As you people know, I have been right behind AVB as our manager. I have said that it's a hard job
trying to regenerate this team and build something new. We have heard the saying a team in
transition alot this season but you need a base to build from and that base has to be a good team.
As it proved today Chelsea are NOT a good team.
By Alan Duffy
West Bromwich Albion 1-2 Swansea City Premier League 4th February 2012
Swansea registered only their second away league win of the season at the Hawthorns on Saturday,
after a hard fought victory against West Brom.
By Alan Duffy
Manchester City 3-0 Fulham Premier League 4th February 2012
Manchester City put the disappointment of that midweek defeat against Everton behind them at a
snowy Etiahd Stadium on Saturday, coasting to victory against a Fulham side who rarely threatened
Jose Hart's goal.
By Alan Duffy
Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Arsenal Premier League 1st February 2012
Arsenal match reports are starting to write themselves loads of possession, nice passing, loads
of chances, no goals. More often than not you can even tag "concede late goal from set-piece" onto
the end of that, although on this occasion, the Gunners did manage to go off-script and keep their
sheet clean for the night.
The Premiership
Wednesday 1st February 2012. 8pm
The Reebok Stadium
Bolton Wanderers v Arsenal
Formed by the Reverend Thomas Ogden as Christ Church FC in 1874, the club changed it's name to
Bolton Wanderers in 1877, they chose the name as they had difficulty in finding a regular ground at
which to play their matches before settling at Burnden Park.
The Premiership
Wednesday 1st February 2012. 8pm
The Reebok Stadium
Bolton Wanderers v Arsenal
Formed by the Reverend Thomas Ogden as Christ Church FC in 1874, the club changed it's name to
Bolton Wanderers in 1877, they chose the name as they had difficulty in finding a regular ground at
which to play their matches before settling at Burnden Park.
Barcelona's Copa del Rey semi-finals win against Real Madrid has been tempered by a growing
injury list that will make their clash against Villarreal on Saturday harder.
Andres Iniesta and Alexis Sanchez both limped off in last night's 2-2 draw, which secured a 4-3
aggregate win.
That means Barca will head to El Madrigal missing six players in total, as David Villa, Ibrahim
Afellay and Andreu Fontas are already injured, while Seydou Keita is at the African Nations
Cup.
By Alan Duffy
Queens Park Rangers 3-1 Wigan Athletic Premier League 21 January 2012
After seeing his side produce an impressive performance against Wigan at Loftus Road on Saturday
afternoon, new QPR boss Mark Hughes surely wouldn't have cared what his players were Tweeting
about.
By Alan Duffy
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-3 Aston Villa Premier League 21 January 2012
Joining the procession of MLS stars getting in a bit of off-season action in the Premier League,
LA Galaxy striker Robbie Keane returned to the home of his first professional club, only to help
send Wolves to a 3-2 defeat.
By Alan Duffy
West Bromwich Albion 1-2 Norwich City Premier League 14th January 2012
What a superb season Norwich City, newly-promoted to the top tier, are having. Finding
themselves in ninth-place, only eight points off a European place, Paul Lambert and co.
Mark Hughes, the favourite for the QPR vacancy since Neil Warnock's sacking, has expectedly been
appointed as their new manager today. I think Hughes is a very good manager, he gets teams well
organised and disciplined, but I'm not convinced he'll be able to get the best out of players like
Joey Barton and Adel Taraabt.
By Alan Duffy
Swansea City 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur Premier League 31st December 2011
Swansea City battled from a goal down to secure a vital and deserved point against Tottenham at
the Liberty Stadium.
Rafael van der Vaart had put the high-flying visitors ahead just before half-time, converting a
deflected cross from Benoit Assou-Ekotto.
Today we have another London derby, with perhaps not quite not the intensity of those against
the team from the wrong end of Seven Sisters Road, but a derby game none the less.
