Manchester City v West Ham : Top 5 Conclusions

Top 5 Conclusions:

1. Carlos Tevez scores his first for Manchester City and could have had many more. He did however, end with two goals at the end of the night.
2. Carlton Cole can literally score from anywhere, anyhow.
3. Petrov scored his first goal in more than a year too. A smartly taken free kick to go around the wall and beat Robert Green in goal.
4. It is hard to understand why West Ham are way too down in the standings despite their sleek passing and their fabulous work ethic.
5. Manchester City have options galore in terms of forwards.Same is not true for the Hammers, they're way too depedent on Carlton Cole to be their savior.

Many current and former managers, in the form of Sven Goran Eriksson, Tony Pulis, Martin O'Neil, Peter Reid, were in attendance and enjoyed sitting on expensive seats all thanks to Dubai oil riches.

VoTD : Best goals of September

Best goals of September presented by Gol TV. Which do you vote number 1?

Darren Bent Twittering again

After Darren Bent's infamous rant against Spurs on Twitter during the summer which led him to joining Sunderland and get back to scoring ways. He stopped Twittering during that time period but he's back on! (You can follow him here)

His tweets are never short of providing entertainment and recent one where he prefers his team mates over other Premier League players is interesting too. Catch a snapshot below :

How about following me on Twitter as well?

Monday's Newspaper Roundup

Sunderland to target Spurs' Alan Hutton in January (Daily Mirror)

What I Think? : It would be a great signing for Sunderland if it does happen. He's finally emerging from being on the sidelines due to an injury but Harry Redknapp has players coming back from their loan spells and he might look to strengthen himself. I see it happening.

Notts County chief executive doesn't know where the money is coming from (The Sun)

What I Think? : Magpies have dominated the news in the past few weeks with their high profile takeover, Sven Goran Eriksson becoming the director of football and thereafter Sol Campbell joining the club. (and then leaving it within a game!) Now their chief executive, Peter Trembling has told The Sun that he has no clue of where the money is coming from. This would certainly make things worse for the league two club.

Nani would call Ronaldo before facing Wolfsburg on Wednesday (The Sun)

What I Think? : Nani would definitely need some confidence boost but would he play is the real question? Or would they end up talking about Ronaldo's sexcapades in Madrid?

Walcott tells Wenger, I want to play against Olympiakos (The Sun)

What I Think? : Walcott returning to action would bring the swiftness and pace back to Arsenal and even step it up a notch. However, he shouldn't be made to play the whole game as of yet. Match practice is necessary right now rather than full frontal return.

Tom Hicks and George Gillett at loggerheads again. This time over Middle Eastern riches (Daily Mail)

What I Think? : Tom Hicks and George Gillett have been acting like a couple with bad understanding and yet not ready to budge and divorce the other. We witnessed it earlier and we're seeing it now again. Saudi prince, Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah, sat alongside Gillett and witnessed Liverpool thrash Hull by 6 goals to 1. The Saudi group want to invest £200-350 million and garner 50% stake in the club. Liverpool currently are under debt of £245m and plan to build a newer stadium. This would help the club and it would be better if one of Gillett or Hicks let go.

Image : Sir Alex as the fourth official

Everyone would have heard about the controversial late, LATE winner by Michael Owen in the Manchester derby last weekend. The fourth official indicated stoppage time of four minutes while the game went on until the sixth minute. Now there have been many comments made on the topic, some against the referee and some in favour. On the lighter side of things,

Spotted this funny image on Off The Post .

VoTD : FIFA 10 UK advertisement

FIFA 10 by EA Sports releases on various platforms starting from 1st October (Australia) , 2nd October (Europe) and 20th October (North America). This advert below released in UK and you can spot Rooney, Xavi and Benzema can be spotted easily. Can you spot more? With every correct spot until 30th September, I would be be contributing one dollar to a charity of my preference. So get the comments started. It would benefit the world somewhere and you would have to just add a comment, doesn't take much time either. Spread it more so more comments mean more fund donated. Cheers! [Catch the video after the jump]

5 Reasons why City won't beat United

VS.

Manchester City travel to Old Trafford for the Manchester derby tomorrow and despite City having won all games I see their run ending.

1. Despite City's huge squad, Adebayor who is out suspended after his stupidity against Arsenal would be missed. Bellamy or the other attacking midfielders don't look like making any impact.

2. Rooney on the other hand has been in hot form along with his club who beat Spurs last week thus ending the Londoner's 100% record.

3. Mark Hughes' record against his former club as Rovers boss has been a dismal 2 wins out of 8 games in the Premiership.Of course, this is City with a different squad and truck load of money but the trend would continue.

