Jose Mourinho HAS told his players ‘they WILL win the league’

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Feb 8, 2014

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker was reportedly involved in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Yaya Sanogo just a day before their massive clash with Liverpool at Anfield.

The Gunners eventually went on to lose 5-1 in Merseyside after a dreadful display saw them concede four times in the first twenty minutes, and what was visibly clear was a black eye on the German international.

Nothing was revealed before, during or even straight after the game, but reports have now came out suggesting that the German was involved in a scrap with French youngster Sanogo.

Officials of the club have played down the incident claiming that these things happen, and they have also decided not to punish their Summer signing.

When asked about his black eye, Mertesacker said it was an incident involving an air-ball with goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles

Liverpool interested in Chelsea defender

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Feb 8, 2014

Liverpool Football Club are reportedly interested in signing Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole, despite Jose Mourinho admitting that the Englishman will be offered a new deal at Stamford Bridge.

There has been a lot of speculation linking the full-back with a move away from The Bridge due to his contract expiring in the Summer.

However, Mourinho confirmed mid-week that a new 12-month deal will be offered to the 33-year-old, but a long-term contract from rivals Liverpool could be of more interest to the former-Arsenal defender.

It is reported that several MLS sides are monitoring Cole’s situation, but as far as the player is concerned, he wants to remain a Premier League player for at least one more season.

This season has been a fall from grace for Cole as his first-team opportunities have been limited due to Mourinho favouring Cesar Azpilicueta at left-back, despite the Spaniard being a natural right-back.

Another worry for Cole is the continous interest Chelsea are showing in Southampton’s Luke Shaw, who has been labelled as the new Cole, and if they are successful in their chase for the 18-year-old, a move for their current left-back could well be on the cards.

Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles

David Moyes plotting £45million Summer spending spree

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Feb 8, 2014

Manchester United manager David Moyes is planning on making a sensational £45million double bid for Everton’s Seamus Coleman and Southampton’s Luke Shaw.

The Scot is keen to build his own United team after taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson last Summer, and it is expected that wholesale changes will be made this Summer with potentially seven players leaving Old Trafford.

One of the departures is likely to be left-back Patrice Evra as his contract expires with no new deal on the table, and his replacement is likely to be Southampton’s Luke Shaw, if Moyes gets his wish.

Moyes is willing to spend up to £25million for the young Englishman, but it is thought that the player himself favours a move to Chelsea instead.

The United boss, who already returned to his former-club Everton to sign Marouane Fellaini, is expected to return again in order to try and sign impressive right-back, Seamus Coleman.

After having a superb season at Goodison Park, Coleman is now a real target for Moyes, and the Scot is preparing to offer his former club £20million for the Irishman.

Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles

Wayne Rooney admits title is beyond United

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Feb 8, 2014

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has admitted that it would be ‘extremely difficult’ for the side to retain the Premier League title this season.

The defending champions are currently seventh in the table under David Moyes and are a staggering 16-point behind league leaders Chelsea, but if they see off Fulham later on today, they will cut that down to 13 points.

However, speaking to the BBC, Rooney admitted that the title is beyond the club this season, but getting a top-four position is still in their reach.

“Realistically, top four has got to be our aim,” Rooney told Football Focus.

“Although we always want to win the league title, maybe it’s a bit too far. We know it’s going to be extremely difficult to win the title.”

Despite the poor campaign, the English striker gave his support to new manager, Moyes, and admitted that he is a fantastic manager.

“David Moyes is a fantastic manager,” Rooney added.

“I worked with him at Everton and for a number of months at United. He’s done everything he can, but it’s the players that have to do better and hopefully we can do that.”

Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles

Match Reaction: Norwich v Man City

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Feb 8, 2014

Manchester City squandered a chance to go top following Arsenal’s 5-1 defeat at Liverpool, a chance which Chelsea seized instead.

City seemed slightly short on confidence following their 1-0 defeat against Chelsea last Monday and their best chance fell to negredo, who headed against the bar. Chances also fell to Spaniard Jesus Navas, but again there was no end result for Pellegrini’s side.

