“Notts County might not be a name that sets the pulses of football fans around the world pulsing. It doesn’t even do that for most of the city of Nottingham, never mind the rest of planet football. In recent decades County has been comprehensively outshone by its near rivals just across the River Trent at Nottingham Forest.” (Pitch Invasion)
“It’s no secret that without the top South American players, European soccer’s biggest club competition — the UEFA Champions League — wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining. With the amount of South American talent integrated into the competition in recent years, the quality of play has reached a level never imagined before. (SI)
“I don’t know what I could write, what other words could be contributed to describe the best deep lying centre forwards that the Premier League has even seen. The two songs here are done by some Arsenal supporting musical acts about his time at Highbury, but I want give a mention to one of the greatest World Cup goals I’ve ever witnessed…” (Football and Music)
José Mourinho
“There might never have been a coach more intent on turning his teams into a sideshow to his own performance than José Mourinho. Yet he is not the pretty sight he imagines. On Saturday night in the San Siro, his Inter Milan was reduced by foul play and gamesmanship to nine men before halftime for the second match running. No matter, Mourinho applauded them, mocked the referee, and boasted that a team of his would have to be reduced to six players to lose a home game. He is a bitter and twisted man — and a successful one.” (NYT)
“Kicked out of the near-earth-orbit studio by overrated Indie rockers Vampire Weekend and with a presenter still somewhere in the alpine wilderness, Football Weekly makes do with a broom cupboard and whoever Producer Pete could find five minutes before recording was due to commence. Luckily he found Paul MacInnes, Rob Smyth, Kevin McCarra and Paul Doyle at a loose end and they all agreed to do him a turn. The hastily assembled bunch waste no time getting stuck into the week’s Champions League action, including Lukasz Fabianski’s night to forget, a Rooney-inspired comeback at the San Siro and Bayern Munich’s ludicrously offside goal to beat Fiorintina.” (Guardian – James Richardson)
“Sometimes, it feels as if Sol Campbell’s entire life might be scripted by someone that was laid off from the Eastenders’ writing team. In recent times, there doesn’t appear to have been very much in his life that hasn’t been accompanied with some sort of melodrama, and this didn’t let up in tonight’s match at the Estádio do Dragão. Moreover, the match raised fresh questions over Arsene Wenger’s goalkeeping policy, as both Porto goals were, ultimately, the fault of the Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and the match is now balanced on a very delicate line ahead of the return match at The Emirates Stadium.” (twohundredpercent)
“The coincidences during Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League games were simply too delicious to go without notice. At Porto’s Dragão Stadium in Portugal, the referee from the game that featured Thierry Henry’s infamous Hand of Gaul goal, Martin Hansson, was excoriated by Arsenal Manager Arsène Wenger for a call that led directly to Porto’s game-winning goal. Henry, of course, is a former star at Arsenal. Hansson’s vapor lock during France’s playoff victory over Ireland last year sent the French to South Africa and the Irish into conniptions.” (NYT)
“Note : This post was written after the defeat to Fiorentina in the Champions league. With me still lost for words over the loss at Emirates, I’d like to make a re-visit to continue my support for the man who cares for the club the most. So some of the readers who are new to this blog kindly have a look. (For the old ones, yeah the ‘Psycho’ part was re-edited for obvious reasons.” (All Four One..)
“Twenty minutes into the second half of Hamburg’s match at Stuttgart on Saturday in the German Bundesliga and the score deadlocked at 1-1, visiting coach Bruno Labbadia called in the cavalry. The lanky figure of Ruud Van Nistelrooy trotted on to the pitch for what was only his sixth appearance in the last 15 months. Within twelve minutes, he had turned the game, striking twice from close range, first with a left-footed pounce and then with a cool right-footed diagonal finish. Hamburg went on to win 3-1, rising to fourth in the league standings and keeping its hopes of a Champions’ League spot next season intact.” (WSJ)
The tribute money: Peter finding the silver coin in the mouth of the fish, Jacobs Jordaens
“Arsenal breathed new life into their diminishing Premier League title hopes with a narrow win over Liverpool at Emirates Stadium. Abou Diaby finally got the breakthrough on 72 minutes, when he headed in Tomas Rosicky’s cross as the Gunners bounced back from successive defeats to Manchester United and Chelsea. Liverpool, who are just ahead of Manchester City in fourth place, almost grabbed a late equaliser when substitute Ryan Babel saw his shot tipped onto the bar.” (ESPN)
Steven Gerrard criticises ‘crazy’ Howard Webb for not giving Liverpool penalty
“Steven Gerrard has described referee Howard Webb’s decision not to award Liverpool a penalty during their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal last night as ‘crazy’. Arsenal captain Cesc Fábregas admitted after the match that he handled Gerrard’s stoppage-time free-kick and although television replays suggested the incident was outside the area, Gerrard was left fuming at missing out on a chance to salvage a point and maintain the club’s unbeaten run.” (Guardian)
Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool – Recap and Video Highlights – English Premier League – Wednesday, February 10, 2010
