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A forum about football, for football fans
At 3.00pm GMT, today, it will be exactly 12 days until the first round of Premier League fixtures get underway.
At Ewood Park, Craven Cottage, Anfield, Loftus Road, White Hart Lane, The DW Stadium and at St. James' "We-don't-know-quite-what-the -stadium-will-be-called" Park, the first whistle of the season will blow, and with it, absolute joy will wash over millions of football fans up and down the country!
After the (shorter-than-it-seems) Summer period where limited football is played and the back pages become filled with news of Cricket and Golf, we will finally start to see normality return as football will start to dominate
The fixture list in full, then, for the weekend of 13th-15th August:
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Blackburn v Wolverhampton, 15:00
Fulham v Aston Villa, 15:00
Liverpool v Sunderland, 15:00
QPR v Bolton, 15:00
Tottenham v Everton, 15:00
Wigan v Norwich, 15:00
Newcastle v Arsenal, 17:30
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Stoke v Chelsea, 13:30
West Brom v Man Utd, 16:00
Monday, 15 August 2011
Man City v Swansea, 20:00
A couple of new signings to report tonight:
Firstly, and the most high profiled, is the £7million transfer of French defender, Gael Clichy from Arsenal to Manchester City.
Having completed his medical earlier today, most of the rest of the day was spent meeting the club officials, before signing to become Roberto Mancini's first summer deal. He will join former Arsenal-team mates, Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure (though Adebayor is currently on loan at Real Madrid).
At the end of the season and about to enter his final contract year, Arsene Wenger was keen to tie Clichy down for an extension. Therefore the 'hands were tied' and they had little option but to cash in.
Clichy said: "I am really happy to be joining such a great club," Clichy told the club's website. I hope I can add to the quality we already have here because we have a fantastic squad who I believe will continue to get better. I can't wait to get started and I think anything is possible with this team."
Meanwhile, across Manchester, Wigan Athletic completed a deal for £3m less than City's as they signed Bolton Wanderers', and Oman international, goalkeeper Al Habsi for £4m. Having spent last season on loan at the DW Stadium, he was keen to return, but dispute over a fee held the deal up.
The Latics ended up meeting the valuation of the Trotters, and Al Habsi made his move permanent.
As Wigan's player of the season last year, manager Roberto Martinez was obviously pleased: "We are delighted to announce the best possible news for Wigan Athletic in securing Ali permanently. During his loan at our football club last season, Ali brought a great degree of professionalism in his daily work and put in many outstanding performances in the Premier League."
Al Habsi said: "I am very happy. I want to thank everyone at Bolton for helping me get established in this country but I need to be playing first-team football, and hopefully, if I can stay fit and keep doing my best, I will get the chance again at Wigan."
Arsenal's new away kit for the 2008/09 season featuring a yellow and blue shirt with a red stripe down the sleeves and body is based on the iconic kit worn when the Club won the League Championship in dramatic style in 1989.
As with the new Arsenal home shirt, ‘Gunners’ is stamped on the neck to welcome the return of the Club's motto 'Victory through Harmony' from the Latin inscription 'Victoria Concordia Crescit', which is included in the inside neck of the shirt.
Manufactured by Nike, the kit features DRI-FIT technology to enhance player performance by drawing sweat away from the body through to the fabric’s surface to evaporate, while its three-dimensional construction allows for more air space around the skin to reduce clinging.
In a special promotion, the first 500 supporters that buy the away kit in an official Arsenal store on August 1 will have the opportunity to attend a screening of the historic match from 1989 at Emirates Stadium later that day. The evening will also feature a Q&A session with Paul Merson and Alan Smith - two of the players from that remarkable night.
[Source: Arsenal]
English giants Arsenal have confirmed the signing of highly-rated Wales Under-21 international Aaron Ramsey from under the noses of Premier League rivals Manchester United and Everton for a fee in excess of £5 million.
The talented 17 year-old midfielder has been signed on a long-term contract from Championship side Cardiff City and will now be nurtured by one of the world's best managers in Arsene Wenger.
Despite Arsenal coming up short domestically and in Europe for the past few seasons, Wenger has made the talented and promising youngster his first signing of the off-season rather than a proven world-class player many pundits feel the Gunners require to challenge the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea for the Premiership crown.
Ramsey is the youngest player ever to represent Wales at Under-21 level in a 4-3 victory over Sweden Under-21s in August 2007 and has already received call ups to the full Welsh squad for their friendly international matches in Iceland and Holland, but was an unused substitute on both occasions.