Norwich were strong defensively but even managed to have City on the back foot, Nathan Redmond shooting over towards the end. The point sees City slip to third, 1 point off Arsenal and 2 points off Chelsea.

Manchester City boss, Manuel Pellegrini’s reaction: “First of all, I think Norwich played very well at defending. We could have scored a goal, we had some chances, but they did very well.

“Today we tried but it’s not easy to score goals. Everyone talks about the amount of goals we score, but it is very difficult to score goals.

“Maybe it was the same mistake that we had when we played against Chelsea, we had a lot of shots but not a lot on target.”

By Phil Wellbrook

Match Reaction: Chelsea v Newcastle

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Feb 8, 2014

Chelsea continued from their 1-0 win against Manchester City on Monday by seeing off Newcatle in comfortable style.

Chelsea started brightly a took the lead through Eden Hazard just efore the half hour mark, and they doubled their advantage in the 34th minute following a swift counter-attack, Hazard again providing the clever finish to an intricate move.

Just after the hour mark, Sameul Eto’o was fouled in the area by Yanga-M’biwa, leaving Hazard to complete his hat-trick from the penalty spot, which he did emphatically to seal the three points which took Chelsea top. Jose Mourinho’s side overtook Manchster City, who drew at Norwich, and Arsenal, who were thrashed 5-1 by Liverpool.

Newcastle boss, Alan Pardew’s reaction: “We need our injured players back, especially for games at this level.

“Tottenham is a game I’d like to think we can get through and hopefully get a strong result.

“And then after that I think a lot of our big players will come back to us and for the next 13 games I think we’ll be strong and then in the summer we’ve got work to do.”

By Phil Wellbrook

The Pulis factor.

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Ben Reardon

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Feb 8, 2014

Following Crystal Palace’s emphatic 3-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion, the Eagles have moved up to the heavy heights of 13th in the Premier League, and now looks odds on to keep their place in England’s top tier.

The Eagles gained promotion to the Premier League in May, following a play off final win against neighbours Watford.

But after a string of poor results at the start of the Premier League season, which left the Eagles rooted to the bottom of the table, and in a real negative position.

Ian Holloway resigned from the club following a hammering at home to London rivals Fulham, as the bookies were left slashing the odds on the clubs relegation, with a return to the Championship looking more likely as the weeks went on.

But when former Stoke City manager Tony Pulis wss appointed manager of the clubs, things took a real change for the better in Croydon.

The Welshman brought a fresh sense of pride at the club, and saw his side win their first game at home against fellow strugglers West Ham United.

The Eagles flew up the table following that win, and Pulis managed to grab a win against his former club, Stoke City, as Jason Puncheon scored the winner at Selhurst Park.

Puncheon has been superb this campaign after making his move from Southampton permanent in January, as Selhurst Park is becoming a real fortress once again.

Former Arsenal ‘flop’ Maroune Chamakh has also impressed after signing for Palace, and Dwight Gayle has been a revelation, and scored a superb sole goal in the impressive win away at Aston Villa last month.

Pulis has demonstrated that he is not a Metropolitan dinosaur incapable of managingin the big smoke, and looks set to go down in Palace history if he can keep the Eagles up.

January was also a superb month for Pulis, coupled with superb results in the League, Pulis also masterminded some superb transfers, many considered real coup’s for the club.

Pulis brought in Tom Ince from Blackpool on a loan deal, Joe Ledley from Celtic, Wayne Hennessey from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Scott Dann amongst others, with Ince the big name coming into Selhurst Park.

Pulis has also not just overhauled the squad as a whole, but changed the philosophy of the footballing tactics that Palace supporters had grown used to under Holloway.

Yes, the kick and rush game that his reputation percieves upon may still be in his footballing managerial DNA, however, the fresh outlook at Palace has been nothing short of a miracle in Croydon.

Many presumed that Ince would be joining a ‘bigger’ Premiership club, or AS Monaco, but instead he opted for the Eagles.

However, the highly rated England U21 International has settled right at home at the club, after opening the scoring in today’s win against West Bromwich.

