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Carling Cup: Gunners and Spurs through to SF

December 19th 2007 04:30
Carling Cup


Arsenal's classy youngsters and and ten-man Tottenham advanced through to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup overnight with wins over Blackburn and Manchester City respectively.

Fielding an entire reserve side, Arsene Wenger's team of youngsters look set to emulate last season's runners-up with a gritty extra time win over Blackburn. The visitors started sensationally and took a 2-0 lead through Abou Diaby's volley and Eduardo's low finish.


The home side returned fire with a brace from the classy Roque Santa Cruz but Arsenal striker Eduardo slotted the winner in extra time to send the Gunners into the semi-final despite losing Denilson to a red card at the end of normal time.

Meanwhile, at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester City's proud 100% home record under Sven Goran Eriksson was ended by ten-man Spurs courtesy of goals from England striker Jermain Defoe and Steed Malbranque.

Tottenham were reduced to 10 men as early as the 21st minute when Zokora was sent off by referee Steve Bennett for a lunge at Elano with the score at 1-0 to the visitors.


Understandably, Spurs were soon on the back foot but dug deep to hold off the attacking Manchester City to seal the win in the 82nd minute with Malbranque's strike.

Provided that both Arsenal and Tottenham progress through to the finals, we shall witness an interesting clash between London's most bitter rivals.





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EPL Title Contest?

August 22nd 2007 23:34
Barclaycard Premiership


Now that three rounds of Premiership action have passed, full of surprises and curious situations, the big question of who will obtain the title this year gets even harder to answer a view on the performance of the top teams in the first rounds would make this task a little bit easier.

Chelsea are the current favourites of the bookies(2.10), but to be frank I'm not impressed with them. Pizzaro, Malouda and co are yet to show their capabilities, and they are quiality players, but this season I think that the problem for Chelsea won't be up front, they have too many top-class players there, and in case they don't play against Liverpool for instance(sorry but Chelsea were so plain and without any ideas against Benitez's boys last week), they will score enough. The issue is that they concede too many goals. It's not the pragmatic Chelsea of the last seasons, who scored one or two but didn't allow the opponents to respond(it was trendy to bet 1-0 or 2-0 correct score when Chelsea are at home). Now we have 3-2 at home against NEWCOMERS of Birmingham, 1-2 away to Reading and 1-1 at Anfield. The first two wins were very hard, and basically for a team with Chelsea's likes, such matches are supposed to be easier. And the draw against Liverpool was a gift from the referee, Liverpool were the winners there.

Liverpool is the team that is about to be the new participant in the pursue of the title. After spending more than 50 million euro for players like Torres, Babel and Voronin Benitez has no excuses now. Previous seasons Liverpool made more than enough for the capabilities of their squad, but now they have to fight for the Premiership, 18 years without a title is just too much. Benitez will put into action his famous rotation principle, that enabled Valencia some years ago to win two times La Liga. Still, we haven't seen enough from Liverpool, but judging from the performance against Chelsea,
their style remains the old one - pragmatic, deadly tactical and disciplined football. But now that they have a variety of performers, Merseysiders could be more stable and endanger not only the Champions League contenders as before, but Chelsea and Manchester United as well.
The odds for Liverpool to win Outright were 6.50 in the beggining of the season, and now are 4.50, which speaks for itself.
Keep eyes on the Sunderland - Liverpool match in the weekend, I consider it a very important one for Liverpool's self-confidence after the blow against Chelsea.

Manchester United hit a bad streak in the first rounds. 2 draws and 1 lost in a row are results that we haven't seen from the Red Devils in the last two seasons. But it would be an airy statement that United are out. They just need one win to boost their confidence, and good results will flow. I guess, Tottenham this Sunday will be the first victims, though this promises to be a very tight fixture. Yes, it will be more difficult without injured Rooney and the suspended Ronaldo, but a team with the likes of United must be able to cope with such situations. My personal prediction is that United will bounce back in the next rounds and we will witness a three-sided fight for the title this season. A really intriguing one.

Arsenal, the other member of 'the big four', don't have the capability and the squad for the title. No offence to their fans, but this is reality and now without Henry it's even harder.

