Chelsea vs Liverpool 16.00. 20/11/2011

Glen Johnson’s struck a late winner at Stamford Bridge as Liverpool offered fresh hope to qualify for the Champions League.

Chelsea’s dismal Premier League run under manager Andre-Villas-Boas continued- they have lost three of their last four games in the league.

The home side dominated possession in the first 20 minutes, keeping the ball efficiently. Liverpool did offer a patchy counter-attacking threat through the South American duo of Luis Suarez and Maxi Rodriguez.

John Obi Mikel hit a sizzling drive after 10 minutes that just went over the bar, the first of only two chances for Chelsea in the first half.

Both teams were robust in midfield and the Brazilian Lucas provided robust resistance on Rameies and picked up a yellow card for his challenge on fellow countryman David Luiz.

Chelsea’s defence were playing a high line and were punished when Petr Cech played a dangerous ball out to Mikel.

The midfielder was quickly robbed by Craig Bellamy who sliced through and played a one-two with Suarez who gifted a chance for Maxi Rodriguez.

The Argentinian made no mistake and slotted past Cech from 4 yards out on the half hour mark.

A subdued Stamford Bridge became even quieter.

Sky Sports were convinced that Didier Drogba had scored from a direct free kick when he shot flashed passed Pepe Reina, but the ball eluded the net.

Chelsea came out well after the break when Lampard and Mata fed Didier Drogba but the Ivorian struck over the bar from 12 yards out.
Daniel Sturridge came on for the ineffectual Mikel at half time and had an instant impact, bundling home his sixth goal of the season from Malouda’s cross-shot.

David Luiz could have added a second a minute later but was thwarted by a fantastic Reina save from 6 yards out.

Chelsea’s attacking impetus was working and the West Londoners were beginning to look dangerous in the final third.

Stamford Bridge was noticeably louder.

From what had been a physical midfield battle was becoming a pacier affair in the crisp London air.

However, with five minutes to play, full back Glen Johnson picked up a cross field pass and skipped past Ashley Cole and drilled in a low shot into the bottom left hand corner.

John Terry was left floundering yet again, which is becoming an all too bad habit of his.

Liverpool clearly wanted the win more and deserved to grab all three points at the end of a hard fought game.

Carlos Tevez has once again missed training with Manchester City; hardly the words to conjure up sympathy within the ranks of football supporters. ‘How could anyone be depressed on a million a month?’ ‘£198,000 a week. Depressing times indeed’ said disgruntled readers on the Daily Mirror’s website.

There’s been a lot of confusion and scratching of heads since Tevez’ latest decision to leave Manchester and return to his homeland Argentina. We’ve heard bland statements from his management representatives, they said “This is an ongoing matter and we will not be making further comment.”

Why is it so difficult to imagine that Carlos Tevez is indeed depressed and cannot face another week playing for or sitting on the bench for Manchester City?

Is it because that Money (that’s right, with a capital M) equals happiness is the watertight theory of the 21st century?

I don’t believe that theory for a minute.

Depression is a serious topic and it is real. Look at other sportsman who suffer from the illness of depression such as Marcus Trescothick, Michael Yardy and Shaun Tait. Nobody ever gave them a hard time in the media when they pulled out of their respective sports to take time out.

I can understand why people would respond to Tevez’ latest ‘excuse’ with strong sceptism, but I feel we have to respond with nothing other than compassion.

Give Carlos a break. He is away from his family, is in a demanding job, is away from the sunshine, wants to leave but is not allowed to.

Next time he plays football for Manchester City applaud him, don’t boo him. He lights up the League with his skill and verve and deserves to be appreciated.

City talisman Yaya Toure stated in a recent interview that his team can match the Arsenal of 2004 and go unbeaten in this years Premier League.

He said in a launch of Puma’s African National Cup kits, “We hope we can continue unbeaten, we are playing fantastic football.”

Although the blue side of Manchester have enjoyed an excellent start to their campaign- the obvious highlight beating United 6-1 at Old Trafford, I simply do not believe City have what it takes to match Arsene Wenger’s supremely talented side. Why?