Welcome Queens Park Rangers
QPR were founded in 1882 by an amalgamation of St. Judes with Christchurch Rangers, many of
whose players came from the Queens Park area of north west London, hence the name.
Today we offer The Wolves a warm welcome to The Emirates.
Wolverhampton Wanderers were founded as St Lukes in 1877 and have played at Molineux since 1889.
They were founder members of the Football League.
Role of Honour:
League Champions: 1953/54, 1957/58, 1958/59.
Today we offer The Wolves a warm welcome to The Emirates.
Wolverhampton Wanderers were founded as St Lukes in 1877 and have played at Molineux since 1889.
They were founder members of the Football League.
Role of Honour:
League Champions: 1953/54, 1957/58, 1958/59.
Surely he's embarrass of his own performance too
It was a good night for Arsenal last night, even though none of the games involved us.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City all dropped points in their Boxing Day fixtures. A win for
us tonight will see us leapfrog over Chelsea and go level on points with Tottenham (depending on
the outcomes of their own match against Norwich).
Surely he's embarrass of his own performance too
It was a good night for Arsenal last night, even though none of the games involved us.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City all dropped points in their Boxing Day fixtures. A win for
us tonight will see us leapfrog over Chelsea and go level on points with Tottenham (depending on
the outcomes of their own match against Norwich).
By Alan Duffy
Manchester 5-0 Wigan Athletic Premier League 26th December 2011
Wigan's recent resurgence took quite a mauling at Old Trafford on Boxing Day, with Dimitar
Berbatov giving Sir Alex Ferguson a timely reminder of his quality in front of goal with a superb
hat-trick.
Peterborough's preseason ambitions were probably quite different to ours – consolidating their
Championship status after battling up from League One again, and whilst we may have harboured
loftier ambitions, they are currently a cool seven points clear of the drop zone whilst we retain
our place within the dreaded bottom three.
By Alan Duffy
Wigan Athletic Liverpool - Premier League 21st December 2011
Ali Al-Habsi put in yet another man-of-the-match performance for Wigan as the Latics built on
their draw with Chelsea and win against West Brom by picking up a priceless point against Liverpool
at the DW Stadium.
By Alan Duffy
Fulham Manchester United Premier League 21st December 2011
Manchester United kept up the pressure on their City rivals with an impressive performance at
Craven Cottage against an admittedly appalling Fulham side.
Na tactics can compensate for individual mistakes. Bayern's 3-0 win over
Cologne was rich in absurdity. Ribery blew a fuse. The match ball blew out. Cologne blew a one man
advantage. You could add Solbakken's one-off idea to bring back the five man backline to this list.
Except, that it actually worked out pretty well to frustrate Bayern most of the time.
By Alan Duffy
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Norwich City Premier League 19th December 2011
A hard-working Wolves came back twice against Norwich City At Molineux to secure a vital point
which inches Mick McCarthy's men another few steps away from the drop-zone.
Jordi Gomez claims Wigan will welcome Liverpool to the DW Stadium on Wednesday confident in their
ability to pull off another shock result.
The Latics impressed many observers on Saturday evening as they stunned Chelsea with a dramatic
late show on home soil.
Gomez's goal two minutes from the end of that contest saw Wigan take what could be a priceless
point from the title-chasing Blues.
By Alan Duffy
Everton 1-1 Norwich City Premier League 17th December 2011
Dutch wideman Royston Drenthe rescued a point for Everton at Goodison Park after the Toffees had
failed to make their dominance against Norwich City count.
By Alan Duffy
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Stoke City Premier League 17th December 2011
You have to hand it to Tony Pulis, you really do. For all the (often justified) criticism of his
team's tactics and style of play, Stoke continue to ground out decent results season after season,
never looking like getting themselves embroiled in a relegation dogfight.
By Alan Duffy
Manchester United 4-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers Premier League 10th December
2011
It may not make up for their Champions League horror-show in midweek, but by comfortably beating
Wolves at Old Trafford, Manchester United at least rediscovered some of their attacking verve.