Joe Ledley also scored on his debut in the rout of West Bromwich.

Pulis praised his three new signings in the win against West Bromwich, stating…..

I was really pleased with the three of them. It’s been really difficult this week as the lads have done so well since I’ve been here – to leave three of the lads out was difficult,” said Pulis.

“If we are going to stay in the Premier League, it’ll be the group of players. It won’t just be the 11 out there, it’ll be the whole group of players and they’ve been fantastic.

“I was really pleased to see (Ince) score that. It was a striker’s goal. He had a fantastic game along with the rest of them.”

Pulis saluted West Brom’s desire to go for the win at Selhurst Park, whilst thanking the Palace faithful who helped generate a boisterous atmosphere throughout the match.

“I thought the two teams had a go. It was windy and the pitch was dried out because of the wind, so it was a bit bobbly,” he said.

“But you can’t criticise both teams trying to win the game today.

“We told (Glenn Murray) to keep warming up every 15 minutes so that kept the crowd going. But they don’t need a lot to keep themselves going, this lot. They’ve been absolutely wonderful for us.”

By Ben Reardon

@BenReardon1

Arsenal players react to 5-1 thrashing

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Feb 8, 2014

Several of the Arsenal footballers took to social networking sites to express their feelings after suffering a humiliating 5-1 defeat at the hands of Liverpool at Anfield earlier today.

The Gunners were 4-0 down after just 20-minutes as The Reds ran rampant on Arsene Wenger’s men, and things didn’t get easier for them as straight after the half-time break, they went 5-0 down.

A Mikel Arteta penalty was a consolation for the visitors today, but nevertheless it was an embarrassing performance for the league leaders, who later got knocked off top spot by Chelsea after they eased past Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge.

After the final whistle at Anfield, several of the Arsenal players took to Twitter of Facebook to sum up the game to all of their fans, and this is what some of them had to say, with Wojciech Szczesny visibly the most annoyed.

The Polish goalkeeper posted on Facebook: ‘That was f***ing embarrassing. Apologies to anyone who sat through 90mins of that game.’

Per Mertesacker Tweeted the following: ‘Sorry guys, this was a bad day for the team, now we have to stand together in the defeat and get our heads sorted.’

His fellow countryman, Lukas Podolski, sent this message out: ‘We gotta stay strong and continue on Wednesday. Our fans didn’t deserve this result, thanks for the great support though. #nextgame #standup’

Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud Tweeted to his followers that he was less than happy with his own personal performance: ‘Was a really poor performance from me. We have to face our responsibilities and bounce back vs United. So disappointed, but keep the head up.’

Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles

Liverpool v Arsenal Manager reaction

By

SteveMilne

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Feb 8, 2014

The Gunners arrived on Merseyside high on confidence at the top of the table, but were demolished as Liverpool scored four in a devastating opening 20-minute burst that could have brought them even more goals.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said after the match:

Today, we were against a team that are very experienced and have led the league for a large part of the season.

We shifted it about tactically. We played Daniel Sturridge through the middle to try to exploit his speed centrally. Luis Suarez played in a wider role today and put in a selfless job.

We switched Raheem Sterling over to the left side to penetrate out to in and to control Sagna a little bit. Overall, the players were tactically brilliant and you saw their appetite and hunger for the game. That was important for us.

We were brilliant today, a wonderful performance in such a prestigious game between the two teams. We do a lot of work on our pressing. I always feel if we press well, we can pass well.

To play like that, not just the result, but the performance level was absolutely out of this world. I’m very pleased and it’s another marker for us that we’re getting better and improving all the time.

While Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, via the club’s official website had to say:

What is important is that we respond to the result, especially that we respond with a different performance because our performance overall was poor today; on the concentration level and on the pace.

Our defensive stability was very poor, we looked always vulnerable defensively.

Congratulations to Liverpool, they were the better team today and we were very poor today.

Only our fans were good for 90 minutes, that’s all.

We conceded two early goals on set-pieces and then we are always in a position where you have to come out but we knew that you need to be better focused in that kind of level. Overall our performance was just not good enough.