“Arsenal hosted Liverpool on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 in the English Premier League needing a win to keep their title hopes alive. Liverpool were looking to close the gap between the two sides and move remain in 4th place in the league table. A win for Arsenal would keep their chances still alive with Man U and Chelsea having tough matches on the same day. Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool – Video Highlights” (The 90th Minute)
“James is back with another top-banana podcast featuring John Ashdown, Barry Glendenning and Paul Doyle. Midweek Premier League matches mean plenty of talking points: including Louis Saha increasing John Terry’s woe, Arsenal back to winning ways, and Aston Villa’s limited ambition against Manchester United. Sid Lowe is on the phone from Madrid with the truth about those Cesc Fábregas to Barcelona rumours, while James’s Italian round-up includes news of Ultras storming Lazio’s training ground.” (Guardian – James Richardson)
“The pod squad analyse Chelsea’s demolition of Arsenal, Liverpool’s bruising battle with Everton, and Tottenham Hotspur’s snoozefest with Aston Villa and ask: why are we getting another dose of the same old same old? Also in the show – and lest we be accussed of Big Four-centricity – we discuss Hull City’s recent revival now that Phil Brown ditched the earpiece and the goatee. Plus, we ponder whether Fabio Capello’s done the right thing in stripping John Terry of the England captaincy. And we get dewy-eyed about those Brat Pack movies of the 1980s. Finally, our favourite Teuton Raphael Honigstein brings us news of a rift in the German national team and the latest from the Bundesliga; Sid Lowe brings us up to date with Spain’s La Liga; and Jimbo tells us about Lazio’s mounting woes in Serie A.” (Guardian – James Richardson)
“Ajax Amsterdam’s general director recently tallied his club’s transfers, and came up with this estimate: only 8.3 per cent of the footballers Ajax had bought in the past decade had succeeded. Ajax’s Dutch rivals, he said, had done even worse. This January European clubs spent barely anything during the “transfer window”. English clubs forked out about £30m ($48m, €34m) on new players, their lowest for any January since 2003. German, Spanish and French clubs spent even less. The credit crunch has bitten soccer in the leg.” (Simon Kuper)
“On January 9, Racing Santander’s 18-year-old attacking midfielder Sergio Canales scored two goals to defeat Sevilla and become seemingly the most desired young player on the planet. It has been reported that Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona and Real Madrid are all interested in him, while Vicente del Bosque reportedly hasn’t ruled out his inclusion in the Spanish squad for the World Cup.” (WSC)
“January has to be the most depressing month for football journalists. The pressure to concoct player transfer rumours is so relentless it easily qualifies as working under duress. The suits upstairs are squeezing their Editors chuffers to ensure that they fill news columns and air waves. There’s a very fine line between exclusive breaking news and faecal matter you can only read whilst pinching your nose to avoid the stench.” (A Cultured Left Foot)
“The old adage about defenses winning championships is starting to look outdated. Across Europe’s leading football leagues right now, the major title contenders have ditched the defensive mindset traditionally associated with success in favor of a new adventurous line of attack, in which teams are far more interested in scoring goals than preventing them. The result has been a deluge of goals that has delighted supporters and sent statisticians scurrying to check the record books.” (WSJ)
“You can blame the weather, I suppose. England’s deep freeze has wreaked havoc on the Premier League calendar, which is great for U.S.-based fans — there have been midweek (and therefore, mid-day) games galore, like Wednesday’s Liverpool-Tottenham showdown of underachievers. In the meantime, both the FA and Carling Cups have been raging on, and selected other European action — mixed in with some awesome African Cup of Nations games — have made mid-January a smorgasbord of excellent soccer. Plus, with everyone finally off winter break, we can start picking apart the leftovers again. Enjoy this week’s rundown — we recommend you nuke on high for two minutes, flip, then zap for another two minutes on medium.” (SI)
“U.S. international Landon Donovan started for Everton and delivered a corner kick that led to the Toffees’ first goal in his English Premier League debut on Saturday. Leon Osman’s header from Donovan’s delivery gave the guests an unexpected 1-0 lead over hosts Arsenal. Denilson’s deflected shot tied the match before Everton went ahead 2-1 on a Steve Pieneaar 82nd minute breakaway. Arsenal substitute Tomas Rosicky salvaged a point for the Guuners with his stoppage time equalizer.” (Football Fashion)
Match Of The Week I: Arsenal 2-2 Everton
“The cold snap hit England this week, and it decimated the English football programme this weekend to such an extent that it is almost surprising that as many as six matches took place. The decision to cancel matches during the week was a prudent one on the part of most clubs. Only those with undersoil heating were likely to sidestep the freeze, and conditions elsewhere meant that travel has been at best chaotic for most and at worst downright dangerous over the last few days. On balance, it is probably for the best that supporters were not put to the considerable inconvenience (and potential risk) of travelling to matches which were never likely to take place in the first place.” (twohundredpercent)
Scissors Kick 