All posts by h79snht.top

My columns seem to be as sporadic as Arsenal’s form so far. So I’ll be polite and cognisant enough to request your forgiveness in advance for my impending hypocrisies.

However, it is extremely difficult to bask in the glory of Sunday’s unexpected and ill-timed victory without highlighting some extraordinary events that took place on the fastest growing area for unsolved mysteries, the Emirates football pitch.

Championship winners Newcastle gave the impression the chairman received inspiration for youth development from the early 90′s film California Man when they came to town. Featuring a thawed out caveman in a forward position, whose instructions were to idly slump around the penalty area hoping Joey Barton (whose party tricks include stubbing lit cigars in people’s eyes as the midfielder himself has admitted to) could land the ball on his hairy head. The Geordies returned from the capital with all three points. We have seen newly promoted West Brom turn up and make us look like Premier League newcomers, and given that a team, who remained undefeated throughout the course of a season and were then dubbed ‘The Invincibles’, the unthinkable happened on the 20th of November when Spurs stole a victory from the jaws of defeat, you could understand why this team may be alluded to as ‘The Unmentionables’.

The laws of science and theories of logic continued to be defied on the 105 x 68 metre long lawn with the players unable to defeat Leeds, yet shocking current La Liga champions Barcelona. More recently, three consecutive draws at our home ground against varied opposition would have Sherlock Holmes scratching his head and wishing to return to his bee farm.

Many journalists and pundits claim to have the answers to all of these mysterious events, but their ripostes are as inaccurate as they are somnolent.

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Sunday afternoon saw the world’s first live broadcast of a spirit possession as Arsene Wenger sent on Andrey Arshavin inhabited by the ghost of Andy Linighan. Where exactly did those half a dozen, precisely timed, sliding tackles come from?

This season I have half expected to wake up in the morning and sit down for breakfast only to be rudely interrupted by the Russian’s mug-shot on my milk carton. He’s been missing for such a long period. Between our qualified Fashion Designer, Gael Clichy, and any number of midfield players, a mini Bermuda Triangle had started to appear in Islington. Having gone missing for so long some conspiracy theorists claim that these players will turn up in countries such as Italy and Spain after the summer wearing the colours of other clubs, although they are eternally grateful for Arsenal’s role in their personal development, it is time they moved on to win trophies.

It’s an underwhelming, and ultimately, an exasperating feeling that is becoming all too familiar to Gooners worldwide. Despite this, any talk of overhauling the squad are at least premature and more probably further from the truth than Szczesny’s kicks are further from a red shirt. Until any activity occurs and we have some evidence disclosed, all this talk is that of Apocalyptic folk reading from ancient and unidentified Maya text ignoring previous attestation and instead living for crisis.

So while Mulder and Scully would have hours of fun studying a montage of Arsenal’s very own X-Files, and former professionals will continue to get paid for recycling the same tiring blurbs, would it surprise anyone if we were in the same position next year?

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I’m not sure what my point is in all of this. I know I had one to begin with but once I get going, what starts as a well planned piece, very quickly deteriorates into a one sided ramble. Something goes wrong between my brain producing thoughts and those ideas being processed in Notepad. I guess it’s another case for the crew of Fringe. Till next time…

Article courtesy of Gavin Connolly at Gunnersphere

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Bolton’s club doctor Jonathan Tobin has admitted that he has had conversations with Fabrice Muamba, and the midfielder has stated that he is fine.

The former England under-21 international collapsed on the White Hart Lane pitch last weekend in the Potters’ FA Cup game with Tottenham, and had to be rushed to hospital.

With his life in the balance, Tobin revealed that Muamba needed 15 shocks to get his heart started again, but that the player is making progress.

“I’m glad to say that the early signs of recovery have continued,” the medical man told reporters, recorded by Sky Sports.

“I went to see Fabrice last night. I went in and he said ‘Hi, doc.’ I asked him how he was and he said ‘Fine’.”

“I explained to him what had happened. That’s the sort of level of communication I have had with Fabrice,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, former Arsenal team-mate Thierry Henry jetted back to the United Kingdom to visit Muamba, and after spending an hour with the ill man also felt that his health was improving.

“Leaving back to America – Fabrice is getting a lot better which is fantastic. I will let you know more when I’m back in the US,” he stated on his Twitter page.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Newcastle carried on their impressive start to the Premier League season with a comprehensive 3-1 victory at St James’ Park.

