Arsenal promise cash for signings

After a tough first half of the Premiership season, Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has stated that there is fund available for Arsene Wenger to spend in the transfer window. Its well documented that the best players are bought pre-season and that buying players in January rarely changes a team's performance but the pressure will be on to strengthen the Gunners defence and defensive midfield where Arsenal have looked vulnerable. Arsenal are currently fifth behind Aston Villa and have lost 5 league matches already. There has been friction with the captaincy of William Gallas and have lacked the finshing of Adebayor, who should play today at Stamford Bridge in the 4pm match against Chelsea.

"He certainly has money if he wants to spend it," Hill-Wood told Arsenal TV.

"There have been suggestions we keep stopping him from buying - that is not the case.

"He's very sensible with the way he approaches the transfer market, he's not going to buy anybody just because the press or fans say he should.

"He's only going to buy somebody if he thinks they're going to improve what is a young squad but a very talented one."

Zaki exit from Wigan Athletic rumours

Amr Zaki, on loan at Wigan from Zamalek will be sold at the end of the season and it will be the parent club that will be responsible for this sale.

Zaki has scored 8 goals in his last 12 seasons and has definitely impressed in the Barclays Premier League.

The following statement was made on Zamalek's official website:

"Amr Zaki has been in the limelight for a while, and the mass media have been fuelling speculations over his next move and whether Wigan would let him seal a new deal or not and so forth.

"We hereby assure that we have the legal rights to either accept or reject offers for the aforementioned player, and no other club are authorised to interfere in potential negotiations.

"We would accept the highest bid for the player."

Manchester City 1 Spurs 2 and I was there shouting like a nutter!

Manchester City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2

This was my fourth trip to The City of Manchester Stadium, out of the 3 I'd seen Spurs win twice so despite Man City having a very strong squad I was quietly confident of Tottenham gettng something out of this classic fixture.

Manchester City started brighter than Spurs in the first twenty minutes, with Shaun Wright-Phillips delivering the pace and Robinho dazzling quality with effortless through balls. This culminated in the opener with Robinho slotting home within the box after the Spurs backline crumpled under some pressure from the home team. With the early dominance, this looked to be set up for a home win. However there was a big surprise when Fernandes accrued two yellow cards for bad challenges, the second on Bentley led to his sending off which silenced the home support. Tottenham then did a great job of capitalising on the extra man by passing the ball continuously to tire the City players. Darren Bent scored shortly after Modric had a shot saved at close range and this set the scene for the second half.

In the second half, Spurs struggled to penetrate Mark Hughes' stubborn 10 men. After having most of the possession, in the 64th minute a long pass from Huddlestone reached Jenas who controlled the ball, passed to Bent who calmly side footed the ball into the net off of the far post.

Manchester City then had Dunne sent off towards the end for a foul on Darren Bent who was directly in on goal. After Ekotto was sent off for a second yellow card it was 9 versus 10 and Manchester City had some superb chances but Harry's men held on for another win. This lifted Spurs out of the bottom three and showed the home team that Spurs away support is very strong. A friend commented that the Tottenham fans were 'the best away support at Eastlands this season' and it clearly meant a lot to the Spurs players as they celebrated in front of the away folllowers.

Did we enjoy it? Oh yes. This was the real away tribal experience, standing all the way through the game, chants consistently flowing and plenty of drama. Great stuff Harry.

Manchester City v Spurs EASTLANDS DAY OUT!

Bit of a trip out to Eastlands - an hour journey and I will be in front of my beloved Tottenham Hotspur. This will be an intriguing contest between two teams that are both well funded and in recent years have both had dramatic developments both on and off the pitch.

Manchester City with their huge budget fueled by the pre-season takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group have a fantastic talent in Robinho, as well as the return of Wright-Phillips. No doubt in the transfer window they will continue to add some very expensive signings to this squad, with a rumoured £190m to spend in January 2009.

Tottenham Hotspur contrastingly have had yet another managerial catastrophe with Juande Ramos struggling to get any wins in the Premiership and the set up between him and Damien Cammoli (also sacked) has given new manager Harry Redknapp an unbalanced squad with 4 left backs and 3 strikers. However, out of the last 3 games Redknapp has motivated the team to generate 7 out of 9 points, notably a win against high flying Liverpool and 1 point against North London rivals Arsenal. However other team in and around the drop zone have also had good results and Tottenham still remain bottom. Today will be a big test against the fashionable Man City - if King can keep Robinho in check then Spurs could win.

