Firstly, I am very sorry for missing the start of the season, but I have been extremely busy and was unable to write anything worth posting.  I will start with analysis of the Premier League weekend just before the international break, comparing some of the leagues top strikers.

Rooney received a hamstring injury and returned in the league for the 2-0 home win over Norwich on the 1st of October.  During this game he came close to scoring by hitting the bar, but in the end didn’t have a great impact and only managed to give Anderson a goal on the 68th minute with a simple pass.  Since this game he has not scored in the league (five more games) and has not managed to provide a killer ball for someone like Hernandez to get on the end of to tap in.  I believe there are two main reasons for this:

• Rooney is a confidence player and thrives on confidence; the more he continues to not score, the more frustrated he gets, resulting in him “trying too hard” and forcing the issue and not playing his natural game.
• This has not been helped by Ferguson playing him in every position except up front, instead opting to go back to bad habits of playing him on the wide left and now even in a new central midfield role.

Rooney will benefit greatly when Tom Cleverley returns, but his current return date from injury is unknown, so we can expect to see Rooney doing a job for his team, filling in the voids in the current available squad and not getting on the score sheet.

In stark contrast to Wayne Rooney, the flying Dutchman, Robin van Persie has found the net 29 times in 28 games in 2011 (at present).

Despite this phenomenal number of goals from van Persie, he failed to appear on the shortlist for Ballon d’Or, (Golden Ball / European Footballer of the Year) but players such as Luis Suarez and Neymar find themselves on the shortlist, who quite honestly, should not be there.

However, none of this will matter, as Lionel Messi is certain to snap up the award for the third year running.  Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten have been the only players to receive the award three times, and of those only Platini has managed to win it in three consecutive years (1983, 84 and 85).

It should also be noted that although Arsenal are thought to be a one van band, the truth is a bit more complicated than being reliant on Robin.  Arsenal have had ten different goal scorers in the league this season (van Persie, Arteta, Gervinho, Walcott, Arshavin, Chamakh, Ramsey, Santos, Song and Vermaelen) and only Manchester City have had more, with 12 (Dzeko, Aguero, Balotelli, Silva, Johnson, Milner, Barry, Kolarov, Kompany, Nasri, Savic and Yaya Toure).

Of all of Arsenal’s league goals, van Persie has scored 11/23 (48%), with the next highest scorer being Arteta 3/23 (13%) and then Gervinho and Walcott tied with 2/23 each (9% each).  Manchester City however have scored a grand total of 39 goals and their top three strikers are Dzeko 10/39 (26%), Aguero 9/39 (23%) and Balotelli 5/39 (13%).

It is clear to see from this, that Arsenal have scored fewer goals than Manchester City, but van Persie is the Premier League top scorer and has scored just under half of Arsenal’s goals in the league.  The goals for Manchester City have been shared out between the team a lot more than Arsenal, with the top three scorers giving 62% of their total and Arsenal’s top three giving 70%, of which van Persie has the lion’s share (just over 2/3 of the 70%).

Joe Hart, Joleon Lescott, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Wojciech Szczesny, Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott all have played in every game so far this season (11 games), with Sergio Aguero, Andrey Arshavin, Mikel Arteta, Laurent Koscielny, Aaron Ramsey and Micah Richards all having played 10 games, Edin Dzeko has played in 9 and Mario Balotelli has played in 7.

This makes Dzeko the most lethal, scoring on average 1.1 goals a game, van Persie (1.0), Aguero (0.9) and Balotelli (0.7).  Perhaps Arsenal would benefit from having another striker with the quality of someone like Aguero or Dzeko, allowing them to convert more chances and not having to depend so much on van Persie.

The greatest sportspeople are not often much more talented than great sportspeople, but the difference between them is marginal.  Fractions.  Millimetres.  In this article we will take a look at what might-have-been at both ends of the Premier League table.

This weekend saw great controversy, first with Chelsea beating Tottenham 2-1 despite the only legitimate goal coming from Tottenham’s Sandro, whilst Arsenal beat Manchester United 1-0 with a goal from young Welsh superstar Aaron Ramsey in a game that saw several penalty decisions ignored and has blown the title race back open.

Some are claiming it is a conspiracy and that the Premier League is fixed, as Chelsea managed to get away with two goals that should not have been given.  Tottenham got off to a flying start to the match with Sandro scoring on the half-volley on the 19th minute.  Unfortunately for Tottenham, despite putting in a decent display, the goalkeeper Gomes was once again the weakest link, who managed to fumble a shot far out from Lampard, going straight through him, before he attempted to stop it on the line.  Fortunately for Gomes, he did manage to stop the ball from crossing the line, however the goal was awarded by the linesman.  Further salt was rubbed into the wounds as Saloman Kalou scored a winning offside goal in the 89th minute of the game.

Arsenal have had another terrible end to the season, but it could have been so much worse if they hadn’t beaten Manchester United 1-0.  The win puts a dent into Manchester, both to keep their distance from City and preventing United from running away with the title.  Arsenal were unlucky to lose Fabregas before the match with a thigh injury and then they were unlucky not to be given a penalty, with Vidic making yet another handball, denying Robin van Persie a free header from just a few yards out, perhaps Vidic should have been sent off and perhaps he should have been a goalkeeper given his history with handballs?  Arsenal created several good openings on the counter-attack but only managed to take one with Aaron Ramsey hitting the ball hard and low across the goal into the bottom corner.  Late in the game Clichy was seen stamping on the back of Michael Owen’s leg inside the penalty box, but nothing was given, perhaps justice for the Vidic decision?

Now to the crux of this article, with some interesting statistics about the league table hot off the press.  If at any time a team hit the woodwork and this counts as a goal, then the Premier League table would look something like this:

The most staggering thing here is that Arsenal would have run away with the title with three games to spare, something which is almost a miracle these days.  This really illustrates the fine margins between success and failure, and perhaps gives reason to Arsenal fans to believe that the current squad is good enough to win trophies, without having to add to the squad?  Many say that the players are not clinical enough, but perhaps sometimes it is just unlucky that the ball doesn’t go off the woodwork and in?

Another thing to note is that Liverpool would actually be fourth, three points ahead of Manchester City and Tottenham, having played a game more.  This would have made the upcoming fixture between Manchester City and Tottenham even bigger than it is now.  Maybe Liverpool were just unlucky at the start of the season?

Finally, down in the relegation scrap, the “W” teams would all currently be avoiding relegation, with West Ham very much safe on a handsome 41 points, nine more than they currently have, who find themselves dead last, three points away from safety!  Perhaps they are “too good to go down.”  Blackpool would also be staring at a daunting task of staying up, having to play Manchester United at Old Trafford on the last game of the season, a ground where United are yet to lose a game in the league this season, and have only drawn one.

