• Home
• About
• Contributors
• Contact Us
• Advertising

• Premiership
• Championship
• League One
• League Two
• Non League
• FA Cup
• Internationals
• Forum

Subscribe

United denied victory against Chelsea

It’s been a difficult start to the season for Manchester United, losing to Liverpool, drawing a blank at home in Europe and languishing in the bottom half of the table. What better way to get their season started than by beating Premiership rivals Chelsea on their own turf, and ending their 84 game unbeaten run at the Bridge?

That’s just what United came close to doing, as they led Chelsea after just 18 minutes through Ji-Sung Park. It wasn’t all United though as their Dutch keeper, van der Sar, went off injured in the first half, only to be replaced by Tomasz Kuszczak.

Chelsea came more and more into the game, with Cole and Anelka missing chances to equalise before Kalou preserved their unbeaten run with a header ten minutes from time.

Just like at Anfield last week, United started well but lost their way as the game went on, allowing the home side to dominate proceedings. Chelsea however, while happy with a point, could have won the game with the chances and dominance they had in the second half.

One good sign for United was Ronaldo coming on and again looking fit and ready for the season to begin in earnest. The draw does neither side much good, as Arsenal leap frogged Chelsea and Liverpool yesterday to lead the way, and United stay in the bottom half of the table.

City hit Pompey for Six

It’s a good time to be a Manchester City fan it would seem, as City have just been taken over by a billionaire, they’ve got more money than they now what to do with, they’ve signed a brilliant Brazilian in the shape of Robinho and now they’ve thumped Portsmouth 6-0.

Pompey were no match for rampant City, who are the top goal scorers this season, and today they showed exactly why. With the samba frontline of Robinho, Elano and Jo, City tore Pompey to pieces in an emphatic win.

City led 2-0 at the break with goals from Jo and Dunne, before taking a ragged Portsmouth apart in the second half. Robinho, who scored on his debut last week against Chelsea, grabbed his second for the club, and new re-signing Shaun Wright-Phillips nabbed his third since returning to Eastlands.

Ched Evans and Gelson Fernandes finished the scoring for City, who proved far to hot for Pompey to handle.

It was a double celebration for City, because in addition to thrashing Portsmouth, the official takeover of the club by Abu Dhabi United Group was announced for 23rd September, with the new City chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, appearing to the fans before the game.

It looks like he’s got his money’s worth today.

£17 Million for David Moyes

It finally looks as though Everton are going to reward manager David Moyes for the work he’s done for them. Moyes has made Everton the fifth best team in England consistently for the past few years, and even breached the top four in 2005 (which no other team has done in recent history) when they pipped bitter rivals Liverpool to the Champion League spot.

Despite all of his success, his job was on the line just a few months after that when Everton had a poor start and languished near the bottom of the table after a few months.

Amazing fans were calling for his head. Sense came through and Moyes stayed, and Everton have benefited from that as they’ve been Europe consistently since then. Now it seems that he’ll be rewarded with a £17 million deal over five years. Moyes has just 12 months left on his contract and would be free to walk out on Everton if they don’t sign him down to a new contract, but he hasn’t put pen to paper yet. He is expected to sign before 27th September, which is the game against Liverpool.

Moyes stated:

The club have got the contract and hopefully we will get something done shortly.

Liverpool could go top as they face new boys Stoke

Fresh from their 2-1 victory over Marseille in midweek (and of course their win by the same scoreline against Manchester United last week) Liverpool go into the weekend against Stoke knowing that a win will see them clear at the top of the Premiership.

Stoke meanwhile are in the bottom three, where many people believed they’d be all season, but that’s despite some encouraging performances. They’ve already beaten Aston Villa at the Britannia, and were unlucky to lose last week to Everton. Playing Liverpool at Anfield however is an entirely different proposition, as both Gerrard and Torres are now back from injury and new signing Robbie Keane will have his sights set on breaking his Liverpool duck against a suspect Stoke defence.

Stoke do have one weapon though that has caused problems for every team they’ve played, the long throw into the box. Everton failed to deal with it last week, and it cost them two goals. Liverpool should be able to cope as Sami Hyypia may be recalled to guard against them.

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez stated about the game:

We know that Stoke will be difficult opponents because they have just come into the Premier League and they will be keen to do well, particularly when they come to places like Anfield.

Beating Manchester United last week was a good achievement and it will improve our confidence but now we have to try to beat Stoke.

The last time the two sides met was 8 years ago in an FA Cup tie at the Britannia, when Liverpool beat the Potters 8-0.

Tomorrow is unlikely to see the same result, but if Torres and Keane hit it off, you never know.

Man UTD poor start continues

Manchester United’s stuttering start to the season continued last night as they drew a blank in the Theatre of Dreams against Villarreal. United are in the bottom half of the table, lost on the weekend to bitter rivals Liverpool and have only won one of their league games so far. Last night they opened the defence of their European crown with a dismal 0-0 draw to Spanish side Villarreal.

While their fickle fans might be getting restless, Sir Alex Ferguson is confident that his team will recover and hit form before too long. They’ll need to as well because this Sunday they face league leaders Chelsea in the Premiership.

We are a bit short but the games will bring us on.

We will improve from now. We have a little bit to go yet. But once the sharpness of play comes, I am sure the goals will come as well.

Their start to the season has been poor by their standards, and they face their toughest test away to Chelsea without centre half Vidic.

There is some good news for United though as Ronaldo has returned to fitness and should be available for Sunday, however new signing Berbatov missed the champions league game through injury.

City deny signing Fat Ronaldo

There were reports flying around today that Manchester City were on the verge of signing Ronaldo for £150,000 per week. No, not that Ronaldo, Fat Ronaldo. The one who walked out of Real Madrid to warm the bench at AC Milan, before injuring himself and spending the last few months on the beach in Rio.

Yes, Ronaldo was once a great player, the best in the world at one stage (in fact, three times as he was voted world player of the year on three separate occasions) but he is now well past his best.

Plus, most of the claims about the deal were coming from him. He’s optimistic if nothing else. As he’s recovering from a knee injury right now, Ronny would have to pass a fatness test first before signing anyway.

Yet City say they’re not about to sign the big Brazilian.

We had shown a past interest in bringing the player to the football club in the right circumstances and spoke to him and his representatives.

However, we have chosen not to pursue the matter.

Ronaldo however seems to think the deal is done and he’ll be a City player, and scoring goals in the Premiership very soon. He claims that by joining City, he’ll make the club one of the greatest clubs in the world, and believes by teaming up with Robinho he’ll forge a 50 goal per season partnership:

I like the project that City presented me.

It’s the best offer I’ve received and it will be interesting to play with Robinho.

Whether City offer Ronaldo more money than he’s clearly worth remains to be seen, but whether Mark Hughes wants a fat, slow, injured Brazilian in his team is another matter.

John Terry to face Manchester United

As Chelsea stamped their intent on the Premiership title on the weekend, with a resounding 3-0 victory over Man City (spoiling Robinho’s debut in the process) the only downside to their weekend was the red card to captain JT. This meant he’d miss the next game, against champions Man UTD at the Bridge.

With a three game ban looming, Chelsea appealed the dismissal, from referee Mark Halsey, for a foul on the City striker Jo. He’d decreed that the foul by Terry was serious foul play and the Chelsea and England skipper received a straight red. However Chelsea’s appeal was successful, and the sending off has been overturned, allowing JT to play in the next three games, including the crunch match next Sunday against United.

Terry fouled Jo in the middle of the pitch, with Carvalho and Bosingwa both providing cover, meaning there was no goal scoring chance. However the referee sent JT off for serious foul play, which he had clearly not been guilty of.

That’s bad news for United, who are finding defending their title tough going. They’re only on four points from nine, and face a full strength Chelsea away, without defender Vidic who was red carded in their defeat to Liverpool.

Footballer Jamie Dolan trains to be HGV driver before early death

Former Motherwell footballer Jamie Dolan died last Sunday after collapsing while jogging, dying of heart failure. It’s a tragic loss for his family as Jamie was building a career for himself after football as a HGV driver. He’d taken his HGV driver training last year, but sadly wasn’t able to fulfil his new career due to an illness that he’d always featured would cause him to die young, after his father had died of the same thing in 1988.

Jamie was just 39 when he died last week, and his father died aged 44. His widow, Elaine Dolan, said that her husband had always feared an early death after he’d discovered the body of his father when he was only 19.

His dad’s early death was something that was always in the back of Jamie’s mind. He worried he would take after him.

His dad used to smoke like a lum whereas Jamie was fit so we told him he was being silly.

Some of his former teammates also died recently, including Davie Cooper and Phil O’Donnell.

Phil’s death hit Jamie quite hard as he liked him.

Jamie was young when he knew Davie but he looked up to him so that was a shock too.

Jamie has left his wife Elaine and an eighteen-year-old son named Dean. Elaine spoke of Jamie’s plan to become a deliver driver and how he’d taken his HGV driver training last year.

He wasn’t showy or flash. He was just a good traditional man who wanted to provide for his family. He was a hard worker and last year got his HGV licence to become a delivery driver.

Jamie’s funeral took place this week in Lanarkshire, in the same church where the couple were married and where their son Dean was baptised.

Stoke stay in bottom three as they lose to Everton

Typically, it all kicked off at the Britannia Stadium as home side Stoke lost an incident filled game to Everton, leaving them in the bottom three of the Premiership.

Though Stoke showed some steel in their play, and the long throw weapon from Rory Delap means they’ll cause a number of teams problems this season. They battled hard today, but Everton consigned them to a 3-2 narrow defeat.

Yakubu struck first for the visitors, before Phil Jagielka scored an own goal to level for the home side, courtesy of a Rory Delap long throw; something that Stoke will rely on heavily this season.

After Everton had a penalty appeal turned down, furious manager David Moyes was sent to the stands, where he bravely watched the rest of game amidst the fanatical home fans, something that many away managers would be reluctant to do!

Everton opened the scoring just before half time, in an uneventful first half (despite Moyes’ sending off). In the second half Stoke fought back, and had a goal disallowed before Jagielka scored an own goal to level the scores at 1-1.

The game was won by Cahill, who scored from an Arteta corner. Everton move into the top half of the table, whereas Stoke remain in the bottom three.

Robinho scores on debut against Chelsea

He signed for £32.5m on transfer deadline day, snubbing Chelsea because Man City offered him more money. He was accused of being a football mercenary and the Real Madrid chairman said that by joining Man City it proved he didn’t leave Spain for footballing reasons.

Yet, the Brazilian striker Robinho put all of those comments behind him and showed just why City paid £32.5 million for him, by scoring on his debut with a typically Brazilian free kick.

Sadly his day was spoiled by Chelsea, who came from behind to power home 3-1 winners, and remain on top of the Premier League, just ahead of Liverpool.

Robinho scored his debut goal on 13 minutes, when he converted a 20 yard free kick to give City the lead. The excitement was short lived however, as Chelsea levelled just three minutes later through Carvalho, showing that the City optimism was short lived.

Lampard, then Anelka won the game for Chelsea in impressive style.

The only drawback for Chelsea was that John Terry was sent off for a foul on Jo, and will miss the game next week against champions Manchester United.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Copyright © 2007 Winning Is Everything - XML Sitemap