Photo by Florian Eisele/ISIphotos.com
Timmy Chandler has enjoyed a solid start to the Bundesliga season for FC Nurnberg, and at least
one other club has taken notice.
According to German publication Bild, VfB Stuttgart has set its sights on Chandler as a
potential replacement for expensive fullback Khalid Boulahrouz.
A plum FA Cup tie away at Tottenham Hotspur, an unbeaten run away from home
and whispers of a
promotion push when did all start going so right
for Cheltenham Town?
From the dark months of the Martin Allen era which saw the manager
leave under a cloud after
unproven accusations of racism levelled at him by a nightclub bouncer and a precarious escape from
the drop zone
the Robins (or the Rubies are they are known this season due to their special 125th anniversary
kit) have had a remarkable change in fortunes both on and off the pitch.
Liverpool visit Craven Cottage tomorrow and a Fulham side that's struggled to piece together any
sort of positive results domestically, winning only twice thus far on the season. They've got
nearly identical records home and away, with their first and only win at home coming in early
October.
Game week is here and I'm a happy man, I met an old lady who predicted stuff with her fancy
crystal ball and the inquisitive man in me asked her to predict this game week. So here is what she
had to say:
Newcastle V Chelsea:
Alan Pardew's men are on a roll and AVB's men are down in a hole.
By Alan Duffy
Steve Bruce will have more free time now to feed the pigeons
To be fair to Sunderland, the club had given Steve Bruce a decent amount of money to strengthen
his squad over the years. But despite that financial backing, the former Manchester United
defender's best showing with the Black Cats was a tenth-place finish last season.
By Alan Duffy
Sunderland 1-2 Wigan Athletic Premier League 26th November 2011
Argentinian striker Franco Di Santo is enjoying his best spell so far in England, after
struggling at Chelsea and Blackburn. The hitman netted his fourth of the current season at the
Stadium of Light, double what he had managed in his three previous seasons combined.
By Alan Duffy
Chelsea 3-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers Premier League 26th November 2011
In tricky winger Juan Mata, Andre Villas-Boas has arguably the one truly creative attacking
player in the Chelsea squad who can make things happen with just the swivel of his Latin hips.
Come on Robin be honest, you can't dribble past 4 players can you?
One more match before the return of Samir Na$ri to the Grove. Not as if Arsene Wenger sees
Manchester City as any kind of a threat. Such is the confidence of the team at the moment, the
manager looks to put his second string side to face the league leader.
By Alan Duffy
Stoke City 2-3 Queens Park Rangers Premier League 19th November 2011
Icelandic journeyman Heidar Helguson is enjoying something of an Indian summer with QPR this
season. The 34-year-old added another two goals to his season tally in a hard-fought win against
Stoke on Saturday.
By Alan Duffy
Everton 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers Premier League 19th November 2011
Both sides benefited from penalty kicks in this rather dour encounter at Goodison Park.
Wolves' Stephen Hunt opened the scoring from the penalty spot on 37 minutes after Marouane
Fellaini fouled David Edwards in the Toffees' box.
Every week I thought I'll write a post about one team outside the big four and this week I
thought STOKE CITY should be the team that opens the account for this series. Why Stoke? Stoke
re-entered the prem in 2008 and have stayed up for two seasons now, their style of play and their
track suit wearing manager are all very catchy and show character.
Frank Lampard's hat trick helped Chelsea rout Bolton on Sunday while Fulham thrashed QPR 6-0 in
their London derby and Swansea beat Stoke 2-0 in Sunday's other games.
Chelsea is third in the standings after Lampard led the Blues to a 5-1 victory at bottom-place
Bolton.
Daniel Sturridge set the tone for Chelsea's emphatic win at Bolton by heading in a second-minute
opener before setting up Lampard to score his first.