Also I am sorry for the lack of articles recently, I have been very busy and hope to be back up and running very soon.

Quite possibly the best footballing competition has returned this week in the form of the UEFA Champions League. This week saw two teams from north London get fantastic results, with Tottenham Hotspur completely outplaying AC Milan at the Giuseppe Meazza ending the match 1-0 with a vital away goal and Arsenal being under the cosh for large periods of the game against Barcelona, somewhat fortunately dug out a 2-1 win at the Emirates.

Other results were just as exciting with AS Roma putting in a poor performance at home to knock-out-round debutantes Shakhtar Donetsk. Roma took the lead due to an unfortunate own goal from Rat, but quickly found themselves conceding three goals before half time, one of those due to Riise slipping near the corner flag in his own half, gifting the ball to the opposition to tap in. A brilliant strike from Menez just after the hour mark keeps Roma with something to cling on to and to take away with them, ending in a 2-3 win for Shakhtar.

Valencia hosted a match against Schalke, in truth the match had plenty of action, dominated by Valencia, but many of the chances were very speculative, and the game ended 1-1 with goals from key man Roberto Soldado and Raul Gonzalez.  The last few seconds of the game saw Lukas Schmitz being sent off for a second yellow card from an unncessary foul on Aduriz.

AC Milan were completely outplayed as Tottenham Hotspur, even with several key men missing including Bale who wasn’t even in the squad and Modric and Defoe (unused substitute) who were on the bench.  Much attention was diverted to Milan captain Gennaro Gattuso, who seemed to have it out for Joe Jordan by trying to argue and fight with him both during and after the game; Gattuso looks likely to receive a lengthy ban for his actions, but is likely to be reduced on appeal to a three-match ban.  Unfortunately for Spurs they were only able to score one away goal, which isn’t unassailable as far as Milan are concerned.  AC Milan cannot possibly play as poorly as they did in this game, and will be looking to make massive improvements where they still have a huge chance to win at White Hart Lane.

Much like last season it is clear that Arsenal were unable to retain ball possession against Barcelona. The last five teams to have more than 50% possession against Arsenal in the CL were: Barcelona (x2), Villarreal, Sevilla and Real Madrid. There is a noticeable trend here, in that they are all Spanish teams. Perhaps this is indicative of the stereotypical mentality instilled into the players in La Liga, who try to keep possession of the ball and bide their time, rather than so-called “kick and rush” football found in the Premier League. Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere played a phenomenal game, completing 91% (10/11) of his passes in the attacking third. Xavi made 69 more passes than any Arsenal player (Fabregas, 51) on the pitch, which indicates just how much possession Barcelona had.

There is a glint of hope for Arsenal to progress as the last three Champions League knockout games that Barcelona have failed to win at home have all been against English sides.  Arsenal are the fifth team to beat Guardiola’s Barcelona in Europe, after Wisla Krakow, Shakhtar Donetsk, Rubin Kazan and Inter Milan, which shows that a variety of styles of play can cause Barcelona to lose.

In my previous post I stated a line-up that I felt Wenger had to play in order to win in the first leg.  This team didn’t play, as Nasri had made a miraculous recovery and found himself playing the entire 90 minutes.  As well as Nasri starting, so did Walcott, which I did not expect, as Wenger seems to trust Bendtner more to operate on the wings than Walcott.  I think that Bendtner actually has greater creative qualities than Walcott, which is exactly what is needed in this type of game to unlock the Barcelona defence.

Due to Walcott and Nasri starting, Arshavin and Bendtner had to come off from the bench late on to replace Song and Walcott.  Their impact was immediate, resulting in two goals, one from a fantastic right-footed pass from Clichy over the top of the defence, with van Persie smashing it low and hard from an improbably angle.  The second a fantastic counter-attacking passing move similar to that against Wolves, with Fabregas spreading it wide to Nasri at the halfway line, bursting into the box and eventually picking out Arshavin at the right time who curled it home.

The team that ended the match is similar to one that I suggested that should have been playing on the night.  The moment Bendtner and Arshavin came on the game changed for Arsenal, who looked like they were going to score each time they got forward.  This couldn’t really have been said for much of the rest of the match, as Arsenal were too scared to commit men forward and were trying to defend the goal with all of their players, which resulted in any counter-attacks breaking down very quickly, as there were no players available for a forward pass.  It should be noted that David Villa was taken off at around the same time as the introduction of Arshavin and Bendtner, being replaced by Seydou Keita, as it seemed like Guardiola was trying to hang on to his precious 1-0 lead, which goes to show that perhaps Barcelona’s defence is not that strong.

There are statistics here the back up what I am saying about Arshavin, and perhaps why he should have started.  Arsenal are unbeaten in the 13 Champions League games they have played with Andrei Arshavin (11 wins, 2 draws) and he has scored in three of his last five Champions League appearances.  If being unbeaten with him playing isn’t a good enough reason, then I don’t know what is.

This is only the second time Arsenal have won a knockout Champions League game after conceding the opening goal.  Perhaps Arsenal are now beginning to show the resilience that Wenger believes they possess in order to obtain a result by attrition.  This is outlined by the number of fouls Arsenal committed (16) and yellow cards received (4) compared to Barcelona (13) and (2).  Arsenal were not totally outplayed by Barcelona, as for the third time in the last 32 Champions League games Barcelona had fewer shots (5/8) than their opposition (7/10).  Arsenal also managed to win four corners compared to Barcelona who just had one.  Andy Gray would say it is possession without a purpose as Barcelona saw the ball for 40 minutes and 15 seconds (61%), whereas Arsenal had it for only 26 minutes and 38 seconds (39%).

Is Barcelona more dependent on Messi or Puyol?  The club has lost four matches this season, all when Puyol was absent.  With Gerard Piqué suspended for the second leg at the Camp Nou, having picked up a yellow card in the first match, Barcelona will be desperate for Puyol to make it back for that match to make sure their defence is as experienced as possible.

In seven attempts Pep Guardiola has not won an away game in the knockout stages of the Champions League, a record which really needs to come to an end if they are to win the competition under his tenure again.  Barcelona are by no means out of the competition, as in the history of all European competitions, 51.8% of all clubs that lost the first leg 2-1 away, went on to reach the next round.

The referee Nicola Rizzoli and the other officials almost ruined the game by making several wrong decisions and being highly inconsistent.  Alex Song was booked early on in the seventh minute, but during the match he must have been responsible for about half of Arsenal’s fouls, which begs the question as to why he was not sent off in the first half by receiving a second yellow card for consistent fouling?  Lionel Messi didn’t have the best of games, but during the first half when Barcelona were 1-0 up, it seemed as if he had scored a legitimate goal that was ruled out for offside, and if the game was then at 2-0, Arsenal were probably well and truly out of it.  Perhaps this is a bit of karma for Phil Dowd’s performances during Arsenal matches.  This is yet another game where appeals using video replays and goal-line technology similar to tennis would have been used and used to great effect.

