West Ham 2: Arsenal 2 25th October 2009

West Ham United 2: Arsenal 2 25/10/09 Premiership result

This match was almost three quarters finished before West Ham finally turned up. In the first half Arsenal totally dominated with Van Persie and Gallas both hitting the target. However a Carlton Cole goal in the second half kept the Hammers' hopes alive and they managed to equalise with a controversial penalty just before the 80th minute. Wenger was understandably furious that for the second time in 4 days, the Gooners threw away a lead and ended up with 1 point rather than 3. He may have a valid point that questionable refereeing decisions led to both West Ham goals (awarding a free kick to West Ham which resulted in the first goal and then giving West Ham a penalty for the second) and he may also believe Arsenal should also have been awarded a penalty, but the fact remains that if Arsenal want to win silverware this season, they need to consolidate their leads rather than thrown them away.

There is however some comfort for Gunner fans that Man U and Spurs both lost this weekend. However overall West Ham fans will be the happier as their team showed the sort of spirit that is needed to put distance between themselves and the relegation zone. They are still however still chasing their first home win this season so further improvement needed.

Saturday 25th October - Liverpool 2: Manchester United 0

Today's 2:0 result must have boosted the Anfield faithful, not least Rafa Benitez. Claiming a Manchester United scalp not only ended Liverpool's run of 4 straight defeats, but should also help alleviate the pressure on Rafa, who has been coming under fire for creating a team which may believe relies far too heavily on Torres and Gerrard. It was however Torres who beat an unconvincing Ferdinand to score the first goal in the 65th minute. Torres was then substituted for David Ngog, who in stoppage time calmly slotted the ball behind Van der Sar, who did well to keep Kuyt and Aurelio out earlier in the game.

The run of form of both clubs going into the match could not have been more different, with all the sensible money being put on Manchester United. And that is why football is such a great game and why the Premiership is such a fantastic league - form and stats mean nothing when two big clubs and bitter rivals clash. Liverpool vs Man U is always fascinating and the 2 red cards handed to Vidic and Mascerano demonstrate how emotive the contest is. Today's fixture had an extra ingredient with the return of Michael Owen to Anfield in a Man U strip and Owen must have been bitterly disappointed not to silence the Anfield boos.

There was little to separate the two sides at half time but Torres' pace and brilliance in the second half meant that Liverpool deserved their win ... the question of course remains - can Liverpool do the job without Torres (and Gerrard).

AZ Alkmaar 1 Arsenal 1 Champions League 20th October

AZ Alkmaar 0 Arsenal 1 Champions League 20/10/2009

Arsenal threw away a one goal lead 3 minutes into stoppage time against Dutch team AZ Alkmaar with a great hit from Mendes Da Silva.

The Gunners had a great early start to their away Champions League fixture with a well worked team goal finished by Cesc Fabregas in the 36th minute.. AZ Alkmaar were caught in possession by Arshavin but then the Gunners punished the home team superbly with a well timed Van Persie cross to captain Fabregas who made no mistake.

In the second half AZ Alkmaar gradually came into the match with a couple of subsitutions adding a bit more pace to their game. They still lacked the potency needed to penetrate Arsenal but gave the Gooners a few problems on the edge of the 18 yard box with one great chance to bring it back to 1-1 which came to nothing.

Arshavin and Van Persie both looked great but this was a professional performance from Wenger's men. AZ Alkmaar played the match quite physically, probably due to being frustrated by Arsenal's ability to smoothly retain possession.

Just when the game looked wrapped up AZ Alkmaar applied some late pressure, the ball fell nicely for a volley just inside the box for Da Silva who hit the back of Almunia's net with some venom, the home team grinding out a great Champions League result

A bitter pill for Wenger's boys after bossing most of this Champions League tie.

Fulham 2 Hull City 0 Premier League result 19th October 2009

Fulham 2 Hull 0 Premiership result 19/10/09

Phil Brown's Hull are lingering near the bottom in 18th position after losing 2-0 away at Craven Cottage.

The home team Fulham looked easily the strongest team last night but were light upfront with no Andy Johnson who is injured. Bobby Zamora managed to convert the pressure into a 1-0 lead just before half time when Damien Duff was given enough space to hit a strong volley which was saved but bounced up quickly to Zamora for an opportunistic header into the Hull goal.

In the second half the chances for Fulham kept coming and Kamara got on to the score sheet with an assist from Barclays Man of the match Bobby Zamora.

Roy Hodgson will be content with their season so far but will be looking now to push on from 12th as they had a great time in the Prem in 2008/2009.

Phil Brown is struggling to get players to the KC stadium, Hull City have a great ground and support but need to dig in Stoke City style in order to ensure Premier League survival. Hard work at the moment for the Tigers but they displayed towards the end of last season that they will fight and scrap in that section of the Premiership.

World Cup Latest : England 3 Belarus 0

World Cup Group 6 Qualify group result : England 3 Belarus 0

England striker Peter Crouch opened the scoring after only 4 minutes with a opportunist's tap in from a great Glen Johnson cross to put the home team 1 nil up on Wednesday 14th October. Great possession for England in the first half but Belarus looked comfortable on the ball too but struggled to push England in the final third. It has to be said that Spurs striker Peter Crouch was England's best player, making a nuisance of himself as well as providing genuine goal threat.

In the second half, it was Frank Lampard that took the opportunity to impress Capello with a free kick that was tipped over the Belarus cross bar. Aaron Lennon had his moments as gooner Theo Walcott watched on from the Wembley stands.

Sean Wright-Philips hit the second from a Frank Lampard corner with a well placed drive in the 60th minute. After an industrious game, the Man City man deserved a result from the match which was nice to see.

Glen Johnson looked good defensively as did Wayne Bridge at left back. Ben Foster also had a decent match in between the sticks which is a position not yet confirmed in terms of a starting XI.

England then got their third in the 75th minute when a long ball went to Carlton Cole who struck it nicely across the Belarus 'keeper who managed to stop it, only for the ball to fall to robotic dancer Crouchy to slot home his second of the night.

In the 86th minute James Milner hit the post and then LA Galaxy midfielder David Beckham tried to place a shot outside of the box to shave the post.

Nice solid result for England after an unfortunate sending off against the Ukraine on Saturday. Great competition for places; Crouch strengthened his bid for the 'big man' striker and also Beckham looked sharp for the last 20 mins proving that he must be in the squad if he's fit when the time comes for World Cup 2010.

Online Broacast England World Cup qualifier away match

Due to Setanta's demise, Kentaro and Perform have teamed together to broadcast Saturday's away match against the Ukraine on Saturday 10th October 2009 online via ukrainevengland.com. Perform also negotiated deals with Sun Online, Mail Online, Virgin Media and Orange to allow their visitors to pay to view the match.

If a football fan wants to watch this match, they ahve to pay a premium of £11.99 on the day or £4.99. A recent poll conducted by the BBC showed 3% of the UK would actually contemplate watching in this way. Despite the internet offering an interesting future for football consumption, this is quite a departure from terrestrial television. Not only is it pound for pound exploitation but for most people with small computer monitors this kills the social nature of watching a football match. We are in the early stages of this transition but it will be underpinned by threats of online piracy and the potential negative impact on Premier League attendance.

We all know our beloved England have already madethe World Cup 2010. However, if we hadn't have made the grade by now, surely the percentage of people cramming themselves behind their PC or laptop would have been much higher than a mere 3%. This would bring in millions of pounds of revenue and football fans would moan but in the same breath enter in their credit cards to tune in.

Football lovers, these are worrying times. We all know that the football fan is the most important stakeholder in the game but football supporters are being taken advantage of and without boycotting matches marketed in such crude ways, watching great football will just cost more and more money.

Premier League October results 3rd Oct

Barclays Premiership 03/10/2009

Sir Alex's boys had a tough one against Steve Bruce's Sunderland today - talisman Darren Bent just can't keep scoring which could present Fabio Capello with a positive selection problem for World Cup 2011. Harry Redknapp would have hoped for a full 3 away at the Reebok. Then there were big lifelines for Burnley, Hull and Pompey as all got 3 points at a time when you need momentum and competiveness if you are scrapping at the bottom.

Bolton 2-2 Tottenham
Burnley 2-1 Birmingham
Hull 2-1 Wigan
Man Utd 2-2 Sunderland
Wolverhampton 0-1 Portsmouth

Fulham 1 Basle 0 Europa League 1st October

Fulham 1 Basle 0

History was made at Craven Cottage last night as Fulham embarked on their first UEFA Europa League match. The home team started their Europa League match against Swiss visitors Basle under quite a bit of pressure from good quality opposition. Fulham managed to contain Basle but were quiet for the first half an hour. The away support from the Swiss was awesome, 1500 Basle fans really made their presence known and gave this game a great European tie feel. Fulham's biggest moment of the first half was an Andy Johnson penalty shout where the marking defender gave the ex-Everton man a strong shoulder barge but Johnson sportingly tried to stay on his feet making the challenge look fairer to the referee.

At the start of the second half, Hodgson's men moved up a gear and in the 56th minute there was a great move from Fulham where Danny Murphy neatly finished Any Johnson's pullback pass from the edge of the 'D' to make it 1-0.

After Fulham's goal they looked pretty comfortable. Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson worked tirelessly to pin the defenders back and there was no real pressure from the Basle front men. Good result for the Carven Cottage faithful.

Adebayor gets £25,000 fine

£25K - that's small change to big licks Adebayor now surely now that he's the man at Eastlands. As far as player charges go historically, it's a big one and so it should have been. After being in the Premier League for 3 seasons, Adebayor surely would have shown more remorse for his actions against former strike partner Van Persie who hasn't disguised his dissapointment. However this is the second punishment for the goal celebration. So is £25,000 and a 2 match ban the correct punishment? I think it is harsh enough to set a precedent with this type of thing. Players must operate with passion but also a degree of common sense and Adebayor got the blend of the two completely wrong that day. Adebayor needs to take his punishment on the chin and then rebuild his PR skills in order to make his working life in the Premier League more pleasant.

Premier League News 3rd October 09

Barclays Premiership News 03/10/2009

This weekend's Barclay's Premier League fixtures going into the first weekend of October 2009:

Premier League 3pm kick off 3rd Oct Bolton v Tottenham Reebok stadium
Premier League 3pm kick off 3rd Oct Burnley v Birmingham Turf Moor
Premier League 3pm kick off 3rd Oct Hull v Wigan KC stadium
Premier League 3pm kick off 3rd Oct Wolverhampton v Portsmouth Molineaux
Premier League 5.30pm kick off 3rd Oct Man Utd v Sunderland Old Trafford
Premier League 1.30pm kick off 4th Oct Arsenal v Blackburn Emirates
Premier League 3pm kick off 4th Oct Everton v Stoke Goodison Park
Premier League 3pm kick off 4th Oct West Ham v Fulham Upton Park
Premier League 4pm kick off 4th Oct Chelsea v Liverpool Stamford Bridge

Everton Europa League latest result 1st Oct

Games tonight in the UEFA Europa League for Everton and Fulham, Everton away and Fulham at home.

Everton have beaten BATE Borisov with goals from Fellaini and Cahill in the second half after coming from behind with the home team scoring after only 16 minutes.

RESULT: BATE Borisov 1-2 Everton