Champions League: Torres vs Inter Milan

This fella is on Fai-Yah!

An Almighty Pop

I shure miss this Mourinho fella and his blissful banter. Check out the article below, courtesy of Yahoo Eurosport:

Jose Mourinho has taken an almighty pop at Arsene Wenger, claiming the Frenchman has it easy at Arsenal.

“Arsenal is a unique team,” Mourinho told Gazzetta Dello Sport.

“Their coach hasn’t won anything for years and is still an idol. There is no pressure at Arsenal.

“But do not say he is growing young players into talents. What he does is take young players who are jewels and polishes them. It’s different. He has time to work in a serene atmosphere and get results.”

While the accusation is not new, the previous diatribes occurred when the two mangers were in direct competition and thus interpreted as a ‘mindgame’ ploy by the Special One to ratchet up pressure on Wenger.

That Mourinho felt compelled to put Wenger back in his sights even at a time when he is out of the game indicates that the antipathy between the pair – who fell out spectacularly three years ago when the then Chelsea boss branded Wenger a “voyeur” – still lingers.

Either that or Mourinho genuinely believes the Arsenal manager lives in a comfort zone at the Emirates Stadium.

Today’s Champions League Scores

AC Milan 0 – Arsenal 2 (Fabregas, Adebayor)

First win by an English club in the San Siro

Fabregas ecstatic: “It’s a dream come true”

Man Utd 1 – Lyon 0 (Ronaldo)

United icon Eric Cantona now convinced of Man Utd glory in the Champs League

United now tied with the most successive wins in the Champs League at home

Latest Update on ‘Game 39′

UEFA president Michel Platini has further slammed the so-called ‘Game 39′ proposal by the Premier League, saying it was hatched as a plan to get EPL clubs out of debt (considering most clubs are overspending by buying foreign).

So what’cha think? Will this plan make EPL clubs end up as exhibitionists like the Harlem Globetrotters?

Read the article here.

Fulham VS Manchester United Today!

Man Utd manager Alex Ferguson hinted that he was envious of Fulham manager Roy Hodgson for his much-traveled exploits managing , amongst others, Inter Milan, Switzerland, Blackburn (!).

As quoted in an interview …

‘Sometimes I used to say to myself `I’d love to have tried managing abroad sometime’ but then it was difficult for me.

‘My choices were cut off simply because I was the manager of Manchester United which is amazing and you don’t leave Manchester United.’

Let’s hope this doesn’t give CRon any ideas about moving to Spain.

 My prediction: Fulham 0 Manchester United 2

Arsenal VS Aston Villa – The Small Potato Preview

Did Arsene Wenger accidently ran over a black cat? The humiliation of losing to arch-rival Man Utd (and booted out of the FA Cup in the process), the unnecessary bookings, Adebayor’s miss in the Champions League … and that … that … (cue the often cliched Psycho shower scene theme) THAT horrific injury, plus the points lost in their last EPL encounter.

Yup, things aren’t going the Gunner’s way. And now they have to mentally prepare themselves for a mouth-watering encounter with Martin O’Neill’s men – which could somehow end up as THE turning point to their EPL season should they lose.

Villa could not have picked a better time to meet Arsenal and I believe key players like Gabriel Agblonlahor, Ashley Young, Marlon Harewood, Gareth Barry, and John Carew are in a good run of form – physically and mentally – which could probably see them unsettle the Arsenal defense, often seen as their weakest link.

But who am I kidding? An Arsenal team waiting to bounce back from their current misery, plus having their supporters behind them as they are playing at home – taking this to account I have to simply rate it an uphill task for Villa to come out of the wounded lion’s den with any points at all.

My prediction: Arsenal 3 – 1

OMG

While we sympathize with Eduardo and the Gunners over that horrific injury, I was inspired to find videos of some of the previous worst injuries in telecasted football history. I found this video to be highly disturbing due to Mr. Oh My God’s reaction:

I can’t seem to find a good quality video for David Busst’s compound fracture against Manchester United in 1996. Anyone?

Newcastle VS Manchester United – The Small Potato Preview

The last time Newcastle played MU was upon after Big Sam’s sacking as manager, in which they experienced a humiliating 6-0 drubbing by a vintage Manchester United side exploiting the mismanagement and uncertainty that surround Tyneside.

I have very low expectations of Newcastle able to pull something off here. They are facing an MU side who recently gave a similar drubbing to most probably the most talented Arsenal team ever produced by Arsene Wenger. And as we have seen MU do when their chips are down, they can produce the familiar stunning counter-attack / fight-backs during the last few minutes of the game to ultimately seize premiership points when all seems lost.

  I grossly mis-underestimated my score prediction for Man U against Arsenal when they met in the FA Cup last week. (I predicted a 1-0 win, real score: multiply that by 4). Maybe I didn’t expect Arsenal to play so badly.

These are the key MU players that I believe will take Newcastle by the balls and squeeze them hard …

1. Rooney. United has not lost a game this season when he’s around.
2. Ronaldo. The last few games have not been his best, but expect him to show you a trick you haven’t seen before.
3. Nani. Question is … will he start ahead of Giggs? His last goal celebration brought a flood of Deja Vu memories of the Street Fighter arcade game where I would use Guile to apply those somersault kick moves.

All of them are in my fantasy team this week!

Nani and his circus tricks

Red Devils fans rejoice. For your majestic team played majestically, and the Gooners had no answer to the excellence of the Nani-Anderson two punch.

Really, the Man-of-the-match was a toss-up between Rooney and Nani, even though I personally felt that the center midfield trio of Carrick, Fletcher and Anderson deserved a mention. Eventually Rooney was to win it, largely due to him being the lesser of the two sportsmanship evils.

What am I talking about? Nani would have won it (1 goal and 2 assists) if it wasn’t for the below.

While the video is loading, what is this GoFloyd thingy that everybody is talking about? Gotta check it out at Google…

They didn’t like it…

They didn’t like this… !

But they might like this…!!

What a laugh

From Yahoo UK Football (sportinglife.com):

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas claims Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has enquired about Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa.

The highly-rated attacking duo have been repeatedly linked with a move to the Premier League, with Arsenal and Chelsea also rumoured to be interested.

Back in the autumn, Aulas warned any interested clubs that Benzema and Ben Arfa would not be sold until Lyon had won the Champions League.

The French champions meet United next week in the last 16 of Europe’s elite club competition – and Aulas claims Ferguson has been in touch about his two brightest young talents.

But the Lyon supremo is in no mood to sell in the near future after United were linked with a £40million double swoop.

“I told Sir Alex that Benzema and Ben Arfa will not leave in the next two years,” Aulas is quoted in The Sun.

“We want to build our future on them.


“If he wants to exchange Cristiano Ronaldo for Ben Arfa we could talk about it, but they would have to also give us a bit of money.”


Striker Benzema has scored 16 goals in 24 league games this season, while Ben Arfa has impressed on the wing for Lyon.