UEFA announced the pricing structure for general sale tickets to the Champions League final at Wembley.  These tickets will be available to 11,000 people, but if (when) more than 11,000 people apply, the tickets will be allocated in pairs in a lottery system.  The prices of these tickets and the reaction to them are quite clear to see in some Tweets below:

Champions League final prices: £300/£225/£150 with £26 booking fee. UEFA, hang your heads in shame. Disgraceful. 

RT @inspectorsaab wtf does Platini smoke? @hayleymcqueen £50 notes by the sounds of it.

Uefa’s one adult, one kid CL final package is £338….plus £26 admin fee. For 26 quid you’d want Platini to deliver the tickets by hand. (Henry Winter)

Just five years ago the Champions League Final was played in Paris between Arsenal and Barcelona.  Prices for tickets to see this were just £128/£100/£71/£43.  The prices for this year’s final at Wembley are £300/£225/£150/£80 with a £26 booking fee, inflation?  The prices for the tickets have approximately doubled in just five years, but what is the reason behind this?

Uefa’s director of competitions, Giorgio Marchetti, defended the prices, claiming they were in line with comparable events such as the World Cup final or European Championship final. He denied that prices had been hiked to exploit the London market with its large corporate presence.  This does seem acceptable as tickets for the World Cup Final in South Africa were priced at £633/£421/£281/£106, so perhaps they prices are not as extortionate as they seem.

Not long to go until the UEFA Champions League resumes, so I thought I would provide my views on the competition and take an in-depth look how it may be possible for Arsenal to beat Barcelona.

The fixtures for the Round of 16 are all quite mouth-watering, with all four of the English sides remaining (Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd, Tottenham), three Spanish sides (Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia), three Italian (A.C. Milan, Inter Milan, Roma), two German (Bayern Munich, Schalke), two French (Lyon, Marseille), Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine and of course the massive underdogs Copenhagen of Denmark.

AC Milan vs. Tottenham

Valencia vs. Schalke

Arsenal vs. Barcelona

AS Roma vs. Shakhtar Donetsk

Copenhagen vs. Chelsea

Lyon vs. Real Madrid

Marseille vs. Man Utd

Inter vs. Bayern Munich

Obviously the stand-out tie there is Arsenal vs. Barcelona, a replay of last year’s thrilling quarter-final and the sides previously met unexpectedly in the 2006 final.  However, there are many other little side-stories to follow, which makes this an exciting round of last 16.

One of these happens to be the ongoing saga between Lyon and Real Madrid.  This is another replay from the round of last 16 a year ago, where Lyon beat Madrid 2-1 on aggregate, thanks to a 1-1 draw at the Bernabéu.  The clubs first met in the 2005/06 season with Lyon winning 4-1 on aggregate due to a stunning home performance from Lyon with a 3-0 win.  They then went on to meet at exactly the same stage a year later, this time with Lyon winning yet again, 4-2 on aggregate, scoring two goals in both legs.  All of these facts bode well for Lyon, along with the fact that Real Madrid have not been past the round of last 16 for the past six seasons predominantly due to these impressive matches with Lyon.

As an Arsenal fan, this post will be slightly biased, but I greatly admire Barcelona and will try to eliminate any slant in this discussion.

The Carling Cup Final is sandwiched in between the two matches against Barcelona, so if the first leg is well and truly done and dusted, it is likely that Arsenal would field a full strength side in the Carling Cup Final and “forget about” the next leg in the Champions League.

Along with this, Arsenal will face Leyton Orient away in the FA Cup Fifth Round just after the first leg in the Champions League, which again, may have attention diverted in this direction, should things go poorly in the first leg against Barcelona.  Should Arsenal slip up against the lower league opposition in the FA Cup it would require a replay to be played on the 2nd March, just three days before the Premier League game against Sunderland and six days before the return leg at Camp Nou.

However Wenger dresses it up, he will rotate the players depending on the competition he wants to target the most and will adapt given the way results pan out this month, despite claiming he can win all four.  I think we need to be realistic here and say that the most number of trophies Arsenal can win this season is two, but it could still be any two of the four competitions they are currently involved in.

The difference between Arsenal and Barcelona is that Barcelona have a first XI that picks itself, but it is quite hard to pick Arsenal’s best XI players.  Barcelona play one way and one way only, which means without any injuries their team should be the following: Valdes, Daniel Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Villa and Pedro.  This is their standard 4-3-3 formation, which provides great fluidity and comfort to their play.

Arsenal on the other hand have several players of similar quality in each position, and it is quite hard to guess which team would be their best to play.  If I were Arsene Wenger this is the team I would select: Szczesny, Sagna, Djourou, Vermaelen, Clichy, Fabregas, Song, Wilshere, Nasri, van Persie and Arshavin.  This is an adaptable 4-2-3-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 formation that many managers are using effectively at the top level, such as Germany or Real Madrid.

Unluckily for Arsenal they have recently been struck by several injuries once again, thus rendering them unable to field the team I have suggested above.

Samir Nasri unfortunately looks to miss out on at least the first leg at the Emirates as he pulled up with a hamstring problem against Huddersfield in the FA Cup.  With the absence of Fabregas for much of this season, Nasri really stepped up to the plate and has been in scintillating form, creating and scoring goals from all over the pitch.  I however pose the daring question, do Arsenal actually need him to win?

Arsene Wenger has often played Nasri out on the wing this season, putting his talent to waste, as his style of play is less effective out here.  Nasri likes making direct runs from central midfield into the box, and he has scored several goals in this manner this season, so playing him through the middle is better.

Obviously having him in the team is better than out of the team, but it doesn’t make the job impossible.  Need I remind you about his individual brilliance that he possesses by showcasing his wonderful goal against Porto?  It may be better for Nasri to be back for the away leg, as his skill and creativity is required to unlock Barcelona’s defence for vital away goals.  This injury may just give him a short break, freshness and even bigger desire to win.

At the time of writing, Johan Djourou is unbeaten in 27 Premier League games - the longest run of any player in the division at the moment.  This shows how crucial he is if Arsenal are to beat Barcelona.  There were fears that Djourou could have missed out on the rest of the season with a knee injury, but these have been lifted as he played against Wolves this weekend and if all goes well he should remain fit and be able to play against Barcelona.