Demba Ba was the hero with a hat-trick in what was a relatively comfortable afternoon for Alan Pardew’s men as Blackburn rarely threatened to upset the Magpies throughout.

Steve Kean went into this game confident after last week’s impressive victory at Ewood Park, however his Rovers side never got going and their defence was the victim of their own downfall. Demba Ba time after time found himself with acres of space in and around the area and the Senegal striker could have added a few more to his name this afternoon.

The first came via a run by Leon Best who centred for Ba who spun round and smashed it past Robinson. The Rovers defence was in generous mood and when they failed to clear Steven Taylor’s headed centre Ba got ahead of the flapping Rovers keeper. Hoilett gave Blackburn a lifeline against the run of play, but the result never seemed in doubt given the dominance of the home side.

The second half was played out in much the same vein and Demba Ba finally completed his hat trick after more sloppy play in the Rovers backline. Alan Pardew was disappointed that Newcastle didn’t make their dominance pay with more goals, although I am sure he is secretly delighted at the result and the performance of his Magpies side.

Are you in the money tonight? Have you become a millionaire? The Results are in…

2 – 21 – 28 – 31 – 32 – 41

Under-fire Blackburn manager Steve Kean has stated that he was happy with the 1-1 draw his side recorded against Fulham on Sunday, and feels the performance could be a springboard to better results.

The Ewood Park outfit had lost all three opening Premier League fixtures, but a gutsy effort at Craven Cottage saw the Lancashire team get their first point of the season.

“We played a lot of good stuff and dealt with the Fulham threat. We’ve got confidence in abundance, we have spirit and togetherness,” he told Sky Sports.

“The speculation doesn’t affect me, honestly. I have the dressing room and the backing of the owners. If the fans stay with us, we’ll see many away performances like that where we win more than one point.

“I’m sure if the fans stay with us we’ll finish in the top half,” he concluded.

Fulham boss Martin Jol was not happy with the draw however, and felt his side should have won the game.

“I felt we deserved more today. We are playing at home and we didn’t succeed. We know we have to win our home games and we didn’t today,” he admitted.

The Dutch coach felt that his side lacked a killer instinct in front of goal to finish off Blackburn, and has stated his team have work to do to eradicate this.

“In the second half we put a lot of pressure on them and we had a lot of opportunities, but we were not efficient enough. We got plenty of crosses in, but they defended well.

“We lack some creativity. What you would say in England is the cutting edge and that’s a nice phrase,” he stated.

Despite the point Blackburn are still bottom of the pile, whilst a slow start for Fulham sees them in the relegation places also, as they sit in 18th position.

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Manuel Neuer is still planning how to win over the fans of new club Bayern Munich, who are reluctant to embrace the Schalke favourite.Goalkeeper Neuer finalised a high-profile switch from boyhood team Schalke to their fierce Bundesliga rivals Bayern on Wednesday.

While Schalke fans pleaded with their hero to remain at the Veltins-Arena, some Bayern supporters are far from excited at the prospect of their new recruit – a self-confessed Schalke fanatic – picking up the gloves at the Allianz Arena.

Some of the Bayern were even seen holding up ‘No Neuer’ placards during the final rounds of the Bundesliga season.

“Until now I have no concrete strategy,” Neuer said when considering how to combat the hostility.

“But we have talked about this with Bayern officials and think we need to go to the fans and maybe have an open discussion about these issues.”

“This transfer dragged on for a while but I am happy to have reached this point and to be able to say that I will play for Bayern from this summer.”

Neuer had been touted as a potential replacement for Edwin van der Sar at English Premier League club Manchester United.

But the 25-year-old was never interested in a move away from Germany.

“I did not want to go abroad,” he said.

“The Bundesliga is a lucrative league and in Germany the best club is Bayern and I wanted to play for the best club in Germany.”

“I want to win lots of titles of course. On a personal level I hope to develop my game further because I haven’t reached my peak yet.”

Neuer, who cemented his place as first-choice Germany goalkeeper during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, will line-up for his country against Austria in a Euro 2012 qualifying match on Friday.

And his transfer to Bavarian giants Bayern means international teammates Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Gomez, among others, are set to become club colleagues.

“It certainly won’t do any harm playing with my club colleagues in the national team,” he said.

“If you can train together every day, you start to develop new mechanisms. That can only be good for the national team.”

With Spurs having moved into pole position and after manager Harry Redknapp has openly confirmed that he has held preliminary talks with the England international over the past few days, one of Roy Hodgson’s first moves as Liverpool manager must be to follow suit and step up the club’s interest in the player to something approaching concrete rather than the rumour and conjecture we’ve all been subjected to the past few weeks.