City lack the focus and skill that the likes of Henry, Bergkamp and Pires brought to Arsenal. City are clearly difficult to play against and have great power going forward but they do not have the team spirit of the Arsenal team of 2004.

Two of the their best players, Kolo Toure and Carlos Tevez have been severely disciplined by the club; Toure is expected to accept a six weeks’ wages fine following his conduct of a drugs test scandal and Tevez was suspended for two weeks, made to train on his own and found to be in breach of five breaches of contract. The Tevez saga continues to rumble on and, in my opinion, threatens to derail the team spirit instilled by Mancini this season.

This kind of thing would never happen at Arsenal. When David Dein resigned as Arsenal chairman in April 2007, it marked the end of a glorious era and kickstarted a run of four years without a trophy. When Gary Cook resigned in September 2011 (in highly embarrassing circumstances) I believe the same thing could happen.

Arsenal have nothing to worry about- their record will remain intact. City will be good this season, but not quite good enough…

This summer, Tottenham Hotspur have shown Arsenal how it’s done when it comes to holding onto your best players. Spurs can look forward to enjoying Luka Modric’s services this season as well as Emmanuel Adebayor as a striker- clearly one of the best strikers in the Premier League.

Where Wenger has remained defiant in the face of loss, Redknapp has played his cards close to his chest- and come out victorious. Spurs have acquired real world class experience when Arsenal will have to make do with Aaron Ramsey and Emmanuel Frimpong holding the team together.

I’ll let you decide which Emmanuel is the better footballer…

Adebayor is a huge signing for Spurs. They will get real and lasting quality in the final third and also have fine back- up when it comes to scoring goals. Roman Pavlyuchenko has proven himself as a super-sub and Jermain Defoe can reignite his sizzling form that he had two years ago.

Impressive young players Jake Livermore and Kyle Walker show that Tottenham do have an Arsenal inspired future- Harry knows a special young player when he sees one.

Wenger is seeing his midfield being completely taken apart by rival clubs while Spurs have planned for the right here and the right now which means signing the top players when they become available. Wenger and Arsenal are fading, while Spurs are enjoying a powerful renaissance.

Fans have argued that Ade won’t fit in at Tottenham due to his temperament and strong Arsenal links, but I say he will be an erudite acquisition by Spurs. Strong, unpredictable and ready to give the North Londoners deserved Champions League football yet again- Ade will be a big hit on White Hart Lane.

It’s clear that Arsene Wenger needs someone new at Arsenal as months of ongoing transfer gossip involving the sales of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas finally look to be coming to a close.

Team spirit is Wenger’s number one priority, he constantly repeats it in his interviews, and I would strongly concur with him. How the team plays is infinitely more important how the individual plays.

Today looks to be the day that Wenger puts the unrest to bed, and brings in a player that the club desperately needs, a player who knows how to win domestically (five titles in seven years), is a tough tackling midfielder, and can score goals from inside and outside the box.

Jadson will be that man for Arsenal and can fill the midfield ‘void.’

I think this will also be the season where we see a shift the way Arsenal play football; the ticca- tacca  making way for a more direct, brooding style that will relieve and medicate fans’ fears of the side’s frustrating and ponderous passing.

Finally, the only players left at the club will be players who want to play for the club. Enough of the indecisiveness, the ego’s and the complaining on the pitch.

Next season, there is no room for fluff in the Arsenal team. Samir Nasri can pocket his £165,000 a week- it won’t make him a better player at City.

Arsenal fans on Twitter have lauded Wenger’s bargaining abilities once again- £12m for a Brazilian in his prime is a fantastic piece of business in my opinion. I believe that Jadson will improve the Arsenal midfield more than Fabregas ever could.

A stronger physical presence, the same skill of footwork and a better attitude on and off the pitch will ensure a great season for the Gunners.

Sergio Aguero playing as a lone striker? It’s possible he could play second fiddle to Mario Balotelli, Edin Dzeko, or even Carlos Tevez during the Premier League season.