Thomas Vermaelen has swapped roles with the Dutchman Robin van Persie, as Thomas has been a passenger all season for Arsenal, having been playing through the pain barrier with an injury in international matches for Belgium in September against Germany and Turkey.  He had an operation a few weeks ago on something next to his Achilles tendon to get it sorted, but Vermaelen will not be back in action until after the first leg.

Alex Song has been a revelation over the last few seasons, growing in stature, gaining confidence on and off the ball, and even chipping in (literally) with a few goals now and then.  Denilson is a similar type of player, who is currently injured, which is a shame, as Denilson is rated very highly by Wenger, who opts to play him whenever he is fit and Song is a player with a great presence who would be able to provide massive cover to the defensive unit.  The latest news is that Song passed a late fitness test and played against Wolves, which suggests that he should be available to play against Barcelona.

So with these injuries it looks like the team Wenger will have to field will not be full strength.  I would expect the following team to play: Szczesny, Eboue, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy, Fabregas, Song, Wilshere, Bendtner, van Persie and Arshavin.

Now that we have the line-ups sorted, we shall discuss the tactics of the two teams, and see whether there are any cracks Arsenal can expose.  For Barcelona there really isn’t a lot to say - they will always play the same way against any team and not change.

Without the ball, their tactic is to press high up the pitch and squeeze the opposition, surrounding the ball-possessor with three to four players to block out any passing lanes or opportunity to move forward, thus resulting in the ball changing hands (feet?) as there is no other option other than to give the ball away.  This works very effectively, as the team are well-drilled into tracking back and doing everything their manager asks them to.  Last time the teams met, Arsenal found it extremely difficult to find space and even string together two passes, and I expect it to be a very similar scenario again this time round.

I remember a quote by someone, who I cannot recollect, which I have slightly paraphrased, about the way Barcelona play with the ball:

Don’t move for the ball, the ball will come to you.

That is if a player is standing somewhere, every player on the team has the ability to pick out a pass to a team-mate without having to move.  That is not to say Barcelona are not a mobile team - they are always on the move looking for space and looking to play on the shoulder of the last man.

Another thing to note about Barcelona is their natural width due to the players playing.  Both fullbacks love to push forward, especially Dani Alves who loves getting chalk on his boots and running beyond Messi.  Eric Abidal, although is not known greatly for his ability going forward, can do so, and was recently rewarded with his first goal for the club this season against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey.  Arsenal too play with width, but in recent times not as effectively as Barcelona, with the players often ignoring a cross into a crowded box at the top-end of the pitch and instead opting to pass it square around the edge of the box.  Both the Emirates and Nou Camp have large and wide playing surfaces, which means both teams can utilise the width on the field to great effect.

It is impossible to not mention the incredible player that is Lionel Messi.  At the age of just 23-years-young he has managed to scoop virtually the highest honours a player can win in the form of FIFA World Player of the Year 2009, Ballon d’Or 2009 and the eventually combined award FIFA Ballon d’Or 2010.  The ball sticks to his feet like it is tethered with a string of infinitesimal length, allowing him to weave his way through any number of players that stand in his way.  Many question whether he would have the ability to do this in the Premier League thinking that La Liga defences are not as strong, but the answer of course is that he could, and he and Ronaldo appear to ghost past defences as if they are not there because of their magnificent ability with the ball. 

So the question remains, how do Arsenal win?  Here would be my tactical advice if I were Pat Rice talking to Arsene:

• Use the line-up I have suggested and trust in the players like Arshavin, Fabregas, van Persie to bring out the goods on the day.
• Exploit the superior bench as a big advantage over Barcelona, whose squad lack depth outside the first XI, making sure to use all three substitutes effectively. 
• Theo Walcott may prove to be useful late into the game when legs get tired, and his link-up play with Fabregas and Wilshere is tremendous and has proven to be the saviour on many occasions this season.
• Kieran Gibbs can offer similar qualities to the team as Walcott, bringing him on late into the game would be ideal, as he has an engine that just never stops, and he has the intelligence to move freely about on the pitch, because he knows how to play in central midfield as well as his usual left-fullback position.
• Arsenal finally have a presence in between the sticks in the form of Wojciech Tomasz Szczęsny.  He has been almost a new signing for Arsenal, who has grabbed his opportunity with both hands (literally) to claim the no. 1 shirt.  He brings this presence by being the tallest goalkeeper Arsenal have had for a while at a staggering 6’5”, but he also shows no fear in the goal as many younger players tend to do and really enjoys playing with the squad.
• On his day Andrei Arshavin can prove to be the real difference between two teams, as shown in one of his earlier games for Arsenal against Liverpool at Anfield, scoring four goals from four shots.  Although his form has not be great this season, he still has the ability at any given time in a match to do something special, which is why he must be playing.
• Arsenal need to play either one of two ways: either out-Barcelona Barcelona, which is asking a lot of the team especially with the injuries that they have or they can play a semi-counter-attacking game, where the midfield spreads wide, floods the centre of the pitch and the ball has to be won back near the halfway line or just inside the Arsenal half.  This is required as it would prevent Barcelona from getting anywhere near the goal, which is pretty much the only way to prevent them from scoring.  Arsenal need to play for 180 minutes like they did against Tottenham in the first half of the Carling Cup, severely restricting Tottenham’s chances and playing almost the entire 45 minutes in their half, keeping possession of the ball.
• ‎Djourou/Koscielny: 1 goal conceded every 295 mins (2 goals in 590 mins), Squillaci/Koscielny: 1 every 47 mins (20 goals in 949 mins).  This shows just how vital it is that Djourou is fit and playing in the team and displays that Koscielny is far more competent in his natural left-sided centre back position as opposed to being forced to play on the right when playing alongside Vermaelen.
• Robin van Persie scored his 10th Premier League goal in 2011, a new Premier League record for most goals in first two months of a calendar year.  This Dutchman living in the shadows of Dennis Bergkamp was injured for the corresponding games last season, and his absence is always sorely missed.  The number of goals he has scored this year underlines the need to have him in the team, which is only ever for approximately half the season as he is often injured and dubbed “Robin van Porcelain.”
• I don’t know of the exact statistic, but almost all of Lionel Messi’s work is done with his left foot, whether that is sending in the killer pass to David Villa, Pedro et al or sending the ball into the back of the net.  This suggests that it is absolutely crucial Messi is shown out wide to the corner flag and forced onto his right foot whenever he has the ball.  This requires a lot of concentration, but I am sure every player is aware of this fact.
• Although Pique and Puyol are not exactly small, Chamakh could prove to be a great option to have on the bench with his physical presence, which would be a lot better to send long balls to in desperation towards the end of the game, rather than Arshavin who is only 5’8” (and not 5’4” as many Arsenal fans claim in hatred of Adebayor).
• Patience is key in games like these, but quite often Arsenal’s players need to put on their shooting boots rather than their passing boots, as there are often many opportunities squandered where striking the ball with power towards the goal would end up beating the keeper due to the weight and flight of the modern ball.  In other words - shoot, shoot and shoot some more!
• It shouldn’t be forgotten that a lot of luck is going to be required, and Arsenal must keep themselves still in the tie by making sure they are at most only a goal behind to Barcelona after the first leg, preferably 1-0 to minimise the away goals.  Ideally Arsenal need to keep a clean sheet at home in order to make use of away goals.

