka to Man City? Football is dying…..

I have been obsessed with football for as long as I can remember. Growing up into a Liverpool family I had little choice but to support the team in red – had I chosen any differently I would possibly have been thrown out into the cold, and at six years of age, that’s a pretty daunting prospect. We used to have a huge stereo/ record player, it was roughly three feet high with enormous dials, a cd player with barely more than play, stop and eject buttons and it was where I got my fix on Radio 5 most days, checking for transfer news, listening to games…..

We didn’t have a tv so I only recognised the likes of John Barnes and Robbie Fowler from their pictures in the paper. But I remember listening to Liverpool get knocked out of the FA Cup by Bristol City in 1994 and crying at the (perceived) injustice of it. It may have been that I was cursing being a Liverpool fan. A horrible fate to have been brought into a family of Liverpool fanatics who had feasted on success for decades, only for the glory days to dry up in time for you to burst (or slowly deflate) onto the fan scene.

With 1995 came my first Liverpool trophy, McManaman’s 2-1 win over Bolton. However i’ll also never forget events like the news breaking that Andy Cole had signed for Manchester United (almost as bad as Liverpool’s lack of trophies). With Liverpool’s ordinariness came a hatred of all things from the second team in red, and I felt sure Andy Cole signing would secure Manchester United success for the following years. They would go on to win six of the next eight titles. Had we secured one, or maybe two of those titles, perhaps I wouldn’t have had to leave the room when they won in Moscow….

I was at a friend’s birthday, sulking, when Houghton lobbed Pagliuca in 94, Cantona’s winning goal in the FA Cup Final (the last time I would cry over a game until Istanbul in 2005), Cantona spectacularly ‘kicking’ a fan in 1995, Nayim beating Seaman to win the Cup Winners Cup, (Man City relegated in 1996), Arsenal (Arsenal??) starting to play with flair under a new Frenchman, George Graham backhanders, regular visits to Selhurst Park for godawful Crystal Palace games and Wimbledon beating United, in awe of Blackburn crushing the Dons as they went on to win the league. “I wud luv it, if we beet them”…….ah my formative footballing years….

– have a listen to the commentator, do the green shirts not give it away man…..???

– always worth another look…..

Now though, AC Milan are considering sanctioning (yes that’s right sanctioning) the sale of Kaka for £107 million. Kaka is an amazing footballer. His goals against Manchester United will ensure he always has a special place in my heart but simply the grace and style he has on the pitch when it looks as though a gust of wind might carry him into the stands, it’s phenomenal. However this amount of money makes an absolute mockery of the game. Fans of Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea have giggled as Wenger has stubbornly refused to join the spending game. Arsenal fans have probably grumbled and had the roles been reversed and it was Liverpool kids playing week-in week-out with a growing injury list and a growing distance to the top, chances are I would have done the same.

But look at it now. Wenger isn’t always the most likeable character, but what he has done for the Premiership is nothing short of remarkable. Ferguson has made Manchester United a phenomenal global business, with talented, attacking players and an eye for flair, however Wenger’s steadfast refusal to pay inflated fees and wages has been admirable and a reflection of a desire to protect the game he loves. I would love to see Kaka in the Premiership. A part of me would be ok with him putting on United’s shirt. I don’t even think he’ll be a huge success in the league. However the amount of money is obscene. How can we expect young players to support their local clubs or their family clubs when the best players in the world are bought out to the richest clubs. A part of me would happily see Man City go down this season. Fingers crossed Milan will have the sense to put a halt to the madness. Maybe the buck stops with Kaka himself. £300-500,000 a week, depending on your tabloid of choice, is hard to turn down, yes. But he is a rich man and already has the one thing most footballers crave, respect for his talent. Come on Kaka, do the right thing, say no to Money City.

Liverpool for the League?

 

Liverpool, apparent Premiership winners in waiting, face a tricky trip to Marseille tonight, buoyed by their victory over Manchester United at the weekend. If you are to read the papers you will see a ludicrous amount of hype being given to the 2-1 win on Saturday. Yes, it is a big deal that they won. Yes, they did it in unlikely circumstances and showed plenty of heart and commitment. However, they were at this very point last year with 10 points from 4 games and how long have we all been saying how hard Liverpool work as a team?

The truth is, Manchester United don’t always start the season very impressively. Maybe it’s the fact that Ferguson’s growing arthiritis is affecting him. Maybe he’s started using his free bus pass and the traffic  gets him in a rage so he can’t function properly. The fact also remains that Ronaldo scored more than goals this year and is currently sitting on the sidelines. Now, it’s true that Ronaldo is not the most prolific against the big teams. Man Utd fans can argue it all they want, but bar a goal in last year’s 3-0 win over Liverpool,the Portugese has generally been kept relatively quiet, again, due to Liverpool’s hard-working players who tackle back as though they were chasing goals. Still, he is a big loss, and Liverpool will still face problems this year due to a lack of imagination in the final third.

