Daily Archives: January 13, 2013

Adam’s Premier League Column – Rockin’ Robin

  By O-Posts Team | January 13, 2013 - 22:48 | , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Welcome back to my Premier League column and I wish you all a Happy New Year! This has been a superb weekend of football, with lots of goals, controversial decisions and superb defending. Here I will discuss the top three games of the weekend.

 

Manchester United 2 Liverpool 1

This match is a mouth-watering prospect for any football fan across the world, and it lived up to those expectations, even if Liverpool were slow getting out of the blocks. Suarez was kept quiet throughout the game thanks to the United defence, most notably Ferdinand and Rafael. The Red Devils started the match very well, Rafael and van Persie linked up well in the early stages and it only took nineteen minutes for them to break the deadlock.

An intelligent bit of play by RVP to lose his man after a great ball in by Evra worked a treat, and it left for him to simply slide home. From then on, they hit another gear, although Raheem Sterling and Steven Gerrard had a couple of chances to set up Suarez for the visitors.

United then doubled their lead nine minutes after the interval. Robin van Persie’s floated free kick found an unmarked Patrice Evra. He leaped high at the near post and his header got deflected in via fellow defender Nemanja Vidic. That goal seemed to do Liverpool the world of good. From then on, they seemed to really push on, playing some great football, but it was too little too late.

However, substitute Daniel Sturridge, on his Premier League debut for the Reds, pounced on an initial save from United shot stopper David de Gea to give them some reinstalled hope.

The introduction of Borini and Henderson looked to have injected some urgency into the squad, but United had far too much experience and were able to see the game out.

All in all, a reassuring display from Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, and I’m sure Brendan Rodgers will feel that his side could have nicked a point.

 

Arsenal 0 Manchester City 2

It was vital that Manchester City didn’t slip up against the Arsenal after United’s three points against Liverpool. It was a dramatic game, and Laurent Koscielny was shown red inside the first ten minutes after he hauled down the on running Edin Dzeko in the box.

However, the resulting spot-kick, taken by Dzeko himself, was saved by Szczesny. The Gunners can have no arguments with that decision, as anybody who grabs someone by the hips inside the 18-yard box can really have no complaints. That completely changed the game in City’s favour.

They capitalised on the Gunners’ lack of organisation and took the lead on 21 minutes after a quick free-kick was taken and passed on through to James Milner who fired past Szczesny from a tight angle.

Edin Dzeko capped off a wonderful display after his early penalty howler by converting from close range after some great initial work by Argentine forward Carlos Tevez. Javi Garcia had a header cleared off the line by Arsenal’s stand-out player Jack Wilshere just before the half time whistle.

Man City didn’t look like they were missing the likes of influential players Sergio Agϋero and Yaya Toure who were unavailable. City kept up their impressive passing play throughout the second half but couldn’t influence the score-line any further.

Olivier Giroud had a couple of the chances for the hosts after he replaced Lukas Podolski. Man City were then reduced to ten men themselves after Vincent Kompany’s tackle was said to be too vicious.

I personally feel that there is nothing wrong with that sort of tackle as he clearly went for the ball, won the ball, and was one footed. I haven’t talked to anyone yet that actually believes that the tackle deserved a red. I’d love to know your opinions on this so please comment below!

 

Reading 3 West Brom 2

This five goal thriller was fantastic! West Brom have been fantastic so far this season, and Reading are doing poorly, finding themselves second from bottom. West Brom took the lead through star man Lukaku who has been outstanding this season.

His all round play has been brilliant this season. His strength, passing, heading, shooting and team play has really improved, and he will just get better as he plays more and more games. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for him.

The Baggies doubled their lead on 69 minutes, again through Lukaku whose shot from outside the box sneaked past Adam Federici.

However, Reading forged back an incredible comeback. Kebe halved the deficit with eight minutes to go, before Le Fondre dispatched a penalty with two minutes to go. You would have thought that they’d play for the draw, but not Reading!

A ball was played into Russian forward Pavel Pogrebnyak who lobbed ‘keeper Foster to seal all three points. Baggies’ boss Steve Clarke was left “shell shocked” and rightly so. A terrific three points for Reading, and it may give them a much needed push in the second half of the season.