Some said that Tottenham will be able to intrude in big four's hegemony, but they still are quite unstable. And I'm really puzzled why did Jol buy Darren Bent for so much money, instead of strengthening his defensive line with experienced backs. So now he has around 5 forwards, but if a defender is injured(like skipper Ledley King is now), defensive problems occur.
Sorry, just UEFA for Tottenham, or the maximum is a fight with Arsenal for the 4th position.


So, perhaps the most intriguing season in the best league in the world is in front of us.

For previews and stuff before the rounds, see my b-log


Opinions are welcome!
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Crouch scores sensational hat-trick for Liverpool

April 2nd 2007 05:58
Barclaycard Premiership


Sat, Mar 31:

Liverpool 4 - 1 Arsenal
Bolton 1 - 0 Sheff Utd
Charlton 1 - 0 Wigan
Fulham 1 - 1 Portsmouth
Man Utd 4 - 1 Blackburn
Newcastle 0 - 1 Man City
West Ham 2 - 0 Middlesbrough
Watford 0 - 1 Chelsea

Sun, Apr 1:

Tottenham 1 - 0 Reading

SUMMARY:



No England supporter would ever have imagined themselves saying this, but boy did England miss out on the goal-scoring 'prowess' of Liverpool striker Peter Crouch.

The England striker signalled his come-back from surgery to a broken nose with a sensational hat-trick against Arsenal at Anfield.

The Bean-pole striker's first goal came as early as the 4th minute when Jermaine Pennant and Alvaro Arbeloa exchanged exquisite back-heels to setup the first goal.

Half an hour later, Crouch doubled his side's lead from a set-piece after being fouled by Kolo Toure. Xabi Alonso delivered a pin-point free-kick into the box for Crouch to power home the header. 2 - 0 Liverpool.

Rather than sit back and defend their lead, the Reds came out for the second-half in search for more blood and Daniel Agger delivered the third goal with a glancing header in the 60th minute.

Soon after, Arsenal bundled in a consolation goal through former Chelsea defender William Gallas - why do centre-backs always seem to have a knack for scoring against Liverpool (think Rio Ferdinand earlier this season).

Peter Crouch, high on confidence after two great goals in the first half, completed his brilliant hat-trick in the 81st minute when he danced around in the box before firing a left-foot shot pass the helpless Lehmann.

A fantastic result for the Reds that could go a long way in determining who ends up with the coveted third spot in the league as well as revenging the cup losses to the Gunners earlier this season.

And what about the main man Peter Crouch? I have never sung his praises, but he deserves a huge pat on the back for such a tremendous performance. Hat-tricks don't get any better than this and some would describe this particular one as 'perfect' - one with the right foot, one with the left, and a header.

Amazing.

Elsewhere, Manchester United came from behind to record a 4 - 1 win over Blackburn at Old Trafford.

After falling behind to a Matt Derbyshire goal in the 29th minute, the Red Devils had to wait until the second half before finding the net and the floodgates opened thereafter.

Paul Scholes opened the scoring with a shot into the bottom corner and Michael Carrick (73), Ji-Sung Park (83) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (90) chipped in to send United 9-points clear at the table momentarily.

Chelsea only just managed to stay in touch with the league leaders courtesy of substitute Salomon Kalou's injury time goal to keep Chelsea's Barclays Premiership hopes alive.

Elsewhere, wins were recorded for Bolton, Manchester City, Charlton, West Ham and Tottenham.
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Ronaldo and Rooney double-act

March 19th 2007 03:57
Barclaycard Premiership

RESULTS:

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Liverpool's unbeaten home run ends

March 5th 2007 03:40
Barclaycard Premiership

RESULTS:

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Chelsea and Tottenham through to FA cup fifth round

February 19th 2007 03:47
FA Cup


English Premier League outfits Chelsea and Tottenham went on scoring sprees in the FA cup with both teams recording 4-0 victories against Norwich and Fulham respectively


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English Premier League results (10-11/02)

February 12th 2007 04:47
Barclaycard Premiership

RESULTS:

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