In the current economic climate this is a transfer window where little activity was expected, but instead we have been blessed with more movement than Transport for London can provide.  At the time of writing the Barclays Premier League has spent £80 million this transfer window, which is actually considerably more than most recent seasons.

Manchester United look to replacing 40-year-old Edwin van der Sar who only recently confirmed his retirement at the end of the season.  This resulted in them buying highly-rated goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard from Aalesund for a fee of about £3.5 million, which was actually a deal done right at the end of November.  Lindegaard trained with the squad through December, but was unable to be registered as a player until the transfer window re-opened in January.  At a height of 6’4” he is only just shorter than van der Sar by roughly an inch, and his presence in goal seemed calm in the FA Cup game against Southampton.

With a bottomless pit of money, Manchester City were able to continue spending in this window, bringing in Bosnian player Edin Džeko for £27 million.  He had scored 85 goals in 138 games for German side Wolfsburg, which is quite a decent record to have.  However another player signed for City, who has slipped under the radar, the young Israeli Gai Assulin.  This midfielder is only 19 years of age and could prove another fantastic long-term purchase, like others such as Adam Johnson.  He is a highly-rated footballer, who Barcelona didn’t seem to fancy, allowing him to move for free.

Sunderland.  Darren Bent.  £18 million.  Aston Villa.  Yes, Aston Villa are yet another team to add to the list of those who have splashed the cash on someone whose name suggests that playing at the top end of the pitch is ill-advisable.  There are clauses in the deal which could and probably will cause the transfer to rise to £24 million.  Many have questioned the valuation of Bent, is £24 million really worth it?  Well in the last few seasons, he has scored as many goals as Drogba and Rooney, just over 80, so perhaps the price doesn’t seem too crazy.  Retaining Premiership status is important to the club who could easily find themselves being relegated this season if they are not careful, so to invest in someone whose goal-scoring record is right up there is priceless to them.

Liverpool have made several attempts to try to sign Blackpool’s captain Charlie Adam as well as a few other clubs.  Ian Holloway has stood firm and will not allow him to leave for the few million that has been put on the table by the clubs.  The highest bid appears to be in the region of six million pounds from Liverpool, but Holloway insists he will not sell until the number one has been placed in front of that six - and he has good reason to say this as Charlie Adam has been sensational this season and could easily slot into midfield at many top clubs in the division.

José Mourinho doesn’t seem to fancy Frenchman Karim Benzema, often overlooking him during the absence of Higuaín and trying out other possibilities.  With the lack of quality strikers available on the market, Mourinho has essentially been forced to sign Emmanuel Adebayor on loan from Manchester City with the option to permanently sign him in the summer.  This to me is a fantastic signing as Adebayor is a great all-round striker, with abilities to hold the ball up with his strength as well as pace and trickery to beat the defence despite his apparently languid stride.

Chelsea recently have made an outlandish bid for Liverpool’s Fernando Torres in the region of around £35 million, but this was rejected swiftly.  My personal opinion is that Torres will leave Liverpool, whether that is in this window or in the summer I am unsure.  His body language suggests that he does not really love the club despite the fact that he has stated his passion for it in the past and at the moment he is truly “walking alone”.

It also seems ridiculous that Liverpool would spend £23 million on Luis Suárez, who really is an unknown quantity, where is this money coming from?  The facts are that he has scored a goal about every 135 minutes, comparable to Torres who became the most prolific scorer in the Premier League history, scoring a goal every 120 minutes, but these goals for Suárez were for Ajax in the Eredivise, which isn’t a particularly challenging league.

To answer the question, it seems clear that this money will come from the sale of Torres to Chelsea, expected to be in the region of £40-50 million.  However, another question arises, is this purchase one that Ancelotti has commissioned or has it come from Abramovich?  My opinion is that Abramovich is really the one that wants to make this purchase, to prove to everyone that he still cares about the club and isn’t distracted by other things like World Cup 2012 in Russia.

The window will shut on 11pm tomorrow.  I would expect some more activity as there is always a mad scramble right up to and even past the deadline.  Perhaps the sagas of Fernando Torres and Charlie Adam will be settled.

Finally there is speculation about José Mourinho returning back to England.  At the moment he is involved in a public argument with the Director General of Real Madrid, Jorge Valdano.  This appears to be a clever move from Mourinho, as he is loved quite dearly in England, but with no open managerial positions in England that he would want, i.e. Manchester United, it leaves Real Madrid possibly having to make the choice of removing José Mourinho or Jorge Valdano.

Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston called the fine “unjust” and said the club could appeal against it. He also said he would ensure Holloway did not follow through with his threat to leave Broomfield Road.

BBC Sport Football writing about a rather belated fining of Blackpool fielding a “weakened” team against Aston Villa all the way back at the start of November 2010.

Not so sure that Ian Holloway will be too pleased with that statement, wonder what his reaction would be?

Carlo Caught Out!

Chelsea and Arsenal played out a great game at Stamford Bridge in the FA Youth Cup, with Chelsea the eventual 2-1 winners scoring in injury time.  However, courtesy of Soccer AM, there is a brilliant third eye spotted, I think, by staff of Chelsea TV.

It goes to show, it doesn’t matter who you are at the club, if you are in this lady’s seat, she will not be afraid to ask you to move.  Just have a look at the face of the man in the row behind!

No, I am not talking about the school sports day event, we have some serious football to discuss - the sack race.  In recent years, the latest trend by owners of clubs is to sack managers left, right and centre, instead of backing them for lengthy periods of time in order to achieve success.

I woke up this morning to expect a myriad of Premier League sackings including Roy Hodgson, Gérard Houllier, Avram Grant and even Carlo Ancelotti, but thankfully none of them have lost their job just yet.

Recently there have been several removal of managers from jobs including Rafa Benítez, Chris Hughton and Sam Allardyce, the English managers sacking were in my opinion totally unjustified.

Despite winning the Club World Cup (how could you not?) Rafa Benítez was sacked by Inter Milan and quite rightly so.  How can the treble-winning team of last season under José Mourinho suddenly play like they are misguided, lacking leadership and running around like headless chickens?  He also had the nerve to request for transfer funds to sign more players, as he felt their current squad was not good enough to challenge for major honours, something that greatly angered the club President Massimo Moratti.