There is plenty to be positive about however for the Anfield faithful. Albert Riera actually ran at defenders. And beat them sometimes. It has been an exceptionally rare occurrence for Liverpool fans of recent years to see a winger jinking his way past a defender. Ryan Babel has done it often but has a languid style whereby he skips past defenders once they have committed themselves to a challenge. Riera didn’t give them time and had an impressive debut in intimidating circumstances against the best right-back of the season last year.
     Liverpool also did it without Torres and Gerrard and that is huge for the confidence of the squad players that Benitezso often champions but that you get the feeling the two lads don’t believe are quite up to it. When Torres scores he tends to have eyes for Gerrard and vice verca perhaps rightly so. They are among the best players in Europe and on a different level to their teammates. Well, at least they were. Pepe Reina, Jamie Carragher, Javier Mascherano and even Martin Skrtel deserve great praise for the way they step up to the mark set by Torres and Gerrard every week. Liverpool fans might now be forgiven for being more concerned when Mascherano isn’t playing, rather than their native captain.
To a lesser extent Keane, Alonso, and even Dirk Kuyt are capable of stepping up to the mark as well. Kuyt divides critics between fans who love his hard work and knack for scoring important goals and those who see him as a striker who can’t cut it and is thus used as a player who’ll ‘always give 100%’. I would be split between both camps. The truth is, Kuyt can score goals, but on the right wing has become an important player for the club. He was superb on Saturday, overlooked by many pundits for praise (except his biggest fan Benitez). Everyone looked to Keane, and he will eventually start getting plenty of goals, but Kuyt was instrumental in victory, with both goals coming from the right wing and Kuyt’s assist the action of a mature, team-minded individual. Kuyt had the chance to blast a shot at goal but thinks of his teammates more than himself and is deserving of his place, most of the time……

Abu Dhabi Doo….(Transfer Deadline Day)

Berbatov to Manchester City?? What?? Can a man not go to work for a few hours and come back to some sort of semblance of a normal footballing world. The weirdest thing is they actually have a bid accepted. 32 million. Ish. Give or take a million. What’s a million between friends? Still the smart money with less than four hours left is on Man Utd taking him. Despite Spurs insistence that Utd didn’t have permission to talk to Berbatov, the Bulgarian has apparently had a medical already and has certainly met with Alex Ferguson. Utd will more than likely have to up their offer to closer to 30 million given that City have had a huge bid accepted. I wouldn’t rule out Spurs playing hardball and keeping Berbatov if Utd refuse to budge, particularly as the relationship between the clubs has gone sour. Whether or not Berbatov will even meet with City remains to be seen. With his hear set on Old Trafford and Champions League football, the likelihood of City snapping him up must be slim…..

Chelsea and Robinho? Real Madrid insist the deal won’t be done. Media outlets believe it will, it would certainly be surprising if the Brazilian stays after being so public about his desire to leave…It would also be extremely strange to see Chelsea not buy anyone….Given that it is what they do best, we should probably expect some sort of signing before the end of the day….

Liverpool look more and more lightweight, despite the arrival of Riera from Espanyol. Man City fans remember him as being slightly average. Liverpool fans certainly won’t want to look at YouTube clips of the left winger, which make the words Gomez and Cheyrou spring to mind. Has Benitez splashed out on another expensive mistake? Steve Finnan has signed for Espanyol. In a slightly bizarre move (It’s nowhere near Aston Villa Stevie…) the Spanish and Irish players have swapped clubs, suggesting Liverpool got a little bit of cash off the deal given that both have been undisclosed….Liverpool have also offloaded Voronin to Hertha Berlin and with the news that Torres will miss their next game against Utd, the Merseysiders look slightly weak up front.

Sunderland have continued their recruitment drive by bringing in George McAcrtney from West Ham which could pave the way for Paolo Ferreira to move across London from Chelsea. Rumour has it the Portugese is on his way to Upton Park with Northern Irish international McCartney already signed on a year-long loan for Roy Keane’s men…

The thing about transfer deadline day is that once one deal goes through, a whole lot more follow…..

With Berbatov on his way out of White Hart Lane and Pavlyuchenko having already signed, Emile Heskey is reportedly on his way to Spurs. This will apparently pave the way for a Wigan bid for Man Utd striker Fraizer Richardson. Unless they go for Mido. Which could mean the Utd striker choosing Hull…..

