Wonder Kid Emerges

Weekend Roundup

Could we be seeing the emergence of a new English wonder kid? If you watched West Ham’s 2-1 victory over Blackburn on Saturday, you will have certainly taken note of young Freddy Sears. It’s a name we surely will be hearing much more of in the future. The 18 year old rookie exploded onto the premiership scene with a dream winner on his debut, West Ham and England fans alike will be hoping the young man from Hornchurch will go on to great things after impressing for the youth and reserve teams, and now making a Rooney style impact on his debut for the Hammers. Alan Curbishley will be thankful to Sears for taking some of the pressure off his manager for a little while anyway, West Ham were on a horrible run of form leading up to Saturday’s clash against Blackburn, after successive 4-0 defeats this game started badly with the impressive Roque Santa Cruz firing Rovers into the lead. But it was a much improved performance by the Hammers looking to attack on every occasion; Dean Ashton grabbed a deserved equaliser. With the game poised for a draw, up stepped the young prodigy Freddy Sears to make an instant impact and grab all three points for the Hammers 9 minutes from time.

Arsenal carried on their run of draws to the frustration of Arsense Wenger. Former player Aliadiere came back to haunt his own club by neatly finishing a well crafted move by Middlesbrough. Arsenal created a host of chances and should have drawn level but Adebayor will be cursing the officials for ruling out what seemed to be a legitimate goal. Arsenal will be thankful for Toure’s equaliser in the latter stages of the match which keeps them level on points with Manchester United. This run of bad form by the Gunners is starting to raise questions regarding their title credentials and crucially their strength in depth, it’s prompting more and more critics to jump on the Manchester United band-wagon.

With Arseanl only picking up a point, it was crucial for Man United to win at Pride Park. On paper this game had a four or five goal thumping, but it wasn’t meant to be, Man United created countless efforts on goal but nothing was doing for them. Eventually Ronaldo did make the break through to guide the reds to a 1-0 victory. As the game went on it did look like another frustrating struggle against a bottom club which have sometimes plagued Man United, just as Sunderland ruined their title hopes two years previous. United really do look good for the title now, level on points with the struggling Arsenal but crucially they do have a game in hand. As for Derby, you would have to say they are doomed.

Chelsea are at last creeping slowly and quietly up on the top two. It would not be surprising to find in a couple of games that this year it could be a three horse race. With a victory over Sunderland, thy find themselves only three points off the top two. If this run continues for Avram’s men won’t be outsiders but genuine title contenders. Sunderland meanwhile are only two points ahead of the relegation zone but did not play too badly on Saturday.

A rare goal from Mascherano and a not so rare goal from the prolific Fernando Torres sealed a 2-1 victory over a hard working reading side. With Everton’s surprising defeat to Fulham, Liverpool need to carry on this form to seal that all important fourth Champions League spot. Elsewhere on Saturday, Jermaine Defoe scored once again to help Portsmouth to an impressive 2-0 victory over the much improved Aston Villa; the former Spurs man has scored in every home game so far for his new club. Talking of Spurs, they took another step backwards on Sunday, Man City deserved their victory to the relief of the home fans who have not gone home happy from the City of Manchester Stadium since December, they really did show resilience to claw their way back from a 1-0 deficit to a 2-1 victory. The final match on Sunday saw Bolton’s plight worsen as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of fellow strugglers Wigan, it was a must win match for both sides. Bolton stay in the bottom three just below Birmingham who play on Monday.

After this weekend, Manchester United fans will have to be confident of regaining their Premiership crown, but you would have to say Chelsea now look good for second if Arsenal cannot get back to winning ways. On the other side of the table, they are worrying times for Bolton, also Monday sees a crucial relegation battle between Birmingham and Newcastle, if the Toon’s cannot get a victory at St. Andrews, the pressure will surely by piling up on the manager and the players.

FA Cup Still Has The Romance...