Alan Pardew was brought in at Newcastle even though Chris Hughton was doing well, first bringing them back to the top tier in style and was flying high in the Premier League, bringing out the true potential of the Newcastle side.  Unfortunately for him, it was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, because if results such as drawing with Chelsea in the league and beating at Stamford Bridge in the Carling Cup, beating Arsenal at the Emirates, oh and the small matter of destroying their closest rivals Sunderland 5-1 were not enough to satisfy Mike Ashley, then it was obvious he was not being given a new contract.

Perhaps due to the current economic climate, clubs can no longer afford to sack managers, as they would potentially have to pay out large sums of money in compensation, which would have been the remaining wages the managers would have received.  This begs the question as to why Alan Pardew was given a five and a half year deal, in case things go wrong at Newcastle.  In all honesty I do not believe that he will be there for this length of time, taking into account the manager-merry-go-round that goes on at Tyneside and the fact that there are only a handful of managers in the whole of English football that have been in charge of a club for that long.

So the question is, who is next to go?  Avram Grant?  Roy Hodgson?  Here are the current odds provided by Victor Chandler for the next Premier League manager to be sacked:

• 4/7 - Roy Hodgson
• 2/1 - Carlo Ancelotti
• 11/2 - Avram Grant
• 10/1 - Gérard Houllier
• 14/1 - Mark Hughes
• 16/1 - Mick McCarthy
• 18/1 - Roberto Martínez
• 20/1 - David Moyes
• 20/1 - Roberto Mancini
• 20/1 - Alex McLeish
• 33/1 - Alan Pardew

This suggests it is overwhelmingly likely that Roy Hodgson is the next manager to be sacked in the Premier League.  This comes with some justification if looked at from an outside perspective: there are new owners at the club who did not appoint Roy Hodgson and will want someone who can manage the team in the way that they want and will want someone that they can rely on to spend sensibly in the transfer window, and start getting Liverpool some valuable points before they find themselves in the bottom three.  We should be careful however, as we do not know any of the internal problems that Liverpool have had since Benítez inevitably left the club.

Sam Allardyce was sacked from Blackburn Rovers unexpectedly, but does he have the credentials to be the next England manager?  With Fabio Capello’s reign soon coming to an end (the latest is after Euro 2012), it seems the current favourite is Harry Redknapp for his tremendous work at every club he has been at and his longevity and experience in the game.  Allardyce was in the running previously after Sven had gone, but was overlooked entirely, probably for being inexperienced compared to Capello and having won trophies only in the lower-tiers.  Maybe he will be at Liverpool soon having worked alongside Sammy Lee before at Bolton should Roy Hodgson get the sack?  Allardyce is remarkable at working with limited budget, being a good man-manager and using all technology possible at his disposal - these are all things Liverpool need at the moment.

All is not doom and gloom however, it should be noted that five out of the top 10 longest serving managers in the top four tiers of the English league (Barclays Premier League to npower League 2) are in the Premier League:

Some of the strangest recent news was Leonardo switching his allegiances to A.C. Milan.  My first reaction to this is simply, “WTF?”  How could the very inexperienced manager, former player, scout and technical director of A.C. Milan become the next manager of Inter Milan?  Leonardo left A.C. Milan due to a fallout with the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who also owns the club.  This seems fair enough given the eccentric nature of the Italian Prime Minister, but to move to Internazionale is unthinkable.  Inter currently find themselves seventh in Serie A, granted they could push up to fourth due to having two games in hand, but points are not points until games are played and won.  Little can be said about Leonardo as a manager, other than the fact that he was doing well with A.C. Milan, but with so little experience under his belt, it is hard to speculate as to how well he will do with Inter.

We all know José Mourinho is one of the world’s best managers in modern-day football, and quite rightly so.  He has this remarkable record of winning wherever he goes, bringing out the full potential of every squad he manages.

His playing career was not the best by any stretch of the imagination, and he soon realised that after being at four different clubs (Rio Ave, Belenenses, Sesimbra and Comércio e Indústria) over seven years with only a handful of appearances, his skills were better put to management.

In 1992 Mourinho was the interpreter for Bobby Robson helping translations between English and Portuguese.  Working alongside Robson helped him to gain a great amount of knowledge about management.  Mourinho moved with him afterwards to F.C. Porto and F.C. Barcelona before finally moving more into coaching and managing, rather than interpreting.  His reign of supremacy began when he was appointed as head coach of F.C. Porto in 2002.

Now for the main point of this article: Mourinho’s record is that at Christmas, whatever position he is in the league, is where he stays come the end of the season.  Just have a look at the table below that I have devised to illustrate my point, in which the teams have a distinctly blue theme.

Can Mourinho change his record and win the league this season?  Barcelona look very strong at the moment, but perhaps lack players beyond their first 11, as demonstrated in the Copa del Rey game this week where they had quite a lacklustre performance and drew 0-0 with Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou.  Should Barcelona pick up a few injuries to key players, they may not be able to keep demolishing teams in the manner that they are doing so at the moment, paving the way for Madrid, with their much larger squad, to steal the title.

Not too much to comment on in the Premier League this weekend as all but three games were called off due to the wintry weather, including the high profile showdown between Chelsea and Man Utd, despite the pitch being in perfect condition to play, the tube working and roads around Stamford Bridge clear of snow or ice.

The remaining games were Sunderland vs. Bolton Wanderers (1-0), Blackburn Rovers vs. West Ham United (1-1) and Manchester City vs. Everton (1-2).

West Ham found themselves 1-0 down to a very scrappy goal from Ryan Nelsen that lacked any sort of grace or technique, but the desire of Scott Parker enabled Junior Stanislas to grab a vital point for the Hammers.

Manchester City’s game-plan was undone early on by great play from Leighton Baines who played a big part in both goals, with Tim Cahill scoring another header just four minutes into the game, and Baines scoring himself in the 19th minute.  Two pieces of drama followed in the second half with Victor Anichebe picking up two unnecessary yellows, leaving Everton to hang on to a 2-0 lead with 30 minutes remaining with just ten men.  Man City got their lucky break with Jagielka scoring an unavoidable own goal in the 72nd minute.  Late into the game, the 90th minute, Kolo Touré picked up a sloppy second yellow card and will miss the game against high-flying Newcastle.

On-loan Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck scored the winner, a diving header, for Sunderland, but this was not the talking point of the match.  The moment of magic from the match was a match-winning save from Craig Gordon by clearing the ball up and over the bar on the line from a close-range shot from Zat Knight, which seemed destined to hit the back of the net.  If you wish to see the save have a look here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqAmG3xK9_Y.