Carling Cup Draw

The draw for the second round of the Carling Cup has been made with several Premiership teams facing tricky opposition. Roy Keane returns to Notts Forest for the first time in a competitive fixture. Quite sad in a way to think that Utd never played Forest in all Keane’s time there, for such a great club it’s brilliant to see some excitement back at the City Ground. They have added the perennial Championship goalscorer Robert Earnshaw to their ranks and he scored twice in their first round win over Morecambe last night.

                          

With the Premiership teams in European action not added until the third round stage, giantkillerswill be lurking to topple some of the clubs who could do with a good cup run.
West Ham reached the FA Cup Final against Liverpool two years ago and would love another crack at Wembley. They host Macclesfield in the second round. Newcastle face a tricky trip to Chris Coleman’s Coventry, for whom new signing Clinton Morrisson got off the mark with a goal last night. Newly promoted Premiership side Hull face a tricky trip to Roberto Martinez’ Swansea while Mark Hughes will kick off Man City’s campaign away to Brighton.

Draw in Full with Premiership teams in Italics….

Ipswich v Colchester
Coventry v Newcastle
Hartlepool v West Brom
West Hamv Macclesfield
Huddersfield v Sheffield United
Cardiff v MK Dons
Swansea v Hull
Rotherham v Wolves
Brighton v Manchester City
Reading v Luton
Blackburnv Grimsby
Wiganv Notts County
Leeds v Crystal Palace
Crewe v Bristol City
Middlesbrough v Yeovil
Fulham v Leicester
QPR v Carlisle
Nottingham Forest v Sunderland
Burnley v Oldham
Southampton v Birmingham
Bolton v Northampton
Watford v Darlington
Preston v Derby
Cheltenham v Stoke
Ties to be played week commencing 25th August

Pre-Season Predictions

The Premiership season is set to get underway next weekend and thefc100 is sticking its neck on the line as it attempts to accurately predict the entire Premiership table….

1: Chelsea
2: Man Utd
3: Liverpool
4: Arsenal
5: Aston Villa
6: Tottenham
7: Portsmouth
8: Everton
9: Man City
10: Newcastle
11: West Ham
12: Sunderland
13: Fulham
14: Blackburn
15: Middlesbrough
16: Bolton
17: Wigan
18: West Brom
19: Stoke
20: Hull

Setanta Live Premiership Fixtures Aug-Dec 08

Setanta have revealed details of their live fixtures up until December of this year. They include live Premiership games at 3pm on a Saturday (there is a god) and there are some crackers thrown in for the first few months. Although Setanta seems to try and cram as many Liverpool/Man Utd games in as possible, the fact is Sky get the pick of them so a lot of the games will be very one-sided. That said there are the likes of Spurs-Everton, Man City-Chelsea and Newcastle-Villa to look forward to as well as some of the bigger games including Spurs-Liverpool and Villa – Man Utd.

Overall, a satisfying lot so far…..

August16: Middlesbrough V Tottenham – 3pm
Sunderland V Liverpool – 5.30pm

August 23: Liverpool V Middlesbrough – 3pm
Fulham V Arsenal – 5.30pm
August 24: Wigan V Chelsea – 1.30pm

August 30: Everton V Portsmouth – 3pm
Arsenal V Newcastle – 5.30pm

September 13: Blackburn V Arsenal – 3pm
Man City V Chelsea – 5.30pm
September 15: Tottenham V Aston Villa – 8pm

September 20: Liverpool V Stoke – 3pm
Bolton V Arsenal – 5.30pm

September 27: Man Utd V Bolton – 3pm
Arsenal v Hull – 5.30pm

October 4: Man City V Liverpool – 3pm
Blackburn V Man Utd – 5.30pm

October 18: Liverpool V Wigan – 3pm
Man Utd V West Brom – 5.30pm

October 20: Newcastle V Man City – 8pm

October 25: Tottenham V Bolton – 3pm
Blackburn V Middlesbrough – 5.30pm

November1: Man Utd V Hull – 3pm
Tottenham V Liverpool – 5.30pm
November 3: Newcastle V Aston Villa – 8pm

November 8: Man City V Tottenham – 3pm
Liverpool V West Brom – 5.30pm

November 15: Man Utd V Stoke – 3pm
West Brom V Chelsea – 5.30pm

November 22: Liverpool V Fulham – 3pm
Aston Villa V Man Utd – 5.30pm
November 24: Wigan V Everton – 8pm

November 29: Tottenham V Everton – 3pm
December 1: Liverpool V West Ham – 8pm.