Despite seventy-five minutes of well below-par football from the reigning champions of Europe, late goals from Juan Mata, David Luiz and Ramires added to a first-half successful strike from the aforementioned Spaniard to secure Chelsea’s first win of the new Champions League campaign when they travelled to København to take on Danish champions Nordsjælland. From
Despite being the reigning champions of the fifteenth highest ranked league in Europe, many people were left scratching their heads when Nordsjælland’s name was pulled out of Pot 4 during the draw for this year’s Champions League group stage. In a similar situation to fellow lesser-league minnows CFR Cluj from Romania and BATE Borisov from
A few months ago, a few frustrated fans and Barcelona critics had all but deserted hopes of any noteworthy improvement for Barcelona under Tito Vilanova, the man who had been under Pep Guardiola’s wing for four seasons. Vilanova, who turned 43 a few weeks ago, surprised them all. With the silent backing of the top
Manchester United 2 Tottenham 3 AVB looks to have restored faith with the Spurs faithful with this historic victory away at Old Trafford. André Villas-Boas struggled to win over Tottenham fans in the first few games of the season, but now with 11 points on the board, they look like their squad is settling
Due to the signings of Eden Hazard, Victor Moses and Oscar during the transfer window, many questioned Juan Mata’s role at Chelsea. However in recent games, Mata has been showing exactly why he deserves to be one of the first names on the Chelsea team sheet each week. Mata, who joined Chelsea from Valencia in
The FA’s respect campaign has been running for a long time now. And nothing is more apparent than in the pre-match handshakes between opposing players just before kick off. Over the last few weeks this has taken center stage. In some matches you’d be forgiven for forgetting there was actually any football on show. From
Jack Wilshere will play for the first time in 14 months tomorrow with the Arsenal U-21 side as they take on West Brom. You might remember the England youngster injuring his ankle back in 2011 in the Emirates Cup series. Since obtaining his injury, the now number 10 has gone through a whirlwind of trauma
Arsenal vs Chelsea have always been feisty encounters, the last time they both met resulted in a goalless draw at the Emirates, and the last game that ended in a win went in the favour of Arsenal beating Chelsea 5-3. The two sides face each other again as both teams go into the match unbeaten
A tasty set of fixtures are set to be played on Saturday in game week 6 of the Premier League season. 8 games will be played on a highly anticipated Saturday which includes last season’s top 6. Saturday 29th September 2012: Arsenal vs Chelsea: Kick-off: 12:45 Both teams are unbeaten with Arsenal winning 2
“Maybe the difference in fine is, Terry is a champion of Europe, and Suarez is a Carling Cup Winner.” – Rick Glanvill (Chelsea FC Historian ) “The FA find John Terry guilty, and give him a 4 match ban and 220K fine. Just one game more than a regular red card?” – Gary Lineker Arsenal,
As an Arsenal fan, you will not be surprised to find out that I am rather happy at how things are going at the moment at the club I love. Currently lying fifth in the premier league with only two goals conceded, unbeaten, already been to the Etihad and Anfield unscathed, with new signings Santi
From the outside looking in Marcello Lippi has had a very eventful career as a football manager. When he started off in 1982 after hanging his boots up with Sampdoria one wonders if he ever envisaged he would reach the managerial summits he has managed to climb. To have been senior coach at Atalanta, Napoli,
The 5th match-day of the 2012/13 Spanish League has been completed and it is Barcelona that sit on the top of the log with 15 points. I will be doing my usual rundown of the 5 best matches of the weekend as well as introducing my team of the week and giving the second Dizzel’s
General Information- Age: 19 Nationality: English and Nigerian (Played for England youth levels, but still eligible for both senior teams) Height: 6 ft 3 Position: Central Midfielder Plays for: Crewe Alexandra (On loan from Arsenal) Aneke joined Arsenal in 2001 but has so far only managed to make 1 appearance for the Gunners,
The name Gian Piero Gasperini returns to the football world, the last time the name was heard wasn’t really for the best reasons, but instead, a synonym of critics and insults. For those who don’t remember, he was THAT Inter manager who was sacked with only five matches played thanks to his terrible results while
The Financial Fair Play regulations will eventually stabilize the round leather game when its rules are duly enforced and in a way, will help smaller teams find their feet back in the peddle for glory in their various competitions. It was first agreed in principle in 2009 by UEFA’s Financial Control Panel of football to
I regularly hear about how footballers are hugely overpaid. I cannot argue that fact. They earn a huge amount of money “just for kicking a ball”. That’s true. But the key question in this subject is, how many people pay to watch them “just kick a ball”? I’m not saying footballers “earn” their money, but
Carlo Ancelotti: “John Terry is the captain of all team captains, he was born with the captain’s armband on his arm.” Scolari : “For John Terry, dying in the pitch would be glory. You would need to kill him and maybe even then, he would still play.” Ray Wilkins: “Do we have the character of
It has been well documented that the famous number 9 shirt at Arsenal has some sort of curse surrounding it, with the majority of the Arsenal number 9s sitting on the Arsenal injury table or bench while other number 9s such as Andy Cole, Alan Shearer, Fernando Torres, Radamel Falcao et al made the coveted
After the tragic passing of a true football great Gary Speed, Welsh football was left with a huge hole to fill. Under Speed Wales played attractive, free flowing and effective football. The players were motivated and enjoyed playing their football as much as the fans were watching it. However when all that changed, the FAW
Liverpool 1 Manchester United 2 An emotional day for Liverpool, after the recent Hillsborough reports. Liverpool were reduced to 10 men after a somewhat strange decision. Jonjo Shelvey looked to have played the ball, replays suggest that too, but referee Mark Halsey thought otherwise, and Shelvey saw red. You would have thought that that
Emile Heskey. Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey. Born in Leicester, Heskey is a professional footballer that played for Leicester City, Liverpool, Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic, Aston Villa, and currently plays for the Newcastle Jets, in Australia. He made 696 appearances in English football, scoring 151 goals in a span of 18 years. He also played regularly
This weeks installment of Serie A was a low scoring affair all around however teams made the most of it as Juventus, Udinese, Atalanta, Genoa and Siena were the only teams that secured themselves all 3 points this round. Round 4 of Serie A started off as Parma hosted Fiorentina in a relatively entertaining match
If you are reading this article chances are you enjoy football. Whether you watch casually, are a fan, or a fanatic, football is probably a big part of your daily life. I am (along with a lot of other people) not so privileged. I am a guy growing up in South Africa, Port Elizabeth to
If you chat with any seasoned Manchester City fan, they’ll be able to give you an in-depth description of what are more commonly known among Blues as ‘the dark days’. As a sixteen-year-old, I may be somewhat unqualified to write this article, but, here it goes. If you search ‘Manchester City 2-2 Liverpool 1996’ into