£39 million for Aguero is a record signing for the City rich boys, surpassing the £32.5m spent on flop Robinho but will their new number 16 be worth it?

I think that Roberto Mancini will be forced to alter his tactics next season and his overall demeanour towards the players. He can be quite cold and strict; Mario Balotelli won’t forget being subbed off after his cheeky back-heel last week!

Sergio Aguero is an incredibly imaginative player, full of unpredictable dribbling that tests and confuses the opposition. He is extremely strong from the waist down and can score from anywhere. Mancini’s defensive management style may not suit the young Argentinian’s play, although Carlos Tevez has carried the lone front man role admirably over the past two seasons. Tevez and Aguero both fit the ‘Maradona mould,’  Aguero scoring 74 goals in his last 4 seasons- 6 more than Tevez. It’s clear that Tevez is on his way out of Eastlands with Inter Milan his likely destination this summer.

Playing both little men up front will not work for City, which is why Samir Nasri has been so closely courted by the club. Nasri, Silva and Aguero will be a terrifying dexterous front three, not dissimilar to United’s attacking triangle of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez of 2007-2009 although less powerful. Dzeko and Balotelli are also commanding options to have on the bench.

If City can poach Nasri from under Arsenal’s noses then the Sky Blues look real contenders for the Premier League trophy.

The only thing that stands in their way is their conservative and cautious manager.

They defended him, they worked their socks off for him and praised him in front of Mohammed Al Fayed when he demanded why the club was in the relegation zone at Christmas.

The players rallied together in strong spirit, digging the club out of bad league form with booming away wins at Stoke, Birmingham and Sunderland whilst keeping up their excellent home form, propelling Fulham FC to their second highest top flight finish and securing European football.

However, Mark Hughes has resigned as Fulham boss, even after releasing a public statement saying that he had no intention of leaving the club and was looking forward to next year.

As a Fulham fan myself I was looking forward to next season already with Hughes at the helm. Of course, his physical play didn’t exactly fit the Fulham ethos. Fulham are no Blackburn Rovers and don’t look to employ the likes of Robbie Savage and El-Hadj Diouf.

A strong first XI was firmly in place and this summer was designed to bring in a top playmaker and strength in depth for the busy Europa excursion ahead. Now, with three managers in three seasons it is going to be difficult for the players to adapt yet again to a different style of playing.

Hughes has not covered himself in glory in his latest decision and his departure has sparked a predictably furious reaction from fans.
His shady agent, Kia Joorbrachin has overseen the careers of Carlos Tevez and Javier Maschereno and is clearly a man with money on his mind. Money ahead of morals perhaps?

It looks like Hughesy could be left with egg on his face. Aston Villa have reportedly got cold feet about hiring him, given his abrupt fling with Fulham and decidedly cold departure. It looks like (from the outside) that he is using smaller clubs as a ‘stepping stone’ to bigger clubs with more transfer funds.

There’s nothing wrong with healthy ambition, but it would help his cause if he didn’t lie his way through his jobs, telling chairman Al Fayed that he is staying and then 24 hours later, announcing that he is leaving for pastures new.

Mark, I’m disappointed in your lack of faith in Fulham, the players and staff and the fans but I’m not too sad to see you leave West London. Your press conferences were always anodyne and your aggressive footballing mentality were not always welcome.

However, thank you for giving young players such as Matthew Briggs and David Stockdale a chance in the league against top sides. I’m sure they will be great players in the future for the club and possibly even for England.

Fulham FC could do with some stability and consistency. In the words of Mary J. Blige- “No More Drama.”

Good luck in getting rich Mr Hughes…

It’s been a pretty good year for spendaholics in the Premier League. Manchester City have made the Champions League, therefore robbing fans of meeker sides of ridicule. Job done, but will City’s stars escape ridicule?

Here are my top 10 flops of the season.