Who said the romance of the F.A Cup is dead? It has been an amazing tournament this year, only one Premiership team remain and all of the top four clubs have failed to make it through to this year’s semi-finals.
The biggest shock of the weekend came via Liverpool conquers, Barnsley. No-one expected them to even threaten Chelsea, but against all the odds they defeated holders Chelsea 1-0 with a goal from Odejayi, the powerful forward hadn’t scored in 28 of his previous games, what a way to end his goal drought. Barnsley’s character shone throughout, they didn’t just win, they dominated for vast periods and, unlike at Anfield where they were quite lucky and could have easily lost by four or five goals on another day, but actually deserved their victory against Chelsea. It really did seem to be a heartless, lacklustre and poor performance by Chelsea’s millionaires; maybe they thought they could just walk it.
Another tie, another shock, another woeful Premiership performance, in this case, Cardiff’s deserved 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough; the Bluebirds completely outplayed Gareth Southgate’s men and cruised into the semi finals.
Saturday’s other tie took place at Old Trafford in a controversial 90 minutes. The first incident occurred before half time when Ronaldo was bulldozed over by Distin, no penalty was the referee’s decision which infuriated the Man United Camp. After some domination by United and some missed sitters the second controversial incident, with Tomasz Kuszak already on at half time, United had no substitute keeper, so things took a turn for the worse when Milan Baros was brought down in the area and the keeper giving him marching orders. Rio Ferdinand had to go in goal, but Portsmouth converted their penalty and held on to book their place in the semi finals.
If anyone saw Ferguson or Queiros’ post match interviews, its obvious there will be an investigation into their comments.
The final 6th round tie took place on Sunday, with West Brom comfortably beating Bristol Rovers 5-1 in a hard fought game.
It’s good to see teams who don’t have much glory or get this far in competitions, especially the teams from the lower leagues get a real shot of getting to the final of the cup, or even win. Even if they don’t get to the final, all the players will savour for most, a one in a lifetime opportunity to play at Wembley.
It’s easy to forget that there were some Premiership matches this weekend. Liverpool looked simply magnificent against new relegation contenders Newcastle, a well deserved 3-0 win, which to be honest could have been much more with Gerard and Torres picking holes in the Newcastle defence. A decisive win for Liverpool in their quest to consolidate fourth place.
But Everton are still keeping the pressure on with a 1-0 win in an evenly contested match against Sunderland, it could have gone either way with both teams coming close on numerous occasions. But Everton keep their impressive run of form going. It will be very interesting to see how that battle for fourth place develops.
Tottenham will be please with their 4-0 win over an ever so increasingly struggling West Ham side. It was Tottenham’s first victory since their League Cup triumph. Berbatov and Spurs will be hoping to take this form to Eindhoven this week. West Ham should seriously start to think about rectifying their form, otherwise they could join Newcastle and slip into that relegation battle.
Reading took another step in the hope of achieving safety in the Premiership after an excellent 2-0 victory over Manchester City, who are another team struggling for form in previous weeks.
Blackburn and Fulham played out a 1-1 draw, Blackburn deservedly took the lead, but Fulham fought back well to equalise. It was another controversial match, tackles were starting to get reckless and a few players lost their discipline, which has sparked an enquiry by the FA.
Wigan hosted Arsenal in the final game of a long weekend of football. The final score was 0-0. Arsenal looked unusually flat considering their amazing performance against Milan in midweek. Wigan should have had a penalty, but that was about the only incident in an uninteresting evening football match. Man United will be pleased with this result as the gap between the two club closes to just a couple of point with Man United playing less matches.
Still an open table after this weekend’s action, some teams in and around the relegation spots got good results, which draws the likes of Newcastle and West Ham ever so closer to the scrap down there. Next week will make interesting viewing, as will the FA Cup Semi Finals which takes place on the 5th and 6th of April. Good luck to all the teams left who have battled and played so well to reach that far.

