Arsene Wenger's Arsenal on a downward spiral - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Before this weekend, Arsene Wenger was a manager under pressure. After successive draws Arsenal sat five points off the top four, and there was a morose atmosphere at the Emirates. This was not a kneejerk but the growing concern that a club was on the domestic decline.
Pompey Supporters' Trust have made their bid for the club. Pause to take in the enormity of that
statement. This is possibly one of the biggest steps taken in the history of the Trust movement.
Not because of the fact that a Trust is in a position to take over a club so recently in the top
tier of the game but because they are taking on the most paradoxical owner in its history.
Jim Brogan for Celtic in the Old Firm circa the John Travolta years...
Bv GeorgeCross
Glasgow Rangers are in the news again due to their financial situation; they were rumored to go
into administration or even liquidation. Because of this, the old question about Celtic playing in
the Premier League has resurfaced.
Pundits had been queuing up to say that Manchester City were at the top of a downward spiral.
The suggestion was that after going out of the UEFA Champions League, courtesy of Napoli and Bayern
Munich, and then losing to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, the wheels were starting to come off the
great Manchester City roller coaster of 2011.
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard believes it is only a matter of time before the club start
challenging for trophies again.
The Reds have been on a downward spiral in recent seasons although the return of Kenny Dalglish to
Anfield following the departure of Roy Hodgson picked things up last term.
After relegation in 2009, it appeared that Newcastle United was on a downward spiral, they had just
lost their Premier League status and problems were rife in the board room. Premonitions of gloom
circled around St. James' Park, ones that were only...
After relegation in 2009, it appeared that Newcastle United was on a downward spiral, they had just
lost their Premier League status and problems were rife in the board room. Premonitions of gloom
circled around St. James' Park, ones that were only...
Just a few days left before we say goodbye to the 2010/2011 Premier League season. Wenger held
his final press conference of the season today ahead our last match of the season away to Fulham on
Sunday.
Wenger said the usual things about us being very close this season and not being effective at
the decisive moments.
Edin Dzeko's first Premier League goal was enough to give Manchester City all three point
against Blackburn and to take control of the battle for a place in next season's Champions
League.
City now have a four point gap on Spurs with four games to go. They two teams still have to play
each other, but now City can afford to lose to Spurs and still keep control of the fourth and final
Champions League position.
As I'm sitting here in my kitchen, skipping my Evidence class and listening to the first real
bad thunderstorm of the season, I'm struck realizing that I don't want to do this right now. I
didn't get around to doing a joint questions preview for tonight's match (New England Revolution
vs. Columbus Crew, to make this lede paragraph SEO-friendly) and now I'm basically on a schedule to
try and get one done this morning, in time for it to be relevant.
Time for the 2011 season grades to (finally) continue! Corey, Matty, and I have looked at the
four major areas of the team - goalkeeping, defense, midfield, forwards - and assigned our grades
on a 4.0 scale.
Unfortunately for the New England Revolution, we don't curve based on the rest of the
league.
There's winning in style and then there is what the San Antonio Scorpions just did to the
Carolina RailHawks.
The Scorpions recorded the biggest rout of the season on Saturday, humiliating the RailHawks,
8-0, at Heroes Stadium. San Antonio jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 15 minutes of the game,
but it was the six-goal second half that really pleased the 7,186 fans in attendance.
The Minnesota Stars FC had lost three games in a row. The team was undefeated until just a few
weeks ago and the downward spiral shocked many fans and gave the rest of the NASL confidence that
the reigning champions weren't unstoppable. The Stars managed to turn around its results against
the Fort Lauderdale Strikers [.
Sometimes when you're away, you tend to miss out on some of the good stuff. In this case, with a
handy MLS Live subscription and an iPhone, nothing was missed...not the good and unfortunately not
the bad (it turns out watching the Union game on an iPhone at a wedding was not such a good idea
after all).
The fifteenth of May must have felt like a long time ago for the supporters of Farnborough FC on
Tuesday night. On that particular day, Farnborough stood at the cusp of a place in the Blue Square
Premier. Having finished in second place in the Blue Square South behind champions Braintree Town,
they started their play-off final with home advantage and as the favourites to beat Ebbsfleet
United.
With five weeks already having passed in the 2012 MLS season, we at
Stumptown Footy thought we'd switch things up for the Western Conference Weekly. Instead of
providing a short recap of each match, we'll be giving you a rundown of the Western Conference
teams by their order in the standings. Let us know in the comments what you think of the
change!
Canadian author James Grossi writes for The Blizzard and at his blog, Partially
Obstructed View.
As MLS grows towards its twentieth club in the coming years there is a risk of losing the
balanced schedule. Comments by Commissioner Don Garber intimated that perhaps such a pure form
would have to be set aside in order to accommodate the expanded league.