1. Fernando Torres: £50 million. His arrival was designed to galvanise the Chelsea squad and to win the Premier and Champions League. Torres was useless against United in both decisive games, being subbed off at half time in the Champions league tie and anonymous in the league decider at Old Trafford. It’s time to improve for next season but this season, his impact, body language and goal scoring record for Chelsea has been so poor that Roman Abramovich must be totally tearing his hair out.

2. Joe Cole: Free: Another Chelsea- Liverpool swap that went badly wrong- this transfer seemingly signalling a new dawn at Anfield. By Christmas, Liverpool were 17th and Cole hadn’t made any sort of impact or scored a goal in the league. Steven Gerrard’s description of Cole being as good as Lionel Messi was just funny and added insult to injury.

3. Mario Balotelli: £25 million: He may have a sweet shot on him but his attitude stinks! Moody, disconnected from the team and very aggressive (2 red cards) has not written him into the hearts of Manchester City supporters.

4.Rogue Santa Cruz: Loan: Completely anonymous this season for Blackburn Rovers. Goalscoring duties have had to fall on the shoulders of Jason Roberts and Nikola Kalinic as Santa Cruz has scored as many goals for Blackburn Rovers this season as I have- none.

5. Robbie Keane: Loan: Spurs- West Ham. Didn’t take his chances for the Hammers as they were relegated. Who to blame? Surely not all Keane’s doing? Missed too many one-one opportunities in my book and managed just two goals in four months at Upton Park.

6. Andrei Arshavin: Played more games than any other Arsenal player this season (37 appearances) but refused to stand up and be counted when Arsenal were shaky. Negative body language on the pitch tested Arsene Wenger’s already stretched patience this term and it’s likely he may return to Zenit St Petersburg in the summer.

7. Mauro Bosselli: A £6m signing from Estudiantes to Wigan Athletic was brought to a painful close after just 8 games in the Premier League and no goals scored. Currently on loan at Genoa and he’ll probably stay there due to being completely useless. Also missed a vital penalty against West Ham.

8. Christain Poulson: Liverpool’s £4.5m signing by Woy Hodgson was not the best. Last started a game in January. Incredible that he’s held down a regular first-team place at Seville, Juventus and Schalke for so many years. On his way out in the summer.

9. Paul Konchesky: £4m from Fulham. Despised by Liverpool fans from the moment he put on the shirt and became their first choice left-back. Made 16 appearances before being loaned out to Nottingham Forest. Seems to have found his level.

10. Laurent Koscielny: The Arsenal defender has contributed to his sides shoddy set-piece defensive work this season, 53% of Arsenal’s conceded goals were from set-pieces: the highest in the league. Will Wenger stick with him and Squillaci at the back? Hopefully not for Gooners…

Manchester City’s compounding defeat at the hands of Chelsea yesterday has put another nail into the coffin of manager Roberto Mancini.

The man cannot seem to get to grips with the Premier League. His side was far too cautious yesterday with defensive minded players Barry and De Jong literally offering time and space to Michael Essien and Ramires in midfield.

City are without an away win since Boxing Day- a damning statistic for such an expensively assembled team. It’s not the fact that City don’t have the players, it’s just that Mancini refuses to take risks in order to compete for Champions League football next season- surely the minimum requirement for the Citizens? Sturdy fullback Branislav Ivanovic consistently pushed David Silva inside and the midfield triplet of Yaya Toure, Milner, De Jong and Gareth Barry failed (as ever) to provide adequate attacking support for Edin Dzeko. The Bosnian has yet to break his Premier League duck and apart from his narrowly missed header at Stamford Bridge, didn’t look like fulfilling his huge price tag.

It hasn’t been a bad season for City; but it could have been so much better if operational risks were undertaken.

Tottenham were unlucky not to score past West Ham on Saturday, and on merits of this season I would prefer Spurs to make it into the European top tier next season. They play entertaining football. They expect to score in every game and they deserve another crack regardless of the result against Real Madrid in the quarter- finals.

Mancini said a draw at Stamford Bridge would have been a “fantastic result.”
Would it?

With whingeing comments from the City camp such as “the ball kept coming back at us and the players were so tired” it is difficult to maintain any great sympathy to their current predicament.

