Another weekend of Premier League action is now in the books, and the table is starting to
somewhat resemble normality. Title contenders Chelsea and Swansea City now sit atop the
competitors, and annual relegation fighters Arsenal and Liverpool find themselves languishing
towards the bottom of the table, still winless after two weekends of action.
Henry Winter, Daily Telegraph Football Correspondent and columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, has
shared his thoughts on United ahead of the 2012-2013 season. Bear in mind, these answers came
before yesterday's news about Robin van Persie...
Scott the Red: United never implode at the end of the season but we dropped eight points
in the last few weeks of 2011-2012.
Henry Winter, Daily Telegraph Football Correspondent and columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, has
shared his thoughts on United ahead of the 2012-2013 season. Bear in mind, these answers came
before yesterday's news about Robin van Persie...
Scott the Red: United never implode at the end of the season but we dropped eight points
in the last few weeks of 2011-2012.
After a lot of fanfare and puffs of smoke, it appears that Eden Hazard has decided to put
everyone out of their boredom/misery and has announced that he will be signing for Chelsea next
season ditching the offers from both Manchester clubs.
Hazard seems to have really enjoyed the limelight in recent weeks, going on to Twitter to
announce that he will be announcing his decision regarding his future later, only to leave everyone
guessing, before leaving more cryptic clues a few days later.
It's that time of year again, The Grand National horse race is around the corner and Fergie has
begun testing his opposite number to see if he has the nerve to jump the final fences. Manchester
City have still to negotiate some big fences in the form of Chelsea at home, a rejuvenated Arsenal
away and, of course, United at home, whereas United have only the City game to trouble them as they
turn for home.
La Liga standing as of Feb 13, 2012 (From the Guardian)
Cast your eye at the number of goals scored by each club in the fourth column from the right. At
this point is there any wonder why this is not even a two horse race anymore? The race for La Liga
is effectively over as even Pep Guardiola has all but conceded defeat, for the rest it ended in
September last year.
Man City were 3-2 winners over Tottenham thanks to a late Mario Balotelli penalty that ensured
the Citizens remain top of the Premier League with a 3 point advantage over their city rivals
United.
But once again City striker Balotelli is making the news for all the wrong reasons. Despite
netting the last minute winner, the 21 year old Italy international,was 'lucky' to be on the pitch
after stumping on Scott Parker.
Premier League between Manchester City, United and Tottenham, says Roberto
Mancini
Roberto Mancini believes the Barclays Premier League title is a three-horse race between
Manchester City, United and Tottenham all vying for the crown.
View the full story here: The Mail
A news article on 2011-12-17 11:58:09 from: The Mail
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
This season's Premier League is more difficult to predict than any other in recent history. The
title race is a genuine two horse race: Man United's supremacy has finally been challenged by Man
City, and the relegation battle is anyone's call. With so much unpredictability about, football
betting tips with Onebooker is a sure-fire source [.
This season's Premier League is more difficult to predict than any other in recent history. The
title race is a genuine two horse race: Man United's supremacy has finally been challenged by Man
City, and the relegation battle is anyone's call. With so much unpredictability about, football
betting tips with Onebooker is a sure-fire source [.
Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas believes Liverpool are still in the hunt for the Premier League
title by virtue of their significant summer spending.
The Blues tackle Kenny Dalglish's men at Stamford Bridge on Sunday bidding to close the 12 point
gap between themselves and table-toppers Manchester City.
Steven Gerrard admits he is haunted by the fact he has never been able to win the Premier
League.
The 31-year-old has tasted just about every success you can as a player with Liverpool winning the
UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, FA Cup and Carling Cup.
But the title medal remains nothing more than a dream at this point, and Gerrard admits that
troubles him.
It appears us Pompey fans have upset Mr Chainrai and he no longer wants to own our club. In an
spate of dummy spitting of some awe-inspiring magnitude on Wednesday he withdrew his bid to be our
'reluctant saviour' for a third time. Firing a tirade of self-exposing blame-shifting Mr Chainrai
has taken up Portpin's bid and walked.
It appears us Pompey fans have upset Mr Chainrai and he no longer wants to own our club. In an
spate of dummy spitting of some awe-inspiring magnitude on Wednesday he withdrew his bid to be our
'reluctant saviour' for a third time. Firing a tirade of self-exposing blame-shifting Mr Chainrai
has taken up Portpin's bid and walked.
Within the past decade, La Liga has evolved (or devolved, depending on who you're talking to)
into a two-horse race between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Between TV contracts, exposure and
merchandise, the Spanish league is divided into distinct categories: the haves (two teams) and the
have-nots (18 clubs).
The race for European Footballer of the year appears to be a two horse race: Messi and Ronaldo, but
maybe there is a third player that deserves a look.
Last season Andrea Pirlo left AC Milan to sign with fellow Italian League superpower Juventus. The
move paid off for the Old Lady and Pirlo.
In an ideal world, there would be only two football clubs in Spain. They will both go around the
country and play in 20 grounds every season, but they will always only play each other. That way,
the other teams don't have to all exert the energy and pressure of playing each other in a
meaningless fight for 3rd and below, or play one of these two teams and get hearts and souls
crushed.
Barcelona looked like they were headed for a draw before Alexis Sanchez and Messi scored in the
span of 10 minutes to hand the Catalans a much needed 4-2 win over Real Betis that reduced their
deficit on Leaders Real Madrid to 5 points.
World Player of the year Lionel Messi scored a brace to bring his tally for the season to 19
goals, just 2 short of leading goal scorer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Chelsea's capture of Hazard a serious statement of intent - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
Highly-rated Lille attacking midfielder Eden Hazard has revealed that he is ready to join
Chelsea next season, despite interest from both Manchester United and Manchester City. The Belgium
international has been a leading light for the Ligue 1 outfit over the last 24 months, and will
move to Stamford Bridge in a £32 million deal once the transfer window reopens.
Comparing the run-ins: by SV We are at a stage of the season now where the ‘every game is a cup
final' attitude could not be more useful. We are in what I see as a three horse race for the 3rd
and 4th spots; with the other two horses being Spuds and Chelsea. The [...]
Tottenham failed to close the gap on the top two after a thrilling 1-1 draw with Chelsea at White
Hart Lane.
Both sides were chasing victory to keep pace with the runaway leaders, but cancelled each other out
in a free-flowing encounter.
Controversial Chelsea skipper John Terry played 24 hours after discovering he was being charged
with racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.
Ibrahimovic marked his return from his three match suspension by scoring a hat-trick in Milan's
4-0 win over Palermo yesterday. The win coupled with Juve's 1-1 home draw with Chievo pushed the
Rossoneri 4 points clear at the top of the Serie A.
Of course Juve still have a game in hand which should they win will bring them level on points
with Milan, however, the Bianconeri will still remain in second spot because of Milan's superior
goal advantage.
The Serie A is shaping up to be a 2 horse race between Juventus and defending champions AC Milan
especially after the Bianconeri's 3-1 home win over Catania last night that pushed them back into
top spot in the table standings with 49 points, 2 above Milan who could go back on top with a Win
at Cesena today.
Spirits are high at Celtic, where they've already won the next few seasons worth of Scottish
Premier League titles and on Wednesday, booked a place in the Champions League group stage. In
fact, these early successes have come so easy that the players had the time to cover teammate
Mohamed Bangura's Audi in Post-It notes.
When it comes to countries nutty about sport, few are nuttier than the Australians. Australia;
where a horse race can bring the county to a standstill; where men in tight, very tight shorts
chase an odd shaped ball are often cheered on by 70,000 nutty spectators; where two types of rugby
are popular and they excel in both.
and the main event this grey Friday is, of course, Santi Cazorla. Absent from training at Malaga
yesterday he traveled to London as everything had been agreed between the clubs, underwent a
medical and all going well should be unveiled as an Arsenal player today.
It is, perhaps, 12 months later than Arsene Wenger would have liked.
Football writers the world over will be frantically thumbing through their thesaureses this
evening, desperately searching for new superlatives for a performance from Spain that we may well
one day look back upon as the definitive of our age. Over the last few days a frankly tedious
circular debate has been raging on the subject of whether Spain are "boring" or not.