His last match for Cardiff City was a spectacular cameo role in the FA Cup final against Portsmouth. Despite playing as a substitute, he delighted the crowd with his mazy runs and wizardry on the ball in the showpiece final.
Manager Arsene Wenger was delighted the youngster opted for the Gunners over other potential suitors and said: “We’re delighted to have signed Aaron Ramsey. He is a young player who has shown huge potential with his performances for both Cardiff City and Wales at under-17 and Under-21 levels. He is still only 17, but has already shown that he is a very intelligent and mature player with great quality. Although he mainly plays in midfield, Aaron is a versatile player and can also play across the defence. We are all looking forward to welcoming Aaron to the Club for our pre-season preparations.”
The player said that meeting Arsene Wenger and his track record for nurturing young talent was a big factor in his decision to join the club
Aaron Ramsey said: “I’m so happy to have signed for Arsenal. I am joining one of the biggest clubs in the world and can’t wait to meet my new team mates. I recently met with Arsène Wenger and he was a big factor in my decision to join Arsenal. He talked to me for a long time about the Club and the plans for the future, which really excites me. Arsenal is a Club which always gives young players an opportunity at the highest level of the game and I am going to work my hardest to be part of future successes here.
“It was a really difficult decision to leave Cardiff City, they are my local club with great supporters and I would just like thank everyone at Cardiff City for their support and help in my early career. I will still look out for their results and there will always be a place in my heart for the Bluebirds.”
[Source: Arsenal]
Arsenal has released a new goalkeeper kit to match the new home kit for the upcoming 2008/09 English Premier League season.
The Gunners' first-choice goalkeeper Manuel Almunia will be dressed in a black kit featuring a grey curved stripe for all home matches next season. Manufactured by Nike, the goalkeeper kit features the same 'Dry Fit' technology on all Nike kits which is designed to keep players cool yet durable in all conditions.
The official launch day for the kit is August 1st with pre-orders available now.
[Source: Arsenal.com]
Arsenal have released their new home kit for the 2008-09 season of the Barclaycard English Premier League and it is exactly what the rumours suggested earlier last month.
The Nike manufactured strip features engineered mesh on the shirt which gives a dynamic and modern look whilst helping players stay cooler for longer periods due to the positioning of the mesh around the spine - the area of the body which generates the most heat.
Finished in traditional red and white with claret inserts on the sleeves and down the side of the body, the shirt detail also brings a welcome return to the Club's motto 'Victoria Concordia Crescit', the latin inscription for 'Victory through Harmony'.
The Gunners could be wearing this same home kit beyond next season as there appears to be conflicting dates on the Arsenal website which says this is the 2008-09 and 2008-10 kit on separate pages.
[Source: Arsenal.com]
Both Arsenal's home and away kits have expired this month with new kits due for the upcoming season and possibly to 2010.
While the Gunners have remained tight lipped on when the new kits will be unveiled, several images of what appears to be the new kits have been circulating around the internet for a few months now.
According to several sources, these are the two new home and away kits for the upcoming season. The home kit remains similar in design and colour to the 2007/08 version, the V-neck collar makes a return while the red part of the shirt has been extended to the underarm section of the sleeves. The home kit also features white and claret colours.
The new away shirt is a lot different from the 'Chapman' away kit of 07/08 and is finished in yellow for the first since the 'Sega' sponsored kit of the 90s. Featuring a blue round collar and sleeves with a claret stripe running from the collar bone and down the shoulder blades to the end of the sleeves, the new away kit looks quite good if these images prove correct.
Highly-rated Spanish striker David Villa has revealed that he would love to play for Arsenal because of the club's stylish football.
The player currently plays for Spanish side Valencia and has been continually linked with a move to the English Premier League at clubs such as Chelsea and Liverpool, who signed his national team strike partner Fernando Torres last summer.
Fly Emirates?
As reported in The Sun newspaper, David Villa said: "I watch the Premier League a lot and the team I’m most attracted to is definitely Arsenal.
"Their brilliant one and two-touch football and the whole style of rapid counter-attack which dominates the top level of the Premier League now is the one which suits my game best of all.
"I think I’m made to succeed in England but of course it’s one thing saying it and quite another getting there and then doing it.
"The Valencia president always told me he wouldn’t sell me until summer 2008. If an offer comes in I’m hungry to test myself in England."