 

Results in full

QPR 0 – 0 Tottenham
Aston Villa 0 – 1 Southampton
Everton 0 – 0 Swansea
Fulham 1 – 1 Wigan
Norwich 0 – 0 Newcastle
Reading 3 – 2 West Brom
Stoke 0 – 4 Chelsea
Sunderland 3 – 0 West Ham
Man Utd 2 – 1 Liverpool
Arsenal 0 – 2 Man City

 

Team of the Week

 

Written by Adam May

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Newcastle: Pardew facing the trouble under the club’s careless ownership

  By O-Posts Team | January 13, 2013 - 22:12 | , ,
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No club has quite rivalled Newcastle United’s claim over the years to be the most turbulent, unsettled club in England’s top division, so when Alan Pardew was named LMA manager of the year back in May after guiding his side to a fifth placed finish on the back of some astute business in the transfer market, the following season was never going to run as smoothly.

Six months into Pardew’s eight year contract, generously handed to him by owner Mike Ashley after last season’s success, Newcastle sit in 16th position having won just five times in 22 Premier League matches. A run of nine defeats in eleven before Saturday’s dour goalless draw with Norwich was described by Pardew as “awful”, as home wins over struggling Wigan and QPR have been the only source of joy for the Toon Army who saw their team sit ten places higher at this time last season.

As the Magpies limped to the draw in East Anglia, close rivals Sunderland were beating West Ham to move four points clear of Newcastle who remain nervously looking over their shoulders at the relegation zone they are separated from by just 2 points. The previous result, the 2-1 reverse at home to Everton, drew the reaction from Pardew but not from the fans who remain surprisingly patient on the often irrational banks of the Tyne. Supporters appear to still be in support of Pardew who continues to fight a losing battle with misfortune and various circumstances beyond his control.

The club’s top scorer Demba Ba has since departed for Chelsea on the back of 15 vital goals that has helped stave off serious trouble, while fellow Senegalese striker Papiss Cisse has failed to build on his delightful impact from last January as he has returned a measly 6 strikes from 26 appearances so far. Shola Ameobi remains unconvincing and his brother Sammy too young in what is now a worryingly threadbare strike-force. The club have been close to completing a deal for Loic Remy but the Frenchman is classed as a gamble after his indifferent form for Marseille.

Last year’s drive of their solid central midfield pairing has been lost to Yohann Cabaye’s long term injury and Cheikh Tiote’s constant indiscipline (he has 9 yellows and 1 red in 18 matches this season), while the latter also goes to the African Nations Cup with Ivory Coast this month. Ryan Taylor is a long term absentee, Hatem Ben Arfa, the erratic but extremely creative winger, has been injured all too often playing just 14 times.

The defence has also suffered disruption, Steven Taylor has also been on the treatment table whilst captain Fabriccio Coloccini has voiced his desire to move back to native Argentina. Underneath their first team troubles, there is a feeling that some elements of the squad such as James Perch, Mike Williamson and Gabriel Obertan are not to standard and they are being exposed as a result.

Newcastle’s slide down the table has seemingly alerted Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias to the requirement of further investment to the squad. The move for Remy follows the £5.5 million deal for Lille’s French right-back Mathieu Debuchy who was close to moving to St James’ Park in the summer before the Newcastle hierarchy aired in the side of austerity.

Vurnon Anita was their only paid-fee signing in the summer despite the added demands of the Europa League as Ashley chose to watch the purse strings rather than realise the need to bolster the squad in time for higher expectation. The £35 million pocketed from the sale of Andy Carroll has hardly lit the torch paper for excessive spending; Tiote, Ba, Cisse, Ben Arfa and Cabaye were signed in total for less than £20 million.

It can be argued that it is clever scouting, refreshingly shrewd business in the era of lavish outlay at the top, but an indication of Ashley’s party-line of thrift that cynics say Pardew is all too eager to tow, the main underlying reason why he was given the security of the eight year deal.

The manager has announced that “money is tight” and such restrictions on finances is certainly not helping a squad stretched to a very large extent by injury. Llambias however, has shown understanding on a football sense by going on record to say “every manager is entitled to a bad season”, the closest to any kind of vocal support that Pardew is likely to receive off the Newcastle board that usually positions itself clear of footballing matters.

