There were incredible scenes in the Championship play-offs yesterday. Deep into injury time, Leicester appeared to be heading to Wembley ahead of Watford. With the score at 2-2 on aggregates, the Foxes were already going through on away goals when they were awarded a penalty. Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia pulled off an incredible double save from [.
There are crazy endings, and then there are endings like the one seen in England today between Watford and Leicester City.
Anthony Knockaert stood at the penalty spot, prepared to take a penalty kick that would send his Leicester City through to the English League Championship promotion final at Wembley.
Watford have reached the Championship playoff final after beating Leicester in the most stunning way possible. Leicester took a 1-0 lead into the second leg of the tie and with the aggregate score at 2-2 deep into injury time and Leicester still winning on away goals, they were awarded a penalty for very soft foul/dive from Antony Knockaert.
Watford will meet either Brighton or Crystal Palace in the Championship play-off final at Wembley after squeezing past Leictester City at the very death in the second leg of their semi-final at Vicarage Road earlier today.
With the aggregate score level at 2-2 and Leicester going through on away goals, the Foxes were given the chance to put the result beyond doubt when they won themselves a penalty in the 97th minute (only four minutes of stoppage time had been scheduled).
Playing at Vicarage Road Stadium English League Championship Home Team Watford Keeper Manuel Almunia Midfield Mark Yeates; Jonathan Hogg; Almen Abdi; Forwards Fernando Martin Forestieri; Chris Iwelumo; Matej Vydra; Defense Marco Cassetti; Sergio Piccoli Neuton; Nyron Nosworthy; Daniel Pudil; Subs Away Team Brighton Keeper [.
Match just over at Vicarage Road Stadium English League Championship Home Team Watford Goals &
Scorers 17′: Matej Vydra;3′: penalty Almen Abdi; Keeper Manuel Almunia Midfield Mark Yeates;
Jonathan Hogg; Almen Abdi; Forwards Chris Iwelumo; Matej Vydra; Sean Murray; Defense Daniel Pudil;
Lloyd Doyley; Martin Taylor; Nyron [.
Match just over at Vicarage Road Stadium English League Championship Home Team Watford Goals &
Scorers Keeper Manuel Almunia Midfield Mark Yeates; Jonathan Hogg; Almen Abdi; Forwards Matej
Vydra; Joe Garner; Sean Murray; Defense Daniel Pudil; Lee Hodson; Martin Taylor; Nyron Nosworthy;
Subs 67′: in [.
In the recent past, Arsenal has had problems finding a perfect goalkeeper. Of the quartet currently known as the ‘Big Four,' Manchester United relied upon the solid Edwin van der Sar, and now have the duo of David de Gea and Anders Lindegaard. Chelsea has Petr Cech and Manchester City has Joe Hart, who is arguably the best goalkeeper in the league.
the main news this morning is that Jack's back, baby. Jack's back. The Wilshere played for just over an hour as Arsenal U21s lost 1-o at West Brom but the result isn't even vaguely important or relevant this morning. Apparently he told reporters he was 'shattered' after the game, which is completely understandable given the length of time he's been out.
Vito Mannone has revealed that Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger finally feels he is ready to become the team's first-choice goalkeeper, despite Wojciech Szczesny claiming the No.1 shirt earlier this summer.
Szczesny's impressive displays throughout last season sent him clear of Mannone, Lukasz Fabianski, and the departed Manuel Almunia in the pecking order.
Manuel Almunia "He (Wenger) is like a father to the players" by AM Manuel Almunia, who was released
this summer, has spoken highly of Wenger and how respected the Frenchman is among the players. The
former custodian said that – "Everybody respects him and they trust him, always. In all my years
at Arsenal, [.
Van Persie and Song may be gone but Arsenal have cause for optimism - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
The inevitable questions over who will now score the goals for Arsenal were particularly
pertinent in the aftermath of a 0-0 draw with Sunderland which suggested they were already missing
their Dutch talisman.
ARSENAL INSanti Carzola (Malaga, £16.5m), Olivier Giroud (Montpellier, £13m), Lukas Podoloski
(Cologne, £11m)
OUTGavin Hoyte (Dagenham, free), Manuel Almunia (Watford, free), Joel Campbell (Real Betis, loan),
Denilson (Sao Paulo, loan), Ryo Miyaichi (Wigan, loan) ASTON VILLA INMatthew Lowton (Sheffield
United, £3m), Ron Vlaar (Feyenoord, undisclosed), Karim El Ahmadi (Feyenoord, undisclosed) Brett
Holman (AZ Alkmaar, free) OUT James Collins (West Ham, undisclosed), Carlos Cuellar (Sunderland,
free), Emile Heskey (released),
CHELSEA INEden Hazard (Lille, £32m), Oscar (Internacional, £25m), Marko Marin (Werder Bremen,
£7m), Thorgan Hazard (Lens, free) OUT Didier Drogba (Shanghai Shenhua, free), Jacob Mellis
(Barnsley, free), Salomon Kalou (Lille, free), Jose Bosingwa (released), Thibaut Courtois (Atletico
Madrid, loan), Romelu Lukaku (West Bromwich Albion, loan), Kevin De Bruyne (Werder Bremen,
loan)
As we gear up towards the new season, we all do our personal assessment of how the team is
shaping up for the upcoming season. Whether we have enough in our tanks to mount assaults on all
four fronts or whether we are a little light and should be looking to focussed our energy on on
front only.