Rated at £20 million by his club, Villa has most recently been linked with Chelsea after manager Avram Grant reportedly made contact with Valencia over a move. His price tag would not be a problem for the cash rich London club who is backed by the big-spending Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
However, The Sun newspaper has reported that David Villa's preferred destination in England is actually London rivals Arsenal. The club is likely to strengthen their squad this summer after falling short in the league and Europe despite promising so much after their bright start this season. Gunner's boss Arsene Wenger is reported to have access to a transfer kitty in excess of £30 million which should easily cover the cost of signing the striker.
If a deal from Arsenal fails to materialise, then Chelsea remains the favourite to sign the player, possibly as a replacement for Andriy Shevchenko who has been continually linked with a move back to former club AC Milan.
Liverpool could also remain in the hunt for Villa with England striker Peter Crouch likely to depart in search of regular first-team football. At Anfield, he will have the chance to link up with fellow Spaniards Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso as well as boss Rafa Benitez.
[Source: The Sun]
It is hoped that Arsenal's Croatia striker Eduardo will make a full recovery from his horrific leg break in nine months.
Eduardo will have his leg in plaster for the next six to eight weeks before beginning a rehabilitation programme. If all goes well, he should be running again inside six months.
Since the incident, Martin Taylor the Birmingham centre half who caused the injury has been targeted by some angry fans, including from Croatia, who have posted threatening messages on various internet sites.
Security personnel had to restrain Croatian journalists who ran on to the road and tried to get into Taylor's car as he left the club's Wast Hills training complex on Monday.
But Croatia manager Slaven Bilic, who will now be without his prolific striker for the European Championship finals this summer, has been quick to defend the 28-year-old centre-half.
"The injury made the tackle look bad," Billic told BBC Radio 5 Live. "You see many tackles like that, almost every week."
He continued, "That's perhaps wrong for football but I'm sure Martin Taylor is a sportsman and he wanted to play the ball. On another occasion Eduardo could have received a worse tackle and got away without injury. Everything went wrong but Eduardo knows Taylor didn't do it deliberately."
I hate players getting sent off, and I hate the fact that football is becoming a non-contact sport. Having said that, the FA must be consistant in its decision making or the game falls into disrepute.
Over the past few weeks, Arsenal have had two heavy defeats. The Carling Cup defeat at Tottenham and the FA Cup defeat at Manchester United will have hurt their pride terribly. They may not have had their strongest teams out, and the competitions may not be regarded as being as important as the Champions League or the Premiership, but defeats like that hurt.
On both occasions, Arsenal players have behaved poorly. Nobody likes losing and their actions might be understandable, but not condonable.
In the Tottenham game, Adebayor clearly head butted his team mate Nicklas Bendtner,unseen by the referee, and in the United game, Gallas clearly kicked Nani from behind, also unseen by the referee.
Both cases were referred to the FA to review the video evidence, which was quite clear. In both cases, the FA have decided to take no action.
As I say, part of me is glad about that as I don't like seeing payers being suspended, but another part of me asks how the FA can possibly say that neither incident amounted to violent conduct.
I think Arsenal have been very lucky to escape punishment in both these cases, and it would be really nice to hear Arsene Wenger speak out against the actions of his players. By saying nothing, he is seen to condone what they did.
During Arsenal's humiliating 5-1 defeat at Tottenham last night in the Carling Cup semi-final, two Arsenal players came to blows.
With things going horribly wrong for the men from The Emirates, they were waiting for Cesc Fabrigas to deliver a corner when an argument erupted between Adabayor and Bendtner. The argument developed and as other players tried to pull them apart, Adabayor appeared to head butt his team mate. The blood on Bendtner's nose afterwards confirmed that there had been contact.
Referee Howard Webb saw the incident and spoke to both players but took no action. Arsenal captain on the night, Willian Gallas, saw what happened and gave no excuses for their conduct. He said that both players had behaved badly and would have to explain their actions.
Arsene Wenger was asked about the incident, and to nobody's surprise, he replied that he hadn't seen it.
Wenger sees every poor decision, foul, or incident that goes against his team, but never sees anything that Arsenal players do. It beggars belief, and would be so nice if just for once he would be honest and condemn any bad actions taken by his players.
Arsene Wenger is a fine manager and an excellent technician. I just find it hard to respect any man that is so blinkered.
LA Galaxy midfielder and global footballing icon, David Beckham, recently took part in his first training session with English giants Arsenal after accepting an offer from Gunners boss Arsene Wenger to train with the London club during the MLS off-season.
The former Manchester United and Real Madrid player is working with the Premier League leaders in a bid to reach peak physical condition before the start of MLS pre-season and more importantly, to win his 100th cap in England's friendly against Switzerland on 6 February.