The main problems facing Liverpool are well known to every man and his dog by now, the issue over new owners, the new stadium and the respective futures of messrs Gerrard, Torres and Mascherano are all of paramount importance, and whilst these all obviously and quite understandably remain of top priority, the issue of the playing staff and the reinvestment that is needed must not go unnoticed, no matter how cheaply it needs to be done.

The figures being bandied about in the press at the moment all point towards Hodgson having a transfer kitty in excess of £15m to spend, which may be somewhat buoyed by the departure of Yossi Benayoun to fierce rivals Chelsea for roughly £6m this week.

It was telling that in the press conference presenting Hodgson as the new Liverpool manager, that Chairman Martin Broughton pointed out that Hodgson’s qualities were what were needed in the current climate, and that he had been appointed ‘to steady the ship’ and it’s telling that he’s only been offered a two-year deal. He’s seen by most as a necessity for the problems that lay ahead for the club and his CV does show that he’s able to deal with the challenges that await him – namely uncertainty, unenviable odds and the ability to work within a budget.

This bring us to the issue of Joe Cole future, the mercurial winger capable of providing a spark out of nothing, something the Anfield outfit have long since sought after with numerous costly purchases to little or no lasting effect, with only really the departing Benayoun capable in this respect.

Cole labelled the reasons for his rather acrimonious departure from Chelsea as being ‘politically motivated’ and that it has nothing to do with manager Carlo Ancelotti or the fact that he had become a relatively peripheral figure since returning from injury under his tenure.

Man Utd have already, and rather surprisingly considering that Cole would seem to be a useful player to have about Old Trafford and is available on a free transfer, ruled themselves out of the running for his signature. Arsenal’s interest has been lukewarm and ‘Arry has done little but state on a number of occasions his strong interest, which to his credit he is at least following up now.

The assumption has always been made that Cole desires Champions League football above all else and that his wages demands are astronomical. The Champions League is obviously the pinnacle of European football and a place where any right minded player would wish to ply their trade, but please forgive me, it must be the cynic in me, but at the moment at least, Spurs have yet to fully qualify for the group stages and they may even have to negotiate a tricky tie to get to that stage before the champagne can truly be popped.

This would go some way to at least understanding the patience and unfamiliar fiscal prudence currently on display this summer down at White Hart Lane and whilst last season’s fourth place was a momentous achievement for the club, unless they finish it off, then all of last term’s hard work will have been undone and they will play their season out in the second-tier Europa League where Liverpool will find themselves next season.

One trump card that Spurs do possess is the fact that they are London-based and with a new sprog in tow, the likelihood of Cole being willing to uproot his family all the way to the North-West would present quite a bold move on more fronts than just a football one and a major stumbling block.

Liverpool do remain a big club despite their troubles, and the prospect of playing with the likes of Torres and Gerrard, should Hodgson be able to secure assurances of their loyalty to the club for the upcoming season, could be a deciding factor in Cole’s decision.

Like I conceded earlier, Spurs obviously remain the frontrunners and the fact that a reunion with Redknapp, the geographical location of the club and the fact that he’d be joining a growing team on the brink of Champions League football make them strong favourites and a salivating prospect for any footballer looking for a rebirth.

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But Hodgson will do well to follow up the rumours with some strong interest, for whilst it may be a long shot at the moment, it’s an avenue worth exploring and would go some way at least to showing the fans that whilst testing times undoubtedly lay ahead, Liverpool have not quite yet lost every semblance of ambition that they once possessed.

It would signal a statement of intent of sorts and would also be in keeping with the new manager’s intention that the club need to buy British for the future to keep in line with UEFA and Premiership rules – luckily for Hodgson, a deal for Cole presents a very real possibility and one that he’d be mad to ignore.

Written By James McManus

Despite his side having yet to fully recover from a poor start to the season, Leonardo insists Inter Milan can still win the Serie A title.The reigning champions faltered early under Rafa Benitez, who had taken over from treble-winning manager Jose Mourinho in the off-season.

Benitez and Inter parted ways on December 23, with Leonardo inheriting a team in seventh and 13 points behind league-leaders AC Milan.

Inter have won their first three Serie A games since his arrival and climbed to sixth, but are still nine points behind their fierce rivals.

But with two games in hand, Leonardo believes they can still successfully defend the title they won under Jose Mourinho last season.

