You couldn't ask for a better gift than winning the title on your debut season, and quite fittingly, the protagonist of Man United's 20th Premiership title was Robin van Persie. His stupendous hat-trick against Aston Villa sealed the deal for the Red Devils last night, and really, you find yourself muttering : "Who else was it going to be?
You're looking at the two men who effectively won the Premiership title for Manchester City last
night. And really, if it wasn't for Edin Dzeko and Kun Aguero's
pulsating goals in the last five minutes a heart-stopping moment for fans
of football it would've been a different story.
Here's Napoli's Edinson Cavani looking very much like a drummer of a hipster
band you'd probably spot at Coachella. The words on his cool shirt translates to :
"All other t-shirts are to be washed!" So Edinson, what exactly
happens if your entire drawer is stuffed with these exact shirts do you wash them
all?
This morning, we received this epic artwork in the mail from Alex in the UK.
Thanks to Alex, you know what to expect in the following weeks. After Sergio
Ramos, it's now time for a slew of Mancini Memes such as this
one to hit us all.
Manchester United's 4-4 draw against Everton this weekend has simply set the title race back on
again especially if Sir Alex Ferguson's team got beaten by Manchester City in the upcoming
Manchester Derby.
This tricky situation is acknowledged by United's Portuguese winger, Nani, but he is confident
that his side can provide a quality performance at the Derby, bouncing back from their
disappointment against the Toffees along with sealing the premiership title.
July 10th 2005: "It was great to get the shirt back on and hopefully in the
coming season I can hit top form and deliver a trophy. Hopefully I can go on and win that medal
that I'm craving for, which is the Premiership, because that's the one I'm missing. Hopefully it
will be this year, but if not it will happen in the four years that I've signed for.
After their 2-0 "mulling" in the hands of Newcastle last night, it would be
fashionable to mock Liverpool today. But the only thing we're laughing about is
the way Jonás Gutiérrez is hugging Andy Caroll in that photo
above.
It's been 22 days since Andre Villas-Boas parted ways with
Chelsea and contrary to popular belief, the Portuguese hasn't been directing spies
to Inter Milan's training ground (or more specifically, Ranieri's house). Instead,
Villas-Boas attracted a fair bit of attention in Barcelona last weekend when he attended the
Segunda division match between Barça B and Alcoyano at the Mini Estadi, where
fans spotted him and asked for autographs.
Has Harry's Tactical Naivety Cost Spurs A Title Challenge? - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
In the space of seven days, Tottenham Hotspur's hopes of challenging for the Premiership title
were swept aside once and for all with back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and Manchester United.
Whilst injuries undoubtedly robbed boss Harry Redknapp of the chance to field his best eleven, his
inexperience of managing in such high-profile games showed in his approach to both games.
Has Harry's Tactical Naivety Cost Spurs A Title Challenge? - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
In the space of seven days, Tottenham Hotspur's hopes of challenging for the Premiership title
were swept aside once and for all with back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and Manchester United.
Whilst injuries undoubtedly robbed boss Harry Redknapp of the chance to field his best eleven, his
inexperience of managing in such high-profile games showed in his approach to both games.
The new Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla is convinced that the Gunners can challenge for the Premiership title this season, and he had a little swipe at Robin Van Persie while he was at it!
He said: "The objective is for us to fight for the title and we will be there doing that right until the end.
Lukas Podolski was so happy after he scored his first goal (and secured his first official) with
Arsenal at the weekend, and he believes that if the Gunners can carry on playing like that they
they will certainly challenge for the Premiership title this season. "If we can play like we did at
Liverpool, then [.
The Brazilian left-back Andre Santos believes that Arsenal should kick on this season and certainly
aim for the Premiership title and the Champions League trophy, and nothing less! "Arsenal is
definitely a great club, one of the best in the world," Santos told theelastico.com. "We have got
to think about winning titles: English champions, European [.
Thomas Vermaelen is very happy with Arsenal's current form, and believes that they can carry their
more consistent run of wins into next season and make a real challenge for the Premiership title.
"In some games we have shown a lot of quality and that we can compete with everybody," said
Vermaelen. "But you have [.
Robin Van Persie has continually stated that he won't discuss his new Arsenal contract until the
end of the season, but the consensus is saying that he wants proof that Arsenal will buy a few
players this summer to provide a real challenge for the Premiership title next season. As Arsene
Wenger has already secured [.
On top of the world a bare four months ago having been cleared of tax evasion charges that
dragged on for months, in the drivers seat for the England job, Spurs challenging for the
Premiership title with a Champions League spot in the bag.
This does not look good for Roberto Di Matteo's chances of staying on at Chelsea, at least as
manager. Days after winning the most coveted prize a European club can hope to get and adding the
oldest football trophy in the world to that bag, the club owner and the technical director are the
ones calling the shots on the transfers.
In October 2010 Wayne Rooney issued a warning to the Glazers to splash the cash to make Utd
competitive. He was proven right a year and a half later as City won their maiden Premiership. For
their part City were hardly obliging as even before the ink had dried casting their eyes at their
favourite supply chain, Arsenal, for the services of Robin Van Persie, ready to send his wages out
of the stratosphere.
