Patrice Evra has told reporters of the pain that him and his United teammates are feeling
following their 2-0 loss to rivals Liverpool. United were defeated by a Fernando Torres goal, and a
late David N'gog goal added salt to United's wounds.
"Normally when United play we create at least five or six clear chances, but we only had the one
when Valencia hit the crossbar.
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Another Premier League weekend is now in the books, and with some key match ups and exciting
derbies now past us, here are the things that we learned from this weekend of Premiership
action.
10Boring as Hull. Anyone who watched the Hull City v Portsmouth match on
Saturday will know exactly what I mean.
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Wolves will host Aston Villa this week at the Molineux this Saturday on ESPN2 (for all of you US
viewers) in what should prove to be a hard fought match between two local rivals. This big derby
match-up will aim to please a near-capacity crowd that will be flooding into the Molineux.
Wolves
Team News:
- Manager Mick McCarthy will be hoping his team shuts down Richard Dunne as he tried to sign him
over the summer.
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Lyon's 2-1 Champions League victory at Anfield on Tuesday night sparked mass hysteria amongst
the Liverpool faithful. While almost everyone points the finger at the absence of Steven Gerrard
and Fernando Torres in recent weeks, even more people are blaming manager Rafa Benitez. There is no
doubt about it: people are calling for Rafa Benitez's head.
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They call him Mr. Chelsea, and Blues skipper John Terry certainly lived up to that billing when
he recently decided to take control of the financial aspect of the women's football team at
Stamford Bridge. The economy certainly hit the Chelsea ladies very hard as a significant portion
of their funding from previous years was slashed this season.
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With the Ballon d'Or nominations finally releasing this weekend, the headlines have mostly been
devoted to the fact that world champions Italy have no representation whatsoever. But why blame the
press for paying excessive attention to an irrelevant detail? After all, the award itself is
destined to be heading Lionel Messi's way, which means very little is there to be talked about in
terms of debating the winner, right?
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While Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas has clearly enjoyed his Spain side cruise to the World Cup
2010 finals with a perfect record (and no goals conceded at home), he has spoken to
Arsenal.com to offer some backing to a couple of his teammates who won't be appearing in
the showpiece event next summer.
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Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has become the latest Barcelona star to egotistically
pronounce the treble winning club's's dominance over their global rivals. Following Sweden's bitter
loss to Denmark this weekend, where the spotlight was stolen away from him thanks to Nicklas
Bendtner's scintillating performance for the Danes, Ibrahimovic has taken his frustrations out on
former club Inter Milan.
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Beyond the nation's borders, Italian football has certainly faded into the background in recent
years. A devastating match-fixing scandal in 2006 bitterly overshadowed the country's World Cup
triumph that year while the domestic league has clearly become a one-horse race ever since.
Reigning champions Inter Milan have shown no signs of a slip up in the Serie A for the last three
seasons and that trend continued with their strong start to the current season as well.
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Patience is a virtue, and for two of the Premier League's best players, that patience has
finally paid off. The crazy thing about it all? These two players are on the same team! And the
lucky team is Sunderland.
It was just last season that Sunderland were in the heat of the relegation battle.
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Daniel Agger is generally known to Barclays Premier League fans as a technically gifted Danish
defender whose progress has often been halted by injuries. Similarly, Alberto Aquilani is usuallyÂ
perceived by English fans as an immensely creative Italian midfielder who has often been deceived
by his proneness to injuries.
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With the first quarter of football almost over in most leagues around Europe, now is a good time
to measure the current progress of some of the giant clubs on the continent. Actually, analyzing
the success or failure of clubs in general won't be nearly as exciting as identifying a more
specific object of analysis.
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Barcelona may be the treble winners last season. In addition, they may also be the side with
arguably the most potent attack in Europe, comprising of the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry
Henry, Bojan Krkic, and FIFA World Player of the Year hopeful Lionel Messi. On top of that, they
also possess one of the most powerful midfield combinations in the continent in the form of Andres
Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.
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The title to this article might suggest that I am providing some late coverage on Arsenal
striker Nicklas Bendtner's recent car accident while driving to practice in his Aston Martin. In
reality, though, this article is written in vehement defense of the player, who has certainly had
more than his fair share of critics, to put it bluntly.
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In what could be the most obvious Wednesday Wonder to date, Robbie Keane is this week's pick
after his stunning performance on Saturday against Burnley. I'll admit that I've overlooked a
hat-trick for the Wednesday Wonder before and picked somebody else, but there is something special
about that fourth goal.
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As the Olympiacos team bus got closer and closer to the Finsbury Park area, I am sure veteran
goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis began to relive some of the greatest moments of his career at the
highest level. From his invaluable contribution in Greece's historic Euro 2004 win to his
consistency during his club's league triumph over the last three years, Nikopolidis is no stranger
to success at a grand stage.
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Given the title of this article, I could be about to tell you about how the strike duo of Darren
Bent and Kenwyne Jones will be leading Sunderland to new heights in the Premier League this season,
but we will save that for a later date. I'd rather make a bold statement and talk about the bottom
of the table at the moment.