And, ahead of Wednesday’s home clash with Cesena, the Brazilian – who ironically played and managed at AC Milan – has urged his players to share his faith.

“I think it is impossible for Inter Milan not to think about an important objective, regardless how difficult it is to achieve it,” Leonardo said.

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“It’s like (former Formula 1 champion Ayrton) Senna having problems with the car and starting from position 25 – he would still focus on winning the race. It’s impossible not to think about it. It’s in Inter Milan’s DNA. We haven’t established it now, it has always been so. Having said that, we should focus on one match after the other.”

“The most important match for us is tomorrow’s match against Cesena, because we would have the chance to be in the position of battling for the championship. So we should play a good match. The team has understood this. They have always known this and have always done their best.”

Chelsea playmaker Juan Mata has thanked Andre Villas-Boas for all his help after the Portuguese coach was dismissed as the club’s manager on Sunday.

With The Blues sitting in fifth place and risking missing out on Champions League football for next season, Roman Abramovich gave the 34-year-old the axe.

Mata was one of Villas-Boas’ signings at Stamford Bridge, and the Spaniard was quick to wish his former boss the best of luck in the future.

“It hasn’t been an easy day for those who, like me, are part of Chelsea,” he stated on Facebook.

“I would like to thank the manager and wish him luck. We have to keep working hard and better days will come. Thanks for your support,” he commented.

Roberto Di Matteo is set to assume control of the team to the end of the season before a new permanent boss is appointed, and former Blues assistant manager Ray Wilkins feels this is the right move.

“Di Matteo has managed in the Premier League, he’s been around quite a while and I would say it’s probably better Robbie takes over until the end of the season than somebody coming in until the end of the year,” he told Sky Sports.

“Robbie’s the right guy to do it, along with (first-team coach) Steve Holland, that would be the perfect match. We’ll see where they go at the end of the season.”

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Rafael Benitez has emerged as the favourite to succeed Villas-Boas, but there have also been links with Pep Guardiola, Harry Redknapp and former boss Jose Mourinho.

By Gareth McKnight

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Aris Thessaloniki defend a 40-year unbeaten record at home in European competition when they welcome Manchester City in Tuesday’s Europa League action.

The Greeks have gone undefeated in 24 European games at their Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium, turning back the challenges of such clubs as Chelsea, Benfica and Atletico Madrid.

But if they are to extend that remarkable record, Aris will have to handle a City side smarting from a 2-1 league defeat to arch rivals Manchester United on Saturday, Wayne Rooney’s stunning overhead kick delivering a hammer blow to Roberto Mancini’s title hopes.

With the English Premier League dented for the Eastlands outfit, the Europa League is the biggest prize on the horizon for Mancini, and so far his troops have been impressive in the tournament.

They head into Tuesday’s round of 32 first-leg fixture with only one defeat so far in the competition – a 3-1 loss in Poland to Lech Poznan – but will be without Italian striker Mario Balotelli, who is still recovering from a knee complaint, and Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong.

Aris, meanwhile, have been in disappointing form so far in Greece’s Super League, sitting in eighth place and 29 points behind leaders Olympiakos Piraeus.

Their Europa League form has been solid, however, with wins over champions Atletico Madrid (twice), Rosenborg and a draw with Bayer Leverkusen seeing them into the last 32.

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Despite the January departures of Spanish wingers Javito and Toni Calvo, and Tunisian international midfielder Mehdi Nafti, manager Giannis Michalitsos has succeeded in putting together a competitive squad.

Argentine striker Raul Bobadilla arrived on loan from Borussia Monchengladbach, Mexican striker Nery Castillo is a loan acquisition from Shakhtar Donetsk, while Japanese marksman Daisuke Sakata was signed from Yokohama F Marinos.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi has joined the chorus of voices calling for Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas to rejoin his former club.

Fabregas was part of Spain's successful World Cup winning squad, but his time in South Africa was overshadowed by continuing speculation surrounding his club future.

The 23-year-old midfielder was the subject of one unsuccessful bid from the Catalan giants before the summer after reportedly telling Gunners boss Arsene Wenger of his desire to return to the Camp Nou following seven years in north London.

Wenger has vowed to fight hard to keep hold of his influential skipper, who was used mainly as a substitute by Spain during the World Cup.

But now Messi has added his weight to previous calls from the likes of Barca players Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol for Fabregas to join them this summer.

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"I would be delighted if he came," said the Argentina forward. "We played together as kids and he knows the club."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email