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Arsenal’s came from behind to defeat League Two side Shrewsbury at the Emirates stadium. A James Colins header after 16 minutes gave the away side the lead following a Mark Wright effort that had earlier struck a post. Left-back, Keiran Gibbs, restored parity for the Gunners with a headed effort to level the scores before half-time, before new signings Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Yossi Benayoun scored their first goals for the club to see Arsenal through to round 4.

Michael Owen celebrated his first appearance of the season by bagging a brace against Leeds. The Manchester United striker was leading the line in a side characterised by experience and youth at Elland Road. His first came after a quarter-of-an-hour following fine work by Park Ji-Sung and Dimitar Berbatov, before an emphatic second, drilling the ball home at an angle from just inside the Leeds area. Ryan Giggs’ deflected shot sealed the victory in first-half injury-time to send the Red Devils through.

In arguably the game of round 3, Newcastle overcame Steve McClaren’s Nottingham Forest in a 7-goal thriller that was eventually settled in extra-time. Peter Lovenkrands had twice put the Toon ahead but each goal was cancelled out immediately, first by Findley and then Derbyshire in the second-half. Danny Simpson gave the away side the lead not long in to extra-time before Marcus Tudgay provided a third equaliser of the night for Forest. The tie seemed to be destined for penalties before Fabricio Coloccini headed home the winning goal after 122 minutes.

In other scores, Tottenham debutant Massimo Luongo missed the decisive penalty in Spurs’ shootout defeat at Stoke. After a dull 120 minutes of goalless football, the game sprang to life in an enthralling penalty shootout, with the home side eventually emerging triumphant 7-6.

Bolton won 2-0 at Aston Villa in the night’s only other all-Premiership fixture with second-half goals from Chris Eagles and Gael Kakuta. Aldershot came from behind to earn their first appearance in the fourth round of the Carling Cup by beating Rochdale 2-1. Blackburn Rovers withheld a late rally from Leyton Orient thanks to a first Rovers goal for Simon Vukcevic providing the difference in a 3-2 win.

Kieran Trippier and Andre Amougou helped Burnley come from behind to secure a place in the last 16 at the expense of MK Dons. Crystal Palace eased past Middlesbrough. A 2-1 score-line at Selhurst Park enough to put Boro’s League win at Palace last Saturday in to the back of Palace fans’ minds. But the biggest winners of the night were Wolves who smashed 5 past hapless Millwall to erase a bad Premiership showing against QPR at the weekend. George Elokobi, perhaps the biggest culprit in Wolves’ early capitulation in that game, was amongst the scorers last night to secure an easy progression for Mick McCarthy’s team.

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Chelsea threw away a three-goal lead against Manchester United on Sunday, as the Premier League champions showed their resolve to get a 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge.

A Jonny Evans own goal after good work by Daniel Sturridge gave The Blues a 1-0 lead at half time, before a stunning volley from Juan Mata doubled their lead in the first minute of the second period.

Three points looked all by guaranteed when a David Luiz header took a deflection off Rio Ferdinand and beat David De Gea in the United goal, putting Chelsea three goals to the good.

However Sir Alex Ferguson’s men fought back courageously, with two Wayne Rooney penalties getting them within touching distance, and substitute Javier Hernandez heading home the equaliser with six minutes remaining.

Villa Boas was clearly frustrated by dropping two points, and questioned