The title of this article is a bit misleading, but still truthful, as Barcelona had finally conceded a goal for the 11th time this season (in the league, Champions League or Copa del Rey).

Barcelona had scored 31 goals without reply before finally conceding to Osvaldo’s 62nd-minute strike for Espanyol.  Victor Valdés had kept a clean sheet in all competitions for an incredible 666 minutes, and with much of the season still remaining, this number will probably be beaten.

If you have ever seen Barcelona play (if not, why not?) then you will see their style is extremely distinct, in which they attack and defend as a team, trying to keep possession and always seeking to press the player with the ball when they themselves are not in possession.  By pressing the player I mean hounding and surrounding them with four players, causing him to become trapped and actually having no choice but to give away the ball.  This style of play has resulted in 13 clean sheets this season in all competitions.

Barcelona have only conceded more than one goal in a game this season once, in a shock defeat against newly-promoted side Hércules at Camp Nou.  The defeat came as a real surprise as Barcelona were not even outplayed, and found themselves with a large amount of possession, but conceded a goal in each half from Valdez to lose 2-0.

Copa del Rey matches are taking place midweek, with Barcelona facing Athletic Bilbao.  Many of Barcelona’s key first team players were given a rest and others from the squad were given a chance including Pinto, Maxwell, Mascherano, Keita and Bojan.

Barcelona produced a lacklustre performance on a night where it was as cold as much of the football on display.  Barcelona were going through the motions, but the pace and intensity of the game was not as fast as usual.  Athletic Bilbao were hampered before a ball had even been kicked, as their talismanic striker Fernando Llorente was not fit to play.

Guardiola tried to change the game by bringing on two heavyweights from the bench - Messi and Villa.  The two players had some influence on the game, pinning Athletic Bilbao in their own half, but were unable to convert possession into goals. 

The game finished 0-0, which now leaves question marks about Barcelona.  Should they pick up a few injuries to key players, then it may be possible that their squad lacks enough depth to go all the way and win the league, as Real Madrid have quality and quantity in their squad.

The big event for the day was supposed to be Manchester United versus Arsenal, but this shared the limelight with the unexpected sacking of Sam Allardyce from Blackburn Rovers and suggestions of Carlos Tevez leaving Manchester City.

The big news from today was Sam Allardyce’s sacking from Blackburn Rovers after being their manager for just under two years.  As I had recently reported, Blackburn Rovers have been taken over by the Indian Rao family, who run Venky’s, a poultry company.  Big Sam had enjoyed good success with the club, so it was completely baffling as to why he was removed as the manager, as he has seemingly done nothing wrong.  The owners want someone different who can instill a new mentality into the players and press on to becoming a club consistently in the European competitions.  None of this can happen without money from the owners to purchase quality players, and the manager who follows Allardyce will have big boots to fill as he seemed to bring out the best in the current squad.

It has been reported that Tevez has handed in a transfer request, for which the reason is unknown, despite having three and half years remaining on his contract.  The most likely reason being that he is homesick and wishes to go back to Argentina, however others are saying he may have fallen out with staff at the club or even is unhappy with his extraordinary £286k a week.  One thing is for sure that no one really knows what is going on at Manchester City with regards to Tevez’s contract and his relationship with the manager, the board or even the tea lady, and quite frankly we should never find out and it should be kept in-house.

I will not dwell too much on the game between Arsenal and Manchester United, in which United dominated the first half and it ended up finishing 1-0 to Manchester United with Ji-Sung Park scoring a magnificent header in the 41st minute, which was unstoppable.  Wayne Rooney missed a glorious opportunity to make it 2-0 by blazing a penalty over the bar and into row Z.  Arsenal surprised everyone by giving a Premier League debut to 20-year-old Wojciech Szczesny in goal.

Chelsea missed a last minute penalty at White Hart Lane and therefore missed out on a 2-1 victory against Tottenham Hotspurs and a chance to temporarily go top of the Barclays Premier League.  Chelsea have only won one game in seven, which is considered as relegation form, during which their worst defeat was at Stamford Bridge 3-0 to Sunderland.  Key players have now returned including Essien (toe), Lampard (groin), Terry (hamstring) and Drogba (malaria).  Who knows what might have happened to Chelsea had Cech been injured along with these other players, as goalkeepers Ross Turnbull and Henrique Hilário do not breathe confidence to the back line and do not have the same presence as Petr Čech.

About 20 goals were scored this weekend, which is quite low for the league this season, with the highest in a weekend being 41.  Two penalties were awarded, however none were converted - Rooney missed quite badly over the bar against Arsenal and Drogba’s was heroically saved.  Despite the lack of goals there was plenty of action and great twists and turns in the title race.

Sources:

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6574955,00.html

http://www.skysports.com/football/match_preview/0,19764,11065_3329058,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/13/sam-allardyce-sacked-manager-blackburn-rovers

http://www.skysports.com/football/match_preview/0,19764,11065_3329056,00.html

http://sport.uk.msn.com/test-gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=155512269

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/7972910/England-defender-John-Terry-carrying-hamstring-injury-ever-since-World-Cup.html

http://eva-news.com/chelsea/chelsea-frank-lampard-latest-injury-update/213854

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/11/08/2203878/chelsea-boss-carlo-ancelotti-confirms-michael-essien-could

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/nov/09/didier-drogba-chelsea-malaria

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/-jKr_69tIHa/Blackburn+Rovers+Press+Conference

http://www.soccer360.co.uk/images/

Samir Nasri Auditions for Strictly Come Dancing

Let me start by saying, yes, this is probably a slightly biased post being an Arsenal fan, but don’t let that get in the way, just sit back and admire the goals.

The inspirational captain Francesc Fàbregas is suffering a combined effect of nursing a World Cup hangover and hamstring injuries, so has lacked his true form all season.  Samir Nasri, however, has stepped up to the plate, filling in for the captain, and hit the ball out of the park by grabbing a crucial brace against Fulham to win the game 2-1.

For the first goal Arshavin beautifully poked the ball through to Nasri across the edge of the box, from left to right.  Nasri still had a lot to do, who danced past two defenders by leaving them for dead on the floor dragging the ball to the side once they committed to the block, followed by a rifling left-footed shot into the back of the net.

Despite Arsenal’s dominance, Fulham equalised due to an unfortunate clash of heads between Arsenal’s defenders, resulting in Koscielny being knocked out by Squillaci and having to be taken off.

Nasri scored another sublime goal at the completion of exactly 75 minutes.  Robin van Persie on the edge of the box sets himself up to shoot, but instead opts to pass the ball into Nasri’s path, who is running into the box.  Nasri had the “touch of an angel” to somehow find the space by chopping past the last defender and the goalkeeper and score from an acute “angel”.