A delighted Fabregas is joined by Becks in training
Arsenal's training ground is based conveniently in Colney, just minutes from Beckham's Hertfordshire mansion.
It has been reported that Beckham will mainly train with Arsenal's reserves and will only join up with the first team occasionally when they are short of players.
Judging by how delighted Arsenal's midfield sensation Cesc Fabregas looks in some of these snaps, it appears Becks has settled in well with the lads.
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.
Sat, Dec 15:
Birmingham 1 - 1 Reading
Derby 0 - 1 Middlesbrough
Man City 4 - 2 Bolton
Portsmouth 0 - 1 Tottenham
Sunderland 1 - 1 Aston Villa
West Ham 0 - 2 Everton
Wigan 5 - 3 Blackburn
Fulham 0 - 1 Newcastle
Sun, Dec 16:
Liverpool 0 - 1 Man Utd
Arsenal 1 - 0 Chelsea
Sun, Dec 16:
The Premiership 'Big Four' went head to head over the weekend with Manchester United and Arsenal coming out on top with 1-0 victories over Liverpool and Chelsea respectively.
Despite dominating the match at Anfield, Liverpool failed to make any in-roads pass the United defence and were made to pay when Carlos Tevez pounced on a Ryan Giggs corner to fire home the winner late in the first half.
The win for Sir Alex Ferguson's men has left United nine points in front of their fierce north-west rivals.
Meanwhile at the Emirates, Arsenal captain William Gallas made his former club pay by heading home the only goal of the game on the stroke of half-time. The Frenchman cashed in on an uncharacteristic error from Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech to give his side victory and a six-point cushion over their London rivals.
The match of the weekend - an eight-goal thriller - took place on Saturday between Wigan and Blackburn at the JJB stadium.
Marcus Bent and Roque Santa Cruz both completed hat-tricks in a pulsating match which saw Wigan throw away a three-goal lead before eventually overcoming 10-man Blackburn 5-3 to end their 14-match winless run.
In other matches, wins were recorded for Middlesbrough, Man City, Tottenham, Everton and Newcastle.
Mon, Nov 12:
Reading 1 - 3 Arsenal
SUMMARY:
Manchester United's brief stay at the summit of the English Premier League was ended by Arsenal overnight as they recorded a 3 - 1 victory at Reading.
The Gunners tore apart Reading at ease with Mathieu Flamini and the impressive Emmanuel Adebayor finishing off superb moves either side of half time. Alexander Hleb then capped off a fine performance with a fantastic late solo goal to wrap up a convincing victory for the visitors.
Reading's England full-back Nicky Shorey grabbed a late, late goal in the 87th minute but it only proved to be a mere consolation for the home side who were simply outclassed by Arsene Wenger's men.
The win extended a club record unbeaten run to 27 successive games for the Gunners who are sitting at the top of the Premiership ladder level on points with Manchester United at 30 apiece, but with a crucial game in hand.
[Video Source: DailyMotion.com]
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!
Displaying a passing resemblance to the colours of Spanish giants Barcelona, Arsenal's third kit for season 07/08 features a collar and horizontal claret and blue (dark shade) stripes.
Are the Gunners missing a certain Monsieur Henry too much?
[Source: ArsenalFC]
Henry is set to leave Arsenal for Barcelona
Arsenal's talismanic captain and France striker Thierry Henry is set to leave his beloved Gunners for Spanish giants Barcelona in a reported fee of around £16 million.
At the time of this post, Henry is in Barcelona to undergo a medical and is set to be officially unveiled as a Barcelona FC player on Monday afternoon (GMT).
The move will come as a huge blow to Arsenal - the club will be losing their talismanic captain, a hugely talented striker and a club icon who epitomises the beautiful flowing football under Arsene Wenger's reign.
Click here for more details as Henry seals his move to Barcelona.
[Image source: Wikipedia]
Say 'cheese'! (Click on image for bigger version)
Officially launching on July 5 is the new Arsenal FC away kit for the upcoming season 2007-08.
Celebrating the innovations of Arsenal's legendary manager, Herbert Chapman, the new away kit will be a white strip with a V-neck collar in claret (Arsenal's traditional colour before their adopted red/white combination) and matching claret shorts.
Long sleave away kit
Pre-ordering online is now available with purchases receiving a FREE exclusive Herbert Chapman football - while stocks last!
Click here to pre-order.
Short sleaves away kit
Collar design
Shorts
Socks
[Source: Arsenal FC]
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