Samir Nasri almost cost City the title when he mistakenly let the ball go out of bounds thinking it
was off QPR
The former Arsenal midfielder couldn't sit back and enjoy City's historic season. He had to
resort to a cheap shot at his old club underlining that very true adage, "money doesn't buy you
class.
Holding up that sign earned Carlos Tevez a slap on the wrist. It's all a bit ironical
considering Tevez's own career was almost over 6 months ago after he refused to play Bayern.
An enraged Mancini vowed he would never play for City as the club readied his transfer in the
January window.
Man Utd did their part as Wayne Rooney scored against Sunderland and then held on to win. It all
looked good as City stared at defeat against QPR at the Etihad with three minutes left. Fans began
clapping expectantly as Sir Alex paced around awaiting a possible 13th Premiership title.
Yaya Toure was a one man wrecking crew in City's win over Utd on Monday without scoring a goal.
Against Newcastle he continued in the same vein and scored a brace. The first was a sublime piece
of precision and placement. Roberto Mancini won the tactical battle against Sir Alex and this time
too his decision to take off an ineffective Samir Nasri and introduce Nigel de Jong to patrol the
backfield gave free rein to Toure's attacking instincts.
This has been a bad weekend for the men in charge of match proccedings. Today's edition of
bumbling officials featured Lee Mason and Ceri Richards conspiring to send QPR's Shaun Derry off
for a love tap on Ashley Young who fell on the pitch like he had been poleaxed.
Patrick Vieira started a firestorm when he claimed that Man Utd get preferential treatment from
referees. He was referring to referee Michael Oliver's decision not to award a penalty to Fulham
when Michael Carrick brought down Danny Murphy in the 89th minute during their weekend
encounter.
Mario Balotelli took some precious time off from Man City's precariously poised Premiership
campaign to fly down to Milan and disrupt Andrea Stramaccioni's press conference. Stramaccioni
replaced Claudio Ranieri as Inter's coach following their disastrous slide down the Serie.
Lasse Hallstrom's classic did not feature Carlos Tevez
Last week it was the Anfield cat decidedly unimpressed by Brad Friedel's overtures, yesterday it
was Carlos Tevez whining about how he was "treated like a dog" by Roberto Mancini.
Lets face it, Joleon Lescott scoring City's winners is a sign of serious trouble because Wayne
Rooney has ominously kicked it up a notch for Utd.
A few months ago, everything was going swimmingly for City. All they seemingly had to do was to
show up for win after lopsided win. But then there was a gradual slide in theor fortunes. At the
end of January their season is but a litany of thwarted ambitions. Out of the Champions League in
December and by last week, the Carling Cup and the FA Cup, their accelerated program to win the
Premiership title seems to have hit a wall and in danger of being snatched by those other pesky
Mancunians and the upstart Spurs.
Benoit Assou Ekotto's spectacular 30 yard strike continued a tradition of Spurs long range bombs
in recent times - Danny Rose, Rafael Van Der Vaart, Tom Huddlestone, Kyle Walker, come to mind. The
first goal came from Aaron Lennon, cutting past Leighton Baines, after the left back completely
missed clearing a long diagonal ball from Ekotto, and then shooting past the diving Tim Howard.
An effervescent Swansea side stroking the ball with ease pinned the Hydra headed Spurs attack
for lengthy spells. Against the run of play Spurs went up just before the half with Rafael Van Der
Vaart's goal after Benoit Assou- Ekotto had done all the spadework down the left flank.
For the first time this century Arsenal go into a North London derby
as the underdogs and although it hurts me to say it our opponents today deserve to be in, for them,
the highly unusual position of being above us in the league.
They have been playing some surprisingly good football and their manager, having cobbled
together a squad of players recognised as perhaps the third or fourth strongest in the Premiership,
is being touted around as the next England manager despite his limited experience at European level
and total lack at International level.
Carlos Tevez was told by Roberto Mancini he would never play for Manchester City again. Carlos
Tevez told Manchester City he never wanted anything to do with the club again. This week Carlos
Tevez is going to return to Manchester City and within a couple of weeks, after fitness training,
Carlos Tevez will be pulling on the blue Manchester City shirt all over again.
Manchester City's crosstown rivals and English Premiership title contenders Manchester United
could also do with a transfer signing. Nemanja Vidic, the club captain and lynchpin of the
Manchester United defence, is out for the rest of the season. Rio Ferdinand, the former England
captain and one of the best defenders in the club's history, continuously suffers from niggling
injuries and his participation is never certain until the match begins.
When your son-in-law is playing a vital role in the Manchester Derby, you're
allowed to turn up and sit next to Giannina at the VIP stands, even if you had spent the whole time
opposing his move to the club and whispering "Real Madrid" softly into his ears.
Such exceptions only apply in England because a) he's Maradona, b) no one can
stop him from walking into any room and c) Pele is not around.
Fulham have lost their last two league games via shutout, and in order to end that poor run on
Monday they will have to do so against a Manchester United team still fighting for first place in
the Premiership.
Manchester United hosts the Cottagers (3pm, ESPN2) in a match that will pit Clint Dempsey
against the likes of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs.