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With yet another exciting Premier League weekend in the books it's time to review this weekend's
winners and losers.
Winners Robbie Keane
Robbie Keane emerges from this weekend as the biggest winner. The Tottenham striker has had a
relatively quiet start to the season, oftentimes playing second fiddle to the red hot Jermain
Defoe.
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Antonio Cassano has reinvented himself. Not only has he changed his physical approach by losing
weight, he has changed his mental approach too, becoming not only more mature, but also a leader.
He is now someone who visits hospitals and gives signed shirts to sick children. He is now someone
who can carry a team on his back, provide assists for his teammates, and entertain the crowd.
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With the arrival of the weekend, football fans across the world are returning to following their
respective teams in another series of cracking fixtures. However, excitement is going to reach a
whole different level next weekend, when the much awaited FIFA 10 releases in Australia (October 1)
and Europe (October 2).
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While he was honored as Estonia's best player in the past half a century by the nation's
football association, Mart Poom could not earn even remotely the same kind of respect on club
level. Despite boasting a variety of Eastern European and English clubs on his resume during his
early days as a player, the legendary former Estonia goalkeeper is best remembered for an extremely
inactive spell as a back-up keeper at Arsenal F.
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The Hammers were out to get over a dismal start to the season. Liverpool was ready to steady a
shaky ship say that five times fast and improve on their 4-0 win over Burnley from the week before.
Both teams came to play at Upton Park on Saturday, and neither time gave in throughout the entirety
of the match.
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Rewind back to 2003 and you'll see that Jonathan Woodgate had everything. From critical acclaim
to a huge fan following, he had all the essentials required to go down in the Newcastle folklore as
one of the very best defenders of all time. However, the only obstacle that could stop him injuries
came into play very early into his career at St.
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When the Carling Cup Round 3 draw was first made, it was very difficult to
imagine West Bromwich Albion providing much of a competition to
Arsenal at The Emirates. Granted, Arsene Wenger
uses the competition to provide some first-team action to his reserves, but even those teenagers
usually prove to be a handful for the opponents.
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Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy returned after a long
spell on the sidelines to provide an assist and score another in his side's emphatic 5-0 victory
over La Liga minnows Xerez. While the focus of the game initially remained on
another former Manchester United star, Cristiano Ronaldo who
scored twice to make it six goals in his four
appearances it was his Dutch teammate who eventually created most of the
headlines.
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Edin Dzeko is back with a bang! The Bosnia international
striker, who spent most of the summer pushing for a dream move to AC Milan, has
finally underlined his commitment to Wolfsburg with an outstanding decisive brace
away to Schalke 04.
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After experiencing a promising start in the top flight by defeating the current Premiership
champions, Burnley's form went crashing down with two heavy road defeats at the hands of Chelsea
and Liverpool, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. Now, they have to defend their perfect record at home
against Sunderland, who come pumped and ready after thrashing Hull City 4-1 at home.
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There is no denying that Liverpool F.C. is the form team in the
Barclays Premier League at the moment. Rafa's Reds have defied
all odds to overcome a frustrating start to the campaign and surprisingly, the Steven
Gerrard - Fernando Torres pairing isn't exclusively responsible for leading the
revival.
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The first defeat of the season is always the most tricky one to deal with. Perhaps that explains
why some feel that the earlier it comes, the better. At the beginning of the 2007-08
season, a determined young Arsenal squad made a typically flying start to
the campaign.
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After experiencing a promising start in the top flight by defeating the current Premiership
champions, Burnley's form went crashing down with two heavy road defeats at the hands of Chelsea
and Liverpool, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. Now, they have to defend their perfect record at home
against Sunderland, who come pumped and ready after thrashing Hull City 4-1 at home.
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There is absolutely no doubt that Fulham's gritty displays of late are
deserving of their newfound reputation as the people's club in the Premier League.
The masses can relate to their mid-sized squad and down-to-earth players while tourists from all
over the world simply cannot resist the amazing atmosphere at the conveniently located
Craven Cottage.
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Arsene Wenger's rapidly increasing dependence on youngsters within his squad
reached new heights this midweek when he chose to start off the Champions League group
stages with rookie Italian goalkeeper Vito Mannone
between the sticks.
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With the commencement of the UEFA Champions League group stages this midweek,
an important piece of news was relegated to the back of most reporting outlets. Perhaps another
reason behind the lack of coverage for the story in question was the refusal, on part of most
football lovers, to recollect any part of the uninspiring internationals
break.
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Stoke City may be a small club, but that never seems to faze them when they walk out in front of
the crowd at The Britannia. Saturday was no different.
Chelsea was visiting, and they brought their undefeated record with them, too. Stoke was ready
for a battle, though. It's pretty hard to describe how different Stoke is as a team when they are
playing at home.
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Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has announced the Premier League's plans to
instate a home-grown players rule. The rule will be effective beginning next season and throws a
whole new wrench into the under 18 transfers debate.
The Premier League's ruling means that Premiership clubs can have no more than 17 non-homegrown
players.
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