These two goals makes it 8 in 13 starts for Nasri in the Barclays Premier League.

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75_43bPXs2Q

Amsterdam’s AFC Ajax hosted a Group G UEFA Champions League game on matchday five exactly one week ago.  It was a fantastic game, resulting in the home team failing to score, with four put past them by Madrid.  Each goal was well-crafted, but incidents at the end of the game are those that will be remembered.

Pictured above is José Mourinho telling Jerzy Dudek to relay a message to Sergio Ramos via Iker Casillas.  The message was to tell Ramos to get booked for a second time during added time, resulting in him being sent off and missing the game on matchday six.  This would also have meant Ramos would have his slate wiped clean in terms of bookings following through to the knockout round from the group stage.  Indeed Ramos followed his orders and got sent off for time wasting during the taking of a goal kick.  Minutes before this Mourinho was seen speaking to Xabi Alonso, who also got sent off just before the end of 90 minutes, in the same manner, for the same reason.

José Mourinho has been suspended from coaching activities for two UEFA club competition matches, of which the second is deferred for a probationary period of three years. He was also fined €40,000.

Mourinho will receive a one game ban now, and if charged again within the next three years, will serve another one game ban.

Players Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos were fined €20,000, Iker Casillas was fined €10,000 and Jerzy Dudek was fined €5,000.

Those players indirectly involved have been fined smaller amounts than the two players who were sent off.

The red cards given to Alonso and Ramos stand, and they have therefore been suspended for one UEFA club competition match.

The players will still obviously have to serve their one game ban.

The Control and Disciplinary Body has decided to fine Real Madrid CF €120,000.

The club itself has been fined what to them is peanuts.

An appeal may be lodged against the ruling within three days of the dispatch of the reasoning for the decision.

If an appeal is made, I can’t see how it will be accepted, as it seems quite clear that Madrid were being “unsporting.”

This disciplinary action, combined with Madrid’s non-appearance at Camp Nou, resulting in a 5-0 hammering, means it is safe to say that it was not the best week for José Mourinho and Madrid.

Sources:

http://en.uefa.com/uefa/footballfirst/matchorganisation/disciplinary/news/newsid=1570988.html

Going into Sunday, four teams were responsible for the making of a Premier League record: Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle and Tottenham.  The record in question was for every team to have scored in the same matchday and was set as the champions Chelsea drew 1-1 with Newcastle at St James’ Park, followed by Tottenham’s last minute 2-1 win over Liverpool.  This weekend saw the Premier League equal a matchday record for the current format, with 41 goals scored in total.  I don’t have much to add, so I will let the stats and quotes do the talking.

Infostrada Sports: “There were 41 goals in this Premier League match round. On 8-10 November 1997 and 21-22 February 2004 (including rescheduled match on March 17, 2004) also 41 goals were scored. This is the highest amount of goals in one match round since it became a 20-team league (1995-96).”

Unusually, this weekend, there were less home wins than draws or away wins, both penalties awarded were missed and over 75% of goals scored were from open play.

Here is a text sent in to the BBC that describes Sunday in a nutshell:

Joe Dempsey, Lancashire, on text: “So Martin Skrtel ensures we have our Premier League record by scoring both goals. Barmy. I wonder if he is consoled by this. Probably not. Tottenham really are the comeback kids. They’re never beaten until that full-time whistle blows. Premier League contenders? On this form, why not.”

Martin Skrtel was the man who made the record possible for every Premier League team to score a goal on the same matchday by, first, giving his team the lead with a tidy finish after the ball rebounded off David N’Gog and, then, unfortunately scoring an equalising own goal by getting on the end of a square ball in the box from Modric, who burst through a crowd of Liverpool players with a quick change of pace.

Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov put his name in the record books for scoring the most number of goals in a Premier League game: five.  Berbatov appeared to be in the right place at the right time for each goal, a predatory instinct, but it was fair to say that Lady Luck was on his side.  He becomes the fourth player to achieve such a feat alongside the greats Andy Cole and Alan Shearer, as well as Jermain Defoe who put five past Wigan in a 9-1 drubbing at White Hart Lane last season.  Berbatov has enjoyed goal binges, as he has scored a total of 11 league goals this season, but with eight of those coming in just two games.

Sources:

Images Courtesy of Sky Sports

Infrostrada Sports

http://pictures.metro.co.uk/

Real Madrid are looking like real contenders for the UEFA Champions League with a fabulous four goal victory without reply in Amsterdam against Ajax.  The result puts them as the winners of Group G, with AC Milan second and the UEFA Europa League place to be decided on matchday six between Ajax and Auxerre.

All of the goals scored by Madrid were worthy of winning the Champions League Final, but as brilliant as they were, this match will not be remembered for its goals.

Xabi Alonso was sent off in the 87th minute by receiving a second yellow card for delaying the taking of a free kick.  Alonso staggered his run forwards and backwards for over 20 seconds, claiming that he had no targets to hit, before the referee stepped in to book him for time wasting.

Similarly in the first minute of added time, Iker Casillas stepped aside, allowing Sergio Ramos to take a goal kick, who then was also given his marching orders for wasting time.  Audaciously, Ramos also shook the referee’s hand as if to say, “Thank you for sending me off,” before stepping off the pitch.

Due to their dismissal, the pair will be set to miss matchday six against Auxerre, which is a meaningless game for Madrid.  The current rules mean that both of these players will start the knockout round with a clean slate instead of carrying through their yellow cards.  This is why they took the hit now rather than miss, for example, the first leg of the first knockout round.

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho was seen speaking to Xabi Alonso minutes before his dismissal, whilst Jerzy Dudek was apparently sent to relay a message to Ramos via Casillas.  Everyone related to the incident denies any knowledge of it being pre-planned.  Many see this behaviour as unsporting, but I say fair play to them for abusing the rules, which are quite silly as they stand.

Even after those two bizarre incidents, Luis Suarez wanted a bit of action from the referee too, who must have been reminiscing about his time at the 2010 World Cup, by committing a hand ball in the final seconds of the match, which went unpunished.

To top it all off, the referee for the match was Scot Craig Thomson, who is currently under the spotlight for refusing to officiate in the SPL.  This is due to the conspiracy surrounding Celtic’s lack of refereeing decisions going for them, such as the blatant handball committed by Hearts’ Ryan Stevenson in the box, in a 2-0 defeat for Celtic, a match which Thomson was officiating, who then sent Neil Lennon to the stands for his reaction.

Sources:

Images courtesy of Sky Sports

http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19764,11065_3315158,00.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/9172846.stm