4. There is no Tevez to do an Adebayor to his former club.

5. City have won at Old Trafford only once since 1974.

I would be shocked if it ended in a draw as well.

VoTD : Defoe's bicycle kick!

Defoe scores this fantastic bicycle kick against Manchester United to put Spurs up 1-0 within 50 seconds! He's been in blistering form, hope Capello sees that and starts him instead.
Enjoy!


Watch 1-0 Defoe SpurS vs MU in Sports

Manchester City v Arsenal : Top 10 Conclusions

Manchester City 4-2 Arsenal, at City of Manchester stadium.

Top 10 Conclusions :

1. Arshavin missing due to injury was perhaps a great blow for Arsenal.
2. If Adebayor had played 50% of what he played today for Gunners, he would be living in London and not have giant poster of his face on the floor of Manchester's malls.
3. Rosicky back after 20 months and scoring is a great prospect for Arsenal's ever dwindling squad due to injuries.
4. Adebayor's celebration in front of the Arsenal fans on the opposite end of the field was totally uncalled for. Deserved the yellow.
5. Adebayor's stomp on Van Persie's head went unnoticed and now might go unobserved by the FA. (Video)
6. 47,339 attendance for the game is the most for a Premier League game at Manchester City's home.
7. Despite all what was said about Manchester City spending but lacking the extreme firepower to be part of the elite "Top 4", they've certainly silenced the critics. For now.
8. Arsenal could have equalised late in the second half with the Barry handball in the box not given and Van Persie hitting the bar.
9. Manchester City conceded the first goal of their campaign today.
10. Now despite playing good quality football, Arsenal have two losses to show of it.

VoTD : Bad day for Kaladze

AC Milan's Kakha Kaladze had a nightmare Saturday night.He scored two goals but unfortunately both were own goals and rather calamitous ones at that. Georgia lost 2-0 to Italy. After the game, Kaladze was seen cheering "Forza Azzuri" with Milan team mates Andrea Pirlo and Gianluca Zambrotta.

VoTD : Is Eduardo the only cheat?

Eduardo was banned for two games from UEFA Champions League after he was found to have dived to get a penalty for Arsenal against Celtic at the Emirates. However, this ruling came after video footage was analysed by people at UEFA. Arsenal have appealed against the ruling. Its actually a confusing matter as both the parties are correct on their parts.
1. Arsenal side - If he was found to have been cheating then why was there no action taken during the game? Also, the whole episode was blown out of proportion by Celtic and the Scottish Football Association.

2. UEFA's side - They need to maintain and keep the game clean which had not been the case for quite some time. There had been way too many play actings which probably was the reason why Chelsea-Barcelona semi final was marred with controversial decisions.

Nonetheless, in the following video we see a great compilation of cheating and diving by certain Manchester United players. Aptly created by ManUnitedCheat.



Disclaimer : This video is an indication of the views held by the user who created the video and not endorsed by me. Any rants of Anti-United chants against me will be treated with a strict scorn. :D

10 Footballers on Twitter

Twitter is very common now. Many of the professionals in various arenas of sports tweet. Be it when they're on the road or in practice or even during matches. So much so, USTA (United States Tennis Federation) sent out a warning to all the players to keep from tweeting as it could result in cheating or betting irregularity.

However, we are aware of footballers being on Twitter too. Darrent Bent was transferred to Sunderland from Spurs after his rant on Twitter. This caused a huge furor and forced a rather active (at least on Twitter!) Jonathon Woodgate to shut down his account.

How about we list the football players that exist on Twitter? Some of them are taken from EPL Talk (removed the non existant page of Woodgate) . I cannot guarantee the authenticity of all the accounts so I would leave the judgement up to you. The list is random and no particular order is followed.

1. Peter Crouch (Spurs) - English forward currently playing for Spurs (after a whole merry go around!) has 1007 followers. His last tweet :

just discovering twitter on my laptop, trying to persuade the other lads to join
10:33 PM Apr 1st from web

2. Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) - Liverpool captain Stevie G has a whooping 36,445 followers. I don't think it is a real account and not active, as expected. Here is the last tweet :

Thanks to all that are following, I view twitter as my gateway to the fans.. especially liverpool fans.. cheers everyone..
11:36 PM Jul 16th from web

3. Brad Guzan (Aston Villa) - This is a CONFIRMED account belonging to Aston Villa's number two goalkeeper after Brad Friedel. Despite playing only one game for the Villains he is highly rated by manager Martin O'Neil. He currently has 2459 followers. His last tweet :

busy week
1:53 AM Aug 27th from web

4. Jozy Altidore (Hull City) - Altidore is one of the best strikers ever for United States national team. He plays for Hull City and in a new he announced his loan transfer from Spanish side Villareal to the KC Stadium via Twitter! He currently has 17,389 followers. His last tweet :

Channel.
about 1 hour ago from UberTwitter

5. Freddy Adu (Belenenses) - When young he was regarded as one of the most exciting players and a great proposition to carry American football forward but sadly that failed to happen. He currently plays in Portugal. Currently has 12,133 followers. His last tweet :

matthew 19:26 with men its impossible but with God all things are possible. Game tonight against olhanense.
about 5 hours ago from web

6.Stan Collymore (former Liverpool,Nottingham Forest,Aston Villa and a hoard of other clubs) - This former player and current football talk show host on UTV's talkSport. He currently has 4,861 followers. His last tweet :

callcollymore@live.com on msn instant messenger from 2pm.make your pre match point and predictions whoever you support.then 08717223344 5pm
5:46 PM Aug 29th from web

7. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) - Once a bad boy of football rejuvenated himself and is currently a big strength for England and Manchester United alike. Talks about football and his personal life too. Nice to see that, if this account is indeed for real. Rooney has 20,938 followers. His last tweet :

@wonder_nat parents ?i really cant wait Colleen looks great but she always does.its great to talk about other things apart from football
about 5 hours ago from web

8. Jacques Faty (Sochaux) - Faty currently plays in the French League for Sochaux. Had a brief stint at Marseille and had nearly joined Juventus. He has 133 followers and tweets in English and French both. His last tweet :

salut a tous, je parle en direct du portugal. Match avec le Senegal contre l Angola
10:51 PM Sep 2nd from web

9. Maurice Edu (Glasgow Rangers) - Maurice is a member of the United States national team and plays his club football in England. He won the Rookie of the year award while playing for Toronto FC. He has 5,728 followers. Its a Twitter confirmed VERIFIED account. His last tweet :

Just linked up with my boys @devobrown n @akataboo on King st. What's next? CNE? Hmm...
about 3 hours ago from UberTwitter

10. Paul Dalglish (former Norwich City, Wigan Athletic and various more) - Son of legendary Liverpool and Celtic player, Kenny Dalglish , had a rather unsuccessful career unlike his father. Right now he is the coach at Houston Dynamo academy. He has 1,292 followers. His last tweet :

I see on the bbc website Fergie backing the Eduardo ban....i wonder if he'd of done that if Ronaldo was still at Utd. Mmmm
about 6 hours ago from TweetDeck

UPDATE:

11. Bojan Krkic (Barcelona) - Barcelona's young forward Bojan Krkic is also there on Twitter! Tweeting in both Spanish and English, he talks mainly about the game and has a Barcelona twibbon too. He currently has 606 followers. His last tweet :

@danepioli too late, I will record it! Not sure: Alves or Messi...
about 8 hours ago from Splitweet in reply to danepioli

(Thanks to Bojan for the tip)

This concludes the list of 10 footballers on Twitter but I would like to know, who would you love to see on Twitter amongst all the leagues? Phil Brown so he can announce his transfer demands? Jose Mourinho so he can rant like he used to when at Chelsea? Someone else.. leave comments. :) I would love to see Phil Brown tweet. No holds barred! :D

By the way, how about adding me on Twitter? Follow me on Twitter

India win Nehru Cup!

I would go off category/genre of this blog today and give a little space to our(India) national side which won the Nehru Gold Cup Tournament today beating Syria on penalties after the game finished 1-1 after extra time.

Syria had been the most dominant side in the entire tournament. They had won all their games and better still they had not conceded even a single goal. India also had fallen to the West Asian side on two occasions.

After the 90 minutes finished goal less the game progressed into extra time at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi. India looked to have scored the winner in the 114th minute through midfielder Renedy Singh.

Syria however equalised very very late in the 122nd minute through Ali Dyab. 1-1 at the end of extra time and disastrous for India to concede such a late goal. Game goes to penalties.

After a drama filled penalty shootout India emerged victorious. Country ranked 156 as per FIFA rankings beats country ranked 95. Fabulous scenes inside the stadium as fans run onto the pitch (thankfully not violently!) hoisting the national flag and celebrate a monumental victory.India retain the trophy they had won last year.

(Image courtesy CNN IBN/AP)

However, India is a cricket loving nation and that fact was reminded of as the news channels ran ticker alerts of India's great win. A large media house showed its lack of knowledge about football by calling extra time as "TIE BREAK".



The text in Hindi reads : "Tiebreak ke zariye hua faisla" (Match decided in a Tie Break)

(Sorry for bad quality. Click on image for a better view.)

Congratulations to the Indian football team! :D