Surprise Live Premiership Football Results

It was nice to see most of the games kick-off at 3pm on Saturday this weekend; it’s a disappearing tradition with all the TV money and their demanding schedules in modern day football. It’s also great to see the league properly tightening up this year. The only real certainty this year is that Derby will go down. Its great to see such uncertainty with anyone from bottom to eleventh in the table facing the possibility of a relegation battle, and on the flip side, everyone from eleventh place are battling to get into Europe next year. It’s very exciting viewing, but let’s get back to the weekend’s action.
Saturday saw two surprise results, one bigger than the other, Tottenham found them selves at the wrong end of a 4-1 pasting at St Andrews, Mikael Forssell made a welcome return from the wilderness to score a hat-trick for his delighted manager Alex McLeish, Sebastian Larsson scored a curling free-kick to complete the rout for Birmingham. Jermaine Jenas scored a consolation goal for Spurs in the dying minutes, to be honest it was a depressing performance from Ramos’ men, it was like watching them at the start of the season again, they constantly looked shaky in defence on Saturday with McFadden and Forssell constantly posing a threat, even though Robinson has recently stated his delight at being back in the team, he was at fault for a couple of goals. Tottenham really need to pick them selves up from this result.
The other surprise was not such a big surprise come to think of it, Villa are becoming increasingly hard to beat at home under Martin O’Neill this season. Arsenal really struggled on Saturday and did look like a beaten team at times. Martin O’Neill had nearly the perfect game plan, they didn’t get overzealous, their defence was rock solid throughout and their main plan was working perfectly, hit Arsenal on the break. Villa have tremendous pace on both flanks, it worked to good effect a few times and they were really starting to cause Arsenal some problems, eventually they did get through and scored via Gabriel Agbonlahor. The game looked won, but Arsenal’s ‘never say die’ attitude got them a lucky Bendtner goal around ten seconds from time. Arsenal have now not won a single game since Manchester United put them to the sword in the FA cup, Alex Ferguson talked of the importance of how that result would unsettle Arsenal, maybe it’s now ringing true.
Talking of the Red Devils, it was another stroll this weekend for Fergie’s men, with Ronaldo and Rooney rested, they had no hesitation or problem with beating Fulham 3-0, goals from Hargreaves, Park Ji-Sung and an own goal saw Manchester United move to only a point from Arsenal at the top of the league.
Other results on Saturday included, sorry Newcastle beaten again, it seems the so called Messiah is really struggling to raise his Newcastle team, still without a win, and still worryingly staring at a relegation battle thanks to a tough Blackburn performance. Fellow North-East rivals Middlesbrough also lost at the hands of Reading, a priceless 3 points for Coppell’s men. An eventful afternoon at Upton Park saw Chelsea well and truly beat West Ham 4-0, Lampard was sent off against his former club to the delight of the Hammers faithful. Goalless draws at the Stadium of light and in the blue half of Manchester rounds up Saturday’s action.
Sunday saw an important day for the battle for fourth place, with faulting Liverpool and improving Everton in action. There was no denying Liverpool’s effort against Bolton; Rafa even put out near enough his strongest side out. A lucky own goal kicked Liverpool off, but the scored another two goals and it ended 3-1 to the merseysiders. Everton also won by the same scoreline with Yakubu in superb form scoring vital goals for Everton, Liverpool are still favourites to take the fourth place but Everton are still up there hanging on to it and at the moment given their excellent form, are not looking like they want to let go of the precious Champions League spot.

The Carling Cup Never Ceases To Amaze

Saturday’s early kick-off between Arsenal and Birmingham signalled the start of an eventful weekend of Premiership and Carling Cup action. The game was only 3 minutes old, but Martin Taylor’s leg breaking tackle on Eduardo overshadowed the rest of the game. The 24 year old Croatian looks set miss the rest of the season, much to Arsene Wenger’s dismay. Martin Taylor has been criticised profusely in the media following the incident, but his tackle as horrific as the end result was, did not look to be malicious or callous, it was not a two footed lunge, he saw the ball, it was there to be won so he slid in one footed, the fact is that Eduardo is just much quicker than him, therefore the unfortunate happened, and indeed these things happen in football. The calls which are being made in the media for Taylor to be banned for life are extremely harsh. Remember this was all in the third minute; both sides still had a game to play. McFadden’s 20 yard free kick gave the blues a 1-0 lead. An amazing Theo Walcott double in five minutes gave Arsenal the power to close the game out and extend their lead at the top of the table, but a last-gasp challenge by Gael Clichy gifted Birmingham a penalty. McFadden took his opportunity and fired the ball home for the last kick of the game. William Gallas displayed some child-like sulking at the final whistle by remaining seated on the ground well after the final whistle to end a controversial draw at St Andrew’s.
The afternoon kick off’s saw a win for West Ham, Liverpool, Portsmouth and a vital one for Wigan,
The evening kick-off, served up a real treat. Two goals each from Ronaldo and Ronney made easy work of it by demolishing Newcastle 5-1. Man of the Match Ronaldo was dazzling at St James’s Park; the Newcastle defence couldn’t handle his terrifying pace and cool finishing as he put them to the sword twice. Newcastle really are in trouble now, Newcastle were outclassed from start to finish, no wins in the last six games and so far no great miracles from the man the call King Kev, if that wasn’t bad enough, there is now a real possibility that the Toon’s are getting closer and closer to that relegation dog-fight. Manchester United however look like they’ve recovered from the blow at Man City and are going from strength to strength as they close the gap at the top of the table to just three points. The title race is still wide open.
On to Sunday, two Premiership games took place, wins for Blackburn and Villa; it looks like Reading could be the surprise candidates for relegation this year as the move into the drop-zone.
Tottenham and Chelsea had a weekend off from the Premiership, but there was no rest-byte as they competed for the Carling Cup in front of 90,000 people at Wembley. It was an exciting and open game with Tottenham starting much livelier, despite having most of the chances and most of the possession; they found themselves heading in at half time 1-0 down through a Didier Drogba free kick. Tottenham fought their way back in the second half, their persistence paid off as they were awarded a penalty following a hand ball, up stepped Mr cool Dimitar Berbatov to send Cech the wrong way. The 90 minutes ended a draw, we only had to wait four minutes to see the winner, new boy Woodgate rose for a header, only to see it (or not see it) get punched directly onto his forehead and bobble into the back of the net, much to his and the Tottenham fans’ excitement. It’s their first trophy since 99 and it really pleased Juande Ramos who has stated he wants to win much more at Tottenham, so congratulations. There’s one thing though I’m sure is starting to get on a lot of people’s nerves, Didier Drogba’s diving and dramatic antics are really starting to get hideous and take the gloss off lets face I a fantastic player. Lets all hope he realizes that every time someone touches him, he does not have to go down like he’s been shot in the back.
So, overall a great weekend of football, controversial but exciting, that’s how we like it!