With Tottenham breathing down City’s neck in the race for fourth place and Spurs’ visit to Eastlands yet to be rearranged, City will wince at the thought of last season repeating itself.

Perhaps a wake-up call is all they really need?

Inter Milan’s resounding 5-3 victory against Roma has led calls that manager Leonardo is starting to put forward his expressive Brazilian roots in his sides’ style of football.

Inter was unmistakeably beautiful when going forward, combining precise passing, electrifying pace and incredible accuracy from outside the box (just ask Wesley Sneijder.) Although their defensive frailties were exposed by Roma, who managed to make it 4-3 with 10 minutes left, Inter in my opinion, have showed enough guile to be one of the favourites to retain the Champions League.

Leonardo, who replaced disgraced boss Rafael Benetiz in December has made good progress in the Serie A table, cutting AC Milan’s lead to just five points with a game in hand and has won his first nine games out of 10.

It may be churlish to compare Inter style of football under Leonardo with Ian Holloway’s Blackpool but the table never lies. Inter have an excellent scoring record this year (44 goals in 24 matches) but have conceded 27- just four less than relegation candidates Cesena.

However, defensive lynchpins Lucio and Walter Samuel were missing from the starting line-up, with Lucio possibly missing the round of 16 game with Bayern Munich on the 23rd of February.

Leonardo has described the fight for the Serie A title as “tight” and added after his sides entertaining win,

“I remain a Brazilian and 5-3 is a result that I like.”

There is only so much that one can take from another human being before one snaps.

I have immense respect for the man from a footballing perspective; he has put so much into the British game as we know it, reforming the entire drinking and dietary culture around the game and contributing a new attacking flair with a dogged defensive solidity. His teams have produced some of the greatest strikers, midfielders and defenders the Premier League has ever seen. Henry, Bergkamp, Adams, Fabregas, Viera.

Sublime.

However, things haven’t been going Monsieur Wenger’s way for a while now and he is not happy. He is doing what most of us do, and that is blame extenuating circumstances for his and his team’s misfortune. Frankly, it embarrasses me to see a grown up, intelligent man with so much going for him blaming the state of a pitch for his sides recent loss.

Wenger said of the pitch, “The overall technical quality of the game suffered from a very bad pitch.”

Manchester United were, in my opinion, the better team on Monday night and they deserved their narrow victory. It hurts Arsenals’ fans pride to admit this, but until real progress can be made, these things need to be faced up to. Then Arsenal football club can step out of the blame game and move onwards and upwards with realism and humility.

Who is to blame for Arsenal’s recent loss to Manchester United? The manager, staff and the players.

Who is to blame for Arsenal’s five year trophy-less haul? The manager, staff and the players.

All is not lost for Arsenal Football Club and Arsene Wenger. They have the ability to be a great club yet again.

But first they must face up or shut up.

After scanning the under 21 squad list for the upcoming fixtures against Portugal and Lithuania, I realised that we have a fantastic group of young players. Look at them: Wiltshire! Smalling! Albrighton! Rodwell! Carroll!

All these youngsters have shone in the Premier League for their respective clubs, so why can’t they make the step up to senior level and replace the displace Lampard, Gerrard and Beckham- relics of an already forgotton age?

Maybe they could- their fresh faced enthusiasm could give fans something to look forward to yet again. However, I am really struggling to see how English football can fundamentally change and at least challenge the Spain’s and Germany’s of this world in the next 10 years.

I am more than happy to give these youthful maestros a chance, but the possible call- up of Mikel Arteta is not much of an invitation for English footballers to play for their country. You play well for your team and then a Spaniard with ‘dual-nationality’ comes and takes your place. True, he’s probably a better player than most of the English midfielders pushing for a first team place, but calling up Arteta would be an admission of defeat and another kick in the face for our beleaguered squad.

It will take time, but we need a top to toe change in the way we coach players in England. Only then will we see an improvement in the way we play football.

It sounds simple- but look where the current set up has got us?

Pretty much nowhere.