Prediction: 1-1

Terrible football betting tips!

Why do people bet on football? My tips for midweek in the Champions Leagure were awful and a reason why 'dead cert' betting in football in particular the Premiership is a very risky game.

Perhaps so far my football betting tips have been totally rubbish, but I still think I can pull off this today:

Sunderland v Portsmouth
West Ham v Everton
Wigan v Stoke

All to be under 2.5 goals. we'll see!

Benitez looking for a long term contract at Liverpool

Rafa Benitez is looking to quickly secure his new contract at Liverpool to concentrate on the job at hand. With 18 months remaining on the current deal and Liverpool looking good in the Premiership Benitez may be looking at a 5 year contract. Benitez's track record at Liverpool in his four year reign is good - winning the Champions League and the FA Cup in this period. Keeping this mangerial consistency is a similar approach to rivals Manchester United and Arsenal which may well pay off for them in the long term.

Arsenal vs Manchester United Preview 8th November 2008

Arsenal v Man Utd 8th November 2008 Preview
What a fantastic fixture this is. Memories of clashes over the years come back - mainly of the fierce midfield competition between Roy Keane and Patrick Viera that fueled the atmosphere. How much would Arsene Wenger love Viera in that midfield today which has lacked the physical prescence since his departure to Inter Milan three years ago. The new Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari has recently remarked on the physicality of the Premier League this season and Wenger has hinted that this is Arsenal's biggest weakness. The Gunners have lost three games this season and will know that the pressure is on to get something out of this game to keep up points wise and prove that they are still a dominant force in the race to win the Premiership.

“The morale is of course down when we don't win,” said Wenger, in a recent interview to club website arsenal.com.

“One week ago on Wednesday night we played very well against Tottenham and we didn't win. But it doesn't take away the fact that we played in a very convincing way. Afterwards at Stoke we had a lot of possession but we were not really sharp and I believe it was a hangover [from the Spurs game].

“Against Fenerbahce we dominated and had 70 per cent of possession but we didn't score. If we had scored and forced them to come out we could have scored plenty of goals.

“That’s why we have to keep winning, learn from what has happened to us and continue to believe in our strengths.

“But now we want to focus on Man United because it is a fantastic opportunity to show how strong we are when everyone is doubting us.”

Manchester United did show signs of a hangover from the 2007/2008 season after their Champions League and Premiership double. They are unbeaten in their last seven Premiership matches and Berbatov is showing signs of adding a fantastic new dimension to the creative energy that makes Man Utd a team that you can never write off despite Chelsea's machine like success so far this season. Wes Brown will miss the trip to the Emirates but Gary Neville will be available for selection.

Despite Arsenal's recent dip in form Alex Ferguson's guard will be up. In early November Arsenal are 20/1 to win the Premiership but Arsene Wenger will be drawing on his 12 years of Premiership experience today to grind out some points today.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-2 Manchester United

Liverpool grab last minute equaliser against Athletico Madrid

Did Gerrard dive....do we care?!

Liverpool 1 Athletico Madrid 1

94 minutes into this game and Athletico Madrid must have thought that this Champions League tie was won. After Maxi Rodriguez's first half goal, Athletico defended gallantly in an attempt to preserve the lead and get to the top position of Group D. However Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard had other plans and controversially went down after a challenge with Marian Pernia. The Athletico Madrid players looked around shear disbelief when the penalty was awarded. Gerrard netted the penalty, 4 Athletico players got booked after as they showed their distaste to the referee/linesman's decision.

Predictably Steven Gerrard's actions has created a media witch hunt against this fantastic English footballer. Personally, I think its simple. Diving where there is no contact at all is definitely 'simulation' and can easily result in a yellow card with the use of modern TV replay technology. Where a player goes down where there is contact between two players can raise debate for days after the incident currently - and the game has changed to favour the attacking player in this scenario. Most professional footballers in a tight game will go down in the area if they are contacted by a defender. This is not a new phenomenon and I don't see much wrong with it. This type of activity is much more like gamesmanship in comparison to the traditional diving which originated in South America in the late 1980's as a way of influencing refereeing decisions.

Steven Gerrard may be a player that never excels at the international level but the criticism that he gets is ridiculous and football fans should enjoy his fantastic skills and talent as opposed to elements of his game that most international players possess.

Champions League betting tips

Being a Spurs fan, what do I know about the Champions League?! Well, I do know that the English sides are strong in Europe so my accumulator for this week's Champions League fixtures has 3 English teams to win:


Barcelona to beat Basil
Liverpool to beat Athletico Madrid
Manchester United to beat Celtic
Arsenal to beat Fenerbahce


Lets hope these games come in now..!

Torres set to play against Athletico Madrid

After the first three matches Liverpool and Athletico Madrid are both on 7 points in Group D going into tomorrow evening's Champions League match at Anfield.

Fernando Torres has recovered from a hamstring injury and should partner Robbie Keane upfront against his old club. He will have a late fitness test and has a "70% chance of featuring in the game" according to Rafa Benitez.

Sergio Aguero scored twice against Real Mallorca in their 2-0 victory on the weekend and will play against the Reds.

Premiership review - football results 2nd November 2008

After a fascinating weekend of football, the Premiership title race is entering a new phase where the big teams know that one loss can mean that they are off of the pace for the whole of the season. Manchester United are well experienced with this type of pressure with players such as Ryan Gigg and Paul Scholes that have been playing in the Premiership for over 10 seasons. Chelsea are setting that pace currently and on paper probably have the strongest squad but you cannot predict what the next few months can bring in terms of form and in particular injuries to key players.

Liverpool and Arsenal must be the teams most aware of this 'must win' pressure. Both sides are desperate to win the Premiership and have really struggled in recent years to lead the pack with confidence for a prolonged period of the football season. Liverpool have been showing the right type of behaviours - consistency in their first eleven, winning away at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and (by far the most important) winning by narrow margins when not playing very well. However the Reds wobbled yesterday with a 2-1 loss at White Hart Lane against Tottenham Hotspur. Despite the Harry Redknapp factor, Liverpool dominated hitting the post twice and the bar once. Spurs 'keeper Gomes looked weak to say the least but Spurs managed to keep the game at 1-1 until the last minute where Pavlichenko snatched a massive win for Tottenham. Liverpool were unfortunate but cannot afford too many more defeats in the Premiership if they are mounting a serious bid to win the title.

Arsenal play the most attractive football in the Premiership in many people's eyes but in the last two games have only got one point. It started with a curnch North London Derby against Spurs where they conceded four - Gallas and Silvestre didn't convince as a robust central defensive partnership and then away at Stoke where the misery worsened when they lost 4-3. The two goals that Arsenal conceded were from Rory Delap throw-ins which have caused many Premiership teams problems were tough to defend but the Premiership winners will be able to deal with that type of set piece pressure. Wenger is now in a tricky position, where their issues at the back and deep midfield are really limiting their success. This may well be something that he has tried to confront with Mikael Silvestre who was signed in August 2008 on a 2 year deal from Manchester United. However the back four of he Arsenal team do have great talent it is apparent that not only are they missing a 'Tony Adams' style centre half but the type of cover that Partick Viera supplied for the Arsenal defenders is now missing. Denilson is a great player but is not neccessarily the best defensive midfielder.

"We tried hard to win but Stoke, at the moment, are very sharp physically," he said. "We looked a bit jaded because we have played a lot of games recently.

"At the moment we are suffering. I don't believe it is confidence; we put a lot in on Wednesday night and we play again in midweek in Europe.

"We have very bad injuries. We have Adebayor, Walcott and Sagna as well as one or two others who have knocks, but that's the kind of game we played here. When you are not as sharp, you are less agile and you can't get as quickly out of tackles."

He added: "We had lots of possession against a team who defended very well and was very well organised, but we were not sharp enough to to create chances with the possession we had."

Maradona set to be named as Argentina's new coach

48 year old Diego Maradona may be confirmed as Argentina's new coach next Tuesday by the Argentina Football Association. If Maradona gets the post, then he will be travelling to the UK when Argentina play Scotland in a friendly. Argentina are struggling in their World Cup qualifying group and are currently third. Undoubtedly Maradona is a player that the Argentinian squad have idolised but the drugs ban that he had does not make him best placed to be a role model for youngsters interested in football.