Goldie

The FA Cup 5th Round Continues.....

This weekend saw the fifth round of the FA Cup played with Bristol Rovers at home to Southampton in the early kick off on Saturday. Rovers seemed to be the better side throughout the match but looked like they were destined for a draw, especially when Rickie Lamberts headed goal in the 70th minute was disallowed due to a small push on Darren Powell. With just 6 minutes to go though Lambert scored the only goal of the match via a deflected free kick sending them deservedly to the next round.

Another 4 games kicked off at 3 o’clock, most noticeably Barnsley and Liverpool which ended up in something of an upset. Liverpool decided to play with a slightly weakened side without Torres and with Gerrard on the bench though they still looked formidable throughout. That didn’t matter in the end though after a mammoth performance by Barnsleys keeper, Luke Steele, who made several critical saves throughout the match and even when he was defeated early in the second half his defence managed to clear the ball. Not to take anything away from Barnsley, they all played extremely well scoring 2 goals when Liverpool could only manage 1 and creating the biggest upset of the competition so far.

Chelsea did what was expected of them and managed to beat Huddersfield 3-1 after an inspired performance by Frank Lampard. Huddersfield did their best and in the first half looked stable at the back but they just couldn’t keep up against the might of Chelsea for the full 90 minutes and the second half seemed to go all Chelsea’s way.

Cardiff and Wolves are neck and neck in the Championship table so this match was expected to be close but when Cardiff went 2-0 up early on in the game they seemed to just sit back and defend their lead. This gave Wolves plenty of the ball but they couldn’t break down Cardiff’s defence and the rest of the match went by uneventfully. Coventry took on West Brom in anything but an uneventful game with WBA scoring 5 goals and never really looking troubled. Coventry were unlucky in that the vast majority of decisions kept going against them including a clearly unfair red card which barely resembled a foul but never did enough to make West Brom break a sweat.

The big match of the day was at Old Trafford where Man Utd were playing host to Premiership rivals Arsenal. Both teams were resting key players due to European games this week but still fielded sides which would make any team in the league tremble. As it happens, Arsenal looked like they didn’t even turn up with Man Utd in outstanding form, particularly Rooney and Nani both of whom paid for showboating on the day. Rooney got a yellow card for time wasting with some fancy footwork and Nani received a kick off the ball from Gallas after teasing him with some great ball control. This couldn’t dampen their spirits though and they went on to win 4-0 but it could and perhaps should have been many more.

Sunday saw the final 2 games of the competition take place, firstly with Sheffield United taking on Middlesbrough in a scrappy match in which neither team shined and ended in a 0-0 draw and a replay. Lastly came Preston v Portsmouth with the hosts playing slightly better out of the 2. It even looked like Preston were going to go on and win at one point when they were awarded a penalty on the hour but David James made a great save which kept his team in the competition. It looked like the match was going to end up like the earlier match with a replay until the dying seconds of the game when Carter scored an own goal putting Preston rather unluckily out of the cup.

Paul Howard
Livesports Writing Team

Man U & Arsenal, Who's taking it down?

The outstanding tie of the fifth round is Sir Alex Ferguson's 100th as manager of Manchester United.

The top two in the Premier League are also the most successful clubs in FA Cup history; United and Arsenal have won the world's oldest football knockout competition 21 times between them and have appeared in a combined 35 finals.