*The Galaxy face Sporting Kansas City at 7:30 p.m. at Home Depot Center (live on FSN), while
Chivas USA travel to New York to face the Red Bulls at 5 p.m. Sunday (Galavision). The latter game
is also on tape-delay at 5 p.m. on Prime.
*Apparently the next player decision Chivas USA may have to make (they are top of the MLS
allocation order, remember, after deciding to pass on Benny Feilhaber) is whether to grab
injury-prone, aging (I know he's only 28, but he's been around forever without actually doing much
it seems) and little-used DaMarcus Beasley, who is apparently exploring returning to MLS after lo
these many years picking up big paychecks (and little else of note) in Europe.
The downward spiral that has enveloped Rangers FC continues to get more overbearing.
After players rejected pay cuts that would have relieved the club's financial burden, team
administrators released a statement saying that they are accelerating the sale of the team. The
club is currently in "a perilous financial situation" to the point that it might not be able to
afford to play the rest of its games this season, according to the statement.
The Dutch legend will join Chivas de Guadalajara as an advisor this weekend in an effort to
change the fortunes of the renowned Mexican club. Chivas has fallen on hard times, failing to win
in their last 13 matches across all competitions and most recently getting blown out by Velez
Sarsfield in the Copa Libertadores group stage on Wednesday.
There are many critics who love bickering about the downward spiral of Italian
football but at least they have the equivalent of a glamorous Oscar
night! Finally, Zlatan Ibrahimovic silenced his entire phone-book of haters last
night and won the title of Serie A's 'Best Player in 2011′ while Edison Cavani's
Udinese were announced 'Best Club'.
It used to be a song sung frequently at Highbury and during most Arsenal games. Arsene Wenger's
introduction to Arsenal Football Club ensures that the song would never be sung again. Even if it
did, it was done in jest. The song typify the type of football that we used to play.
One group of well paid men get beaten by another. We wail about the injustice of our well paid men
not being paid as much as other groups of well paid men. Even though there's a group of men who
aren't paid as much as our well paid men doing away just fine over there.
Such is the world of Scottish football, a sport dreamed of on the playing fields from Dumfries to
Shetland but ripped asunder on the green, green grass of Slovenia and Switzerland.
You couldn't ever accuse Swindon Town supporters of having little to talk about. The team has
pogoed around the divisions in the last twenty years (they were present in the second ever Premier
League season of 1993-4, and are at present the only former Premiership team to have been relegated
to the lowest league tier).
16:45 CET (10:45 a.m. Eastern) Friends, I'll throw the starting line-ups on here when they're
available, and any last-minute talking points. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. If
nothing else, I'll pop in with my expressions of joy or despair at halftime.
Come on you Blues.
The first thing making the rounds is that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will start for England.
Tottenham Hotspur vs Bolton Wanderers, Saturday 17th March 2012, White Hart Lane, 5.30pm
kick off, ESPN & ESPN HD
THFC1882 is pleased to welcome back Adam Nathan for his preview of the FA Cup
Quarter-Final game, a game that could prove to be a pivotal point for the rest of Tottenham's
season.
Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina claims the club blocked him from making a £20million move to
Arsenal in the summer of 2010.
Reina admits he was tempted to leave Merseyside after returning from Spain's victorious World Cup
campaign last year to find the Reds in a downward spiral.
Manager Rafa Benitez had been sacked, while director Christian Purslow was desperately seeking new
owners to replace Tom Hicks and George Gillett as the club struggled under a financial crisis.
Five matches played tonight, Â full of high intensive SPANISH FOOTBALL action, Â as part of the
scheduled mid-week Round 5 SPANISH LEAGUE calender which broke the idea that LA LIGA was a "two
horse" race. Real Madrid suffered in their match & has entered into a worrying downward spiral, Â &
Barcelona drew & suffered at Valencia.
With 17 games already played, tonight's game against Chivas USA represents the beginning of the
second half of the 34 game season for the Chicago Fire. A win and everything else going Chicago's
way tonight would inconceivable put the Fire in the last qualification spot for the MLS Playoffs
leading into Sunday, July 3rd.
Leo Krupnik and Maccabi Netanya all but lost their chances of a Europa League birth after losing to
Bnei Yehuda over the weekend, while Bryan Gerzicich and Kiryat Shmona continued its downward spiral
of late with a 2-0 loss at league leading Maccabi Haifa.
Join the guys as they talked about DC United's recent downward spiral, including the last win vs
Toronto and the losses to Red Bull, The Dynamo, and the Open CUp loss to the Revolution. They guys
also talk about the recent sever injuries to Steve Zakuani and David Ferreira and the rest of the
MLS scoreboard.