The Spanish keeper Manuel Almunia has now joined Watford after he let his contract run down at
Arsenal, despite having no chance of playing for the Gunners first team in the last 18 months. Now
he has gone he has bemoaned the fact that Arsene Wenger continually sold his best players every
summer and reduced [.
Sometimes getting started is the most difficult part of writing a blog so I'll just jump
straight in with Arsenal's announcement of the squad numbers for next season.
New boy Olivier Giroud will wear 12 while other new boy Lukas Podolski has not yet been
allocated one despite many numbers being free.
There were some interesting things that came out of Ivan Gazidis's meeting with the Arsenal
Supporters Trust earlier this week. Two good write-ups on the meeting are here and here.
While Gazidis has a knack of talking a lot and saying nothing, the fact that he was willing to
meet with Arsenal supporters last night and stayed around afterwards to answer more questions is
really something.
Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis has said that in order to offer lucrative terms to
the club's superstar players like captain Robin van Persie, the Gunners are
prepared to make changes to their currently 'flat' wage structure.
Hello to all and welcome. Not a great day so far? Well, let's try to cheer you up shall we. Jack
Wilshere has completed his minor procedure surgery in Sweden and will now return to Arsenal to
continue his rehabilitation. It's good that he has completed that and even tweeted a picture about
it.
Hello to all and welcome. Not a great day so far? Well, let's try to cheer you up shall we. Jack
Wilshere has completed his minor procedure surgery in Sweden and will now return to Arsenal to
continue his rehabilitation. It's good that he has completed that and even tweeted a picture about
it.
With the news coming out of Arsenal that Manuel Almunia's has been released at the end of his
contract, and also Fabianski has made it clear that he also wants to leave, it seems that the
Gunners are now clearly in the market for a suitable backup for Wojciech Szczesny next season. Now
it has [...]
The curious case of Manuel Almunia by Richard B. Strength in depth is always something that
provides a bit of a conundrum for managers. Every manager has a first choice team, a set of players
that, barring injury, fatigue or suspension, are his automatic selection. Contrary to what some
believe, I don't think that every [.
The curious case of Manuel Almunia by Richard B. Strength in depth is always something that
provides a bit of a conundrum for managers. Every manager has a first choice team, a set of players
that, barring injury, fatigue or suspension, are his automatic selection. Contrary to what some
believe, I don't think that every [.
So the season has ended and we can take stock of where we are and the way we've performed. I've
decided to a player by player analysis of each player and assign them a mark, just like in school.
I just need to find a red pen with which to scribble on their report cards.
It's broken up into two parts (today and tomorrow), and we start at the back with goalkeepers
and defenders.
After yesterday's posts on the highs and lows of last season, today I'm going to continue with the
season review, with a multi-part review of the players who took part in it. Rather than review
everyone at once, I'm just going to do the defence today, before hopefully moving onto the midfield
and attack later in the week.
It is being reported this morning that Arsene Wenger has finally decided who he wants to bring in
as serious competition for Wojciech Szczesny next season. Manuel Almunia's contract at Arsenal has
now finished, and Szczesny's Polish backup Lukasz Fabianski has already indicated that he wants to
move to play more first-team football.
There have much rumblings amongst Arsenal fans about the erratic form of the young Pole Wojciech
Szczesny, especially after his clumsy performance against Norwich, and many Gooners believe that
perhaps a little more competition may get him to raise his game a little. As we all know, Manuel
Almunia is finally getting taken of the [.
I suppose you could sum up Manuel Almunia's Arsenal career through his performances during two of
his first few games at the clubs.
In late-2004/early-2005, Arsene's patience with Jens Lehmann had apparently snapped after a few
chaotic goalkeeping performances (I remember one particularly erratic performance in Greece against
Panathinaikos that had cost us three points in the Champions League group stage).
We'll start today with the news that Arsenal have announced the release of 7 players, the most
high profile of which is Manuel Almunia whose contract expires this summer.
The others are Gavin Hoyte, who follows his brother Justin out of the club, and youngsters
George Brislen-Hall, Sean McDermott, Rhys Murphy, James Campbell and Jeffrey Monakana.
The Ideal Arsenal Staring XI for 2012/13, featuring Vertonghen, M'Vila, Podolski and RVP -
originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Arsenal have been through something of a rollercoaster season, starting very slowly before a
revival has the north London side 90 minutes away from a respectable third place.
Ok then, after a relatively quiet week it all kicks off again today against Stoke.
Their season is more or less complete, they're in no danger of relegation but you can be quite
sure they'll be up for this one today. Their fans don't like us very much after we hurt their
feelings by being upset that one of their players smashed Aaron Ramsey's leg in two.
Giuseppi Rossi's injury is worse than originally feared.
After being projected to miss another six months with the torn ACL he suffered earlier this
month, Rossi is now being ruled out for 10 months. The Italian international needs two surgeries to
repair the damaged ligament in his right knee, but the latest timetable for recovery means Rossi
will miss most of next season.
What is there to be said about this photo? Ona day when we can't seem to find any form of a reliable hangover cure, not much apparently. Now if you don't mind, we'd like to be left alone with this video. Seriously Kickettes, please go.
Morning all from a Dublin where summer has arrived. I assume that the absence of torrential rain
is a sign of summer. Maybe I'm getting it wrong.
We'll start today with the news that Robin van Persie's agent has apparently had a nice cup of
tea and a chat with Juventus who would very much like to sign him this summer.