Maybe it’s better if I don’t talk too much, go home and respond well on Wednesday night because I include myself in that performance.

It raises the questions that we have to answer on Wednesday night.

Written by Steve Milne

Inter confirm Vidic interest

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Ben Kelly

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Feb 8, 2014

Serie A heavyweights have confirmed their interest in the free transfer of departing Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic. It was announced earlier than in the week that the Serbian defender would be leaving Old Trafford and looking for a new challenge at the end of the season, after 8 very successful years. The 32 year old has sparked a battle for his own signature, and Inter Milan appear to be one of the favourites to snap him up, and have openly expressed their interest in negotiating a deal.

Inter sporting director Pier Ausilio told Italian media, “Vidic is an important player who’s contract expires in June. Like other european clubs, we will be looking to get something out of the situation. He is one of the players we are tracking. He is an interesting profile for Inter, as he has charisma and international experience.”

“However, it’s a long way to say we have already done something with regards to Vidic and I don’t feel ready to confirm that.”

By Ben Kelly

Man City defender on PSG radar

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Feb 8, 2014

According to Sports Direct News, Pablo Zabaleta is the lastest player on the radar of the Paris side. The Argentine defender has firmly established his place in Pellegrini’s side this season and now PSG boss Laurent Blanc is apparently looking to capture the 29 year-old.

Zabaleta appears to be enjoying life in Manchester, suggesting he wouldn’t be ready for a move but the Ligue 1 side have been known to spend big in order to land the world class players.

Zabaleta joined the Etihad side back in August 2008 for £6.4m and has since been a pivital part of the Man City squad. He has managed to make 209 appearanaces in total for the club and has 5 assists already this season, suggesting he would suit PSG’s attacking style of play.

PSG are also said to be keen on signing Arsenal right-back Bacary Sagna, as well as Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic and Barcelona’s Dani Alves.

By Phil Wellbrook

Bayern Munich demand young talent as part of United swap deal

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Feb 8, 2014

According to Sports Direct News, Bayern Munich are willing to sell Toni Kroos to manchester United but demand young talent Adnan Januzaj in return.

United boss David Moyes has personally scouted the German midfielder Kroos, who is currently still in contract talks with his club, and it appeared likely that he would join the Premier league side in January. However, the 26 year-old stayed put but now United are once again in persuit of the German international.

19 year-old Januzaj has been a regular feature in the Old Trafford side this season and has recently signed a new deal. Plus, with bags of potential, Moyes will be reluctant to see the Belgian leave for the Bundesliga.

Kroos, however, is definitely United’s main traget as Maoyes looks to strengthen his side’s midfield. And the Scot is reportedly willing to spend big in order to land the German, who has started 15 of his side’s 19 league games this season.

Januzaj has provided attacking spirit to a deflated United squad and has scored 3 goals and provided 2 assists, showing he is clearly worthy of a move to the European champions, should Moyes allow the youngster to leave.

By Phil Wellbrook

Mikel Arteta believes Liverpool are title contenders

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Feb 8, 2014

Arsenal midfielder Mikel Arteta believes today’s opponents, Liverpool, are genuine title contenders this season.

Brendan Rodgers’ side currently sit fourth in the Premier League table behind Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal, and despite there being an eight-point gap between the two opponents today, Arteta still believes The Reds should be considered title contenders.

Earlier in the season it was Arsenal that ran out winners at the Emirates Stadium, but Arteta and co. know this trip to Anfield will be a lot harder and despite their own boss ruling them out of the title race, Arteta firmly believes otherwise.

“Liverpool are definitely one of our title rivals at the moment,” he told the Sun.

“They have struggled a bit in recent years but they’ve managed to build a new team with a new manager and a new philosophy.

“They have been very consistent this season, they have been scoring a lot of goals at Anfield and they are a brave, creative side.

“They play with two strikers most of the time and they have been the best strike partnership in the Premier League. So it is going to be a very tough match for us.

“But if we can open up an 11-point gap it would be very difficult for them to catch us with 13 games to go.”

Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles

United keeper David De Gea set to sign new contract

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SteveMilne

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Feb 8, 2014