This is the 35th time Ferguson will have come up against his opposite number Arsene Wenger. Of the 34 previous encounters United have won 11, Arsenal 13. Eight of the 10 other games finished level and two were decided on penalty shoot-outs; United won the 2003 Community Shield, and Arsenal the 2005 FA Cup final.

Manchester United have Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra back after suspension.

Striker Louis Saha is available after a knee injury after but right-back Gary Neville and left-back Mikael Silvestre remain sidelined.

Arsenal defenders Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue are available after their Africa Cup of Nations stint.

But Theo Walcott (thigh), Gael Clichy (hamstring) and Bacary Sagna (personal reasons) are set to miss out, while Philippe Senderos (knee) is a doubt.

FA concerned over top-flight plan

EXCERPTED FROM BBC.CO.UK

The idea of playing games at a neutral venue is not new to Wenger
The Football Association has told Fifa it has serious reservations over the Premier League's proposal to play additional top-flight games abroad.

It is the first official FA reaction since the Premier League floated its global plan to start in 2010-11.

The FA said it was worried the plan could damage its 2018 World Cup bid.

The FA said: "We don't want the Premier League's proposal to affect England's 2018 World Cup bid in any way. At this time, we do not believe it has."

Interview: Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger
Interview: Former FA boss David Davies
Interview: Mihir Bose with Sepp Blatter

The FA, which would need to approve the plan and is set to discuss the initiative on 21 February, added: "We did speak to Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke about this matter on Thursday.


I very strongly believe one of the outcomes of the FA board meeting could well be, 'right, we don't want any more of this'

5 Live sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar

"We explained that while we had received a verbal summary on the subject, at this time we aren't in possession of any detailed proposals from the Premier League to pass on to Fifa.

"It was also made clear to Fifa that the Football Association has some serious reservations about the proposal."

Fifa president Sepp Blatter said he was against the plans, but Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore is still planning to discuss the proposals with world football's governing body.

But BBC 5 Live sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar believes the matter could now be over.

"When Sepp Blatter says, 'look, pursuing this isn't going to help you', that's a warning shot across the bows," said Farquhar.

"I very strongly believe one of the outcomes of the FA board meeting could well be, 'right, we don't want any more of this', and that could be the end of it."

Despite the FA's reservations, some aspects of the plan have won the support of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

He said: "First there is a desire to innovate and be the strongest league in the world and the second thing is to do something for the fans abroad."


The Football Association has worked extremely hard for several years to improve our relationships and standing with Fifa and Uefa

FA statement

Wenger experienced a similar plan to the Premier League's proposals during his time as a manager in Japan.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, he also cited the recent success of an NFL match at Wembley as a reason why it could work and said that people had been too quick to dismiss the idea.

"When I came to Japan in 1995 we had to play 20% of our games at a neutral ground," he added.

"At the start I thought it was completely crazy, but it worked tremendously well and games were sold out everywhere we played.

"Just look back, for example, at Wembley and everyone celebrated the Americans playing an American football game at Wembley.

"It was exactly the same idea. It's nothing different, which is why it is too early to speak against it."

But former Football Association chief executive David Davies says the Premier League's proposal is "unlikely to survive".


I think to play another game in another country is not right

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez

Davies told BBC Radio 5 Live: "The current plan, at least as described in the public domain, is very hard to sustain - it has taken a pounding.

"There wasn't a widespread consultation and the fireworks have gone off.

"The crux of the problem is can English football act as one, or will its sectional interests break off and go in their own way?"

Davies said he expected the Premier League to revise its proposals in the face of hostility from Blatter and football federations around the globe.

"As I understand it, the plan is a work in progress but there is a perception that it is more than that," he said.

"There is a team of people within the Premier League who will look at the plan with a view to making it more acceptable.

"But the basic point is if the national associations in Asia, Africa and North America don't want these games then they can put a stop to them."


MIHIR BOSE BLOG
The FA wants to host the 2018 World Cup and it would be political suicide to take on Fifa on behalf of the Premier League

BBC sports editor Mihir Bose

Davies added the Premier League could yet salvage its plan if it placed less emphasis on its commercial benefits.

"I believe there are people at the League who have more than just financial interests in all of this - they care about the future growth of football," he said.

Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has voiced his opposition to the overseas games plan, saying: "To play another game in another country is not right.

"You must play here in England with the same opportunities for every team."

The Football Supporters' Federation has launched a petition against the proposals on their website and are planning campaign meetings next week.