There is no doubting that it is a bad season however and as Pardew has called for, there is a desperation for added investment to a thin-looking squad this January. If that does not happen, Newcastle could find themselves staring down the barrel of another surprise drop the Championship which would be disastrous, even by Newcastle’s regularly dishevelled standards.

 

Written by Adam Gray

Follow him on Twitter @AdamGray1250

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Premier League Betting Preview: Top 5 Super Sunday Bets

  By O-Posts Team | January 13, 2013 - 14:19 | , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Its here. The first Premier League Super Sunday of 2013, and Sundays do not get much more super than the fixtures that await us on this chilly Sunday 13th. The ascendancy of the noveau riches may have altered the order of power at the top end of English domestic football on a permanent basis, but for this soppy writer at least, Manchester United versus Liverpool remains the quintessential date in the league calendar. As a lower-division supporting neutral, the M62 derby is the first match I look for when the fixture lists are produced each close season.

The two most successful clubs in the land, 37 titles between them, 8 European Cups, hundreds of millions of fans worldwide, if an alien who knows nothing about football – or Tom Cruise – popped down to catch a game to get up to speed with what all the fuss is about this Premier League malarkey, you’d hope that this would be the game that he – or Tom Cruise – popped down for. Passion, history, quality.

And the match afterwards isn’t bad either as the champions travel down to the Emirates minus their midfield lynchpin, striking talisman and ex-Gunners playmaker. Add to the mix that Manchester City have not recorded an away league victory against Arsenal for 38 years and you are guaranteed a major story to come out from North London this afternoon.

First things first, and the league leaders simply have to be favoured to snap up the three points which will bring a 20th league title tantalisingly closer to Old Trafford. At the time of writing, United are available at odds-against to defeat their bitter rivals, a price which in my eyes represents staggering value. Sir Alex Ferguson’s men are 21 points ahead of Liverpool in mid-January, having won nine of their ten home league matches this season. They have scored in every one of them, scoring at least twice on each occasion barring the 1-0 victory over West Ham in November.

In other words their Merseyside opponents, who have been victorious on the road in only three of their ten attempts this campaign, will almost certainly have to score at least two goals today to avoid defeat. Liverpool have achieved this feat only three times this season, albeit two of those matches were their most recent away league games, against QPR and the Hammers.

However, trips to Loftus Road and Upton Park are a significant step down from a daunting journey to Old Trafford, where Liverpool have suffered four successive league and cup defeats since a Benitez and Torres-inspired 4-1 mauling of the Red Devils in 2009.

Both Spaniards have changed allegiance to Chelsea since, and while the Blues will be hoping Liverpool can do them an unlikely favour in opening up the title race with a rare away win, there is simply too big a gulf in class. United have been scoring an average of a goal a game more than Liverpool all season (whilst both teams boast similar defensive records) and if Ferguson’s declaration that Wayne Rooney will not make today’s match due to a nagging knee injury is fact as opposed to curveballed kidology – he has plenty of form in that respect – then it is not as if there is a shortage of options to make up for the loss of the Scouser.

Ferguson can utilise the pace of Javier Hernandez to pair up with key man Robin van Persie, or the physicality of Danny Welbeck to rough up Liverpool’s bouncer-like centre-back pairing of namesake Agger and Martin Skrtel. The most likely eventuality, though, is that Shinji Kagawa will be deployed in the number 10 role which Rooney has developed into smoothly over the last few months, acting as an effective conduit between van Persie up top and his midfield, the only area of the park where this Liverpool side can hold a candle to United.

In the reverse fixture in September which United won 2-1 at Anfield, Liverpool were admittedly running the early exchanges of the game via the midfield, with Jonjo Shelvey the best player on the park until his sending-off for a rash tackle. Expect Shelvey to again link up with Joe Allen and captain Steven Gerrard in the centre of the pitch, with the remit from Brendan Rodgers to consist of bossing Tom Cleverly and Michael Carrick.

No easy task at Old Trafford however, especially with Cleverley maturing by the game and Kagawa having the legs to essentially become a quasi-box-to-box-midfielder, albeit with more emphasis on appearing in his opponents box than his own. He mastered this role with distinction in his illustrious last couple of seasons at Borussia Dortmund, and can demonstrate his attributes to great effect today.

The gulf between United and Liverpool may well be illustrated to its maximum out wide, where young full-back Andre Wisdom will be issued the daunting task of keeping a marauding Ashley Young quiet in the absence of the injured Jose Enrique. The saving grace for Rodgers, of course, is the form of their controversial yet undeniably brilliant forward Luis Suarez, and he has proved in the past that he doesn’t shirk the big occasion having produced some top performances against United since arriving on these shores.

However when you look a little closer into the background of those fixtures, its not all it seems. His man-of-the-match performance in Liverpool’s last league victory against United in March 2011 was in the absence of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Johnny Evans, while the United captain was also absent with injury when Suarez notched at Old Trafford last season.

Perm any two from the aforementioned three defenders to start today, and the talented Uruguayan will have a tough task on his hands in front of what will undoubtedly be an extremely hostile Mancunian crowd. Daniel Sturridge is not match-fit. Liverpool fans haven’t seen their side beat a top-ten team all season and will head down the M62 this afternoon in hope as opposed to expectation, as all roads lead to a United victory with the starring role set to be afforded to the man from the land of the rising sun.

Kicking off at 4pm is the small matter of Arsenal versus Manchester City. The champions are languishing somewhat seven points behind their neighbours in the table – a gap which may go into double figures by kick-off time – but they have proved themselves to be the hardest team to beat in the league away from home. They can boast the fewest number of away defeats – just the one at Sunderland on Boxing Day – and just the ten goals conceded in as many away matches. Only Swansea and today’s opponents have conceded less on their travels.

Both Arsenal and Man City can boast durability away from home, and at terra firma both sides have scored 25 goals so far this season, although this record is more impressive in respect of the Gunners as they have played two home games fewer than City at this moment in time. In fact there is not a lot in it when it comes to the goal statistics, with Arsenal having scored only one goal fewer whilst playing a game less, and conceding only three goals more.

The main reason it seems for Arsenal lagging eleven points behind Man City in sixth place is their propensity for drawing games of football. Only draw specialists Everton have endured more stalemates out of the top eight teams, and today could be another day for shared points. There’s no doubting that City have the better squad, yet even their not-so-meagre resources will be stretched by the notable key absences of Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero, all for differing reasons.

With Mario Balotelli mentally AWOL, City are down to their last two recognised strikers. Carlos Tevez and Edin Dzeko are not a bad pairing to find at the bottom of your barrel, though. That notwithstanding, Aguero is City’s best striker, Nasri is at his most effective on the counter at away days such as these and Toure is the driving force in the champions’ midfield. There are no ready-made equivalent replacements for those three, and expect City to pit out a more dour formation with unspectacular players such as Gareth Barry and James Milner coming to the fore.

Arsenal are of course not without their problems but they are finding their goalscoring touch of late, and where Arsene Wenger deploys Theo Walcott today will give a massive indication as to how ready the manager believes his young charge is to emulate Thierry Henry in a central striker role.

Walcott should be afforded that chance, and should relish the opportunity to use his pace to snap at the heels of the young City centre-back Matija Nastasic, who has played ably in his first season in the Premier League at the age of just 19 yet has struggled in the bigger games.

With Toure and Nasri absent the midfield battle will be a more even affair as well, with Jack Wilshere working his way back to form nicely, aided in his tripartite partnership with fellow ballplayers Santi Cazorla and Mikel Arteta, the latter of course scoring the winner in the corresponding fixture last season to ensure City’s Highbury/Emirates hoodoo rumbled on for yet another year.

The hoodoo may well be rumbling on to a fifth decade, as a stalemate seems the most likely outcome in this afternoon’s late fixture.

 

TOP FIVE SUPER SUNDAY BETS

1) Man United to beat Liverpool 21/20 BETVICTOR
2) Shinji Kagawa Man of the Match 16/1 STAN JAMES
3) Arsenal vs. Man City Draw 5/2 BET 365
4) Theo Walcott Anytime Goalscorer 2/1 STAN JAMES
5) Edin Dzeko Last Goalscorer 7/1 STAN JAMES

 

Written by Emelie Okeke

Follow him on Twitter @Emelie_Okeke

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