Tag Archives: champions league

‘Robin Van Arsenal’ A One-Man Team?

Posted on by

Q: Why don’t Arsenal score from corners
A: Because Van Persie takes them!

Q: What’s the most popular item in the Arsenal club shop?
A: The Van Persie tea tray, because it carries 10 mugs!

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…

Unless you’re of a distinctly Arsenal persuasion, you’re probably sick to the back teeth of these stats by now, but here they are again one more time: 38 goals in 41 games in all competitions since January 1st 2011, 17 goals in 18 appearances since the start of the 2010/11 season (which is somewhere approaching 52% of Arsenal’s goals so far this term) and 10 goals in his last 5 matches.

‘Zeer indrukwekkend’ as the Dutch would have it.

Skip back a month or two to the start of the season and Arsenal were in disarray, supposedly suffering the cataclysmic meltdown that many predicted as a result of their high-profile summer departures combined with Arsene Wenger’s ‘I see no ships’ Admiral Nelson-style transfer policy.

The day they got publicly eviscerated at Old Trafford encapsulated their plight perfectly.

A self-induced loss at Blackburn followed shortly, but a week or so on down the line the Gunner’s experienced a sea change. Whether through coincidence or not, Van Persie hit a scoring seam against Bolton (notching his 100th Premier League goal in the process) at the end of September while Wenger relented and shipped in a platoon of deadline-day replacements and, by and large, everything in the garden has been rosy thereafter.

In fact, they’re almost unbeaten since that very day, save one defeat in the North London derby at the crack of October.

View the Original article

Champions League 2011/12 Group Stage Draw

Posted on by

All of UEFA’s perspex balls of destiny have been drawn from their respective goldfish bowls of fate and, as a result, the groups for the 2011/12 Champions League look like this…

Group A: Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City, Napoli

Group B: Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor

Group C: Manchester United, Benfica, Basel, Otelul Galati

Group D: Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb

Group E: Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk

Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund

Group G: Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg, APOEL

Group H: Barcelona, AC Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen

Well, Man City’s draw could have been a lot worse with Barcelona, AC Milan and Dortmund being the toughest possible permutation but it’s not as though the balls have been especially kind to them – Bayern Munich are seasoned heavyweights whereas both Villarreal and Napoli are not to be underestimated.

Continue reading →

Iain Dowie Struggles With The ‘Away Goals’ Rule (Video)

Posted on by

Despite being paid handsomely (the irony is not lost!) to talk about things, Iain Dowie is a man that cannot actually talk – and, by the looks of things, neither can he think that good about stuff like numbers either.

Schalke whupped Inter 5-2 in Milan last night meaning that, by Dowie’s calculations, the Nerazzurri will need to score ‘seven or something’ in Germany to reverse the thrashing…

Christ! You know you’re in a hole when Paul Merson is correcting your maths.

Video via 101GG.

View the Original article

The new ‘tinker man’?

Posted on by

Maybe he’s mellowing in his old age, or merely becoming a little more scrambled, but neither fits, really, as a plausible reason for Sir Alex Ferguson’s compulsion to tinker with his team.

Last night’s Champions League game against Valencia was the 150th successive game in which he has made changes to the starting line up, to surely set some sort of magnificently schizophrenic record.

The Manchester United manager is the ultimate football pragmatist though, as his enduring tenure at the top illustrates, and there will always be a method in his apparent madness, no matter how unconventional.

This season has seen him ever more frenetic in his changes, and ever more bullish in his explanations for them. Yet the simple truth behind them probably lies in the wily campaigner’s creeping contempt for the standard of opposition his side faces in the early part of the season.

View the Original article

Platini prefers extra officials to technology

Posted on by

Refereeing performances have come under increased scrutiny in recent times, with cameras picking up incidents the referee has not seen, but FIFA and UEFA remain reluctant to provide officials with technological solutions.

Platini admits referees cannot be expected to get every decision correct, but feels the introduction of goalline assistants – as seen in the Champions League – offers a better solution.

“This is the story of a referee: he is always under pressure because he is one man,” Platini told scottishfa.com. “In tennis, there is one umpire but 12 people who have a say around a much smaller playing area.

“In a beautiful world, you respect the decisions of a referee, even when he has made a mistake. We have Fair Play and Respect campaigns but it seems we are still a long way off from achieving a good understanding.

“One referee is not enough, not in the modern era where you have 20 cameras. It is unfair: the cameras can see everything but the referee only has one pair of eyes. Every time he makes a mistake, those cameras are there to focus on it.

“It is why for the past ten years I have asked to change the job of the referee, to help improve the situation and to give the referees better support.”

He added: “These people are going to make mistakes and to be a referee I think you have to be a masochist. The system is bad and I have known this for 40 years.

“The referee has to be helped by the clubs, the fans, by players, by the media and also by the authorities – everyone has a responsibility.

“It is why we have added two assistants for Champions League games this season. It is a logical step with so many cameras that can pick up incidents: the more eyes there to assist the referee, the better the chance of spotting those incidents.”

Platini said that he believes the use of technology would lead to “PlayStation football”.

View the Original article


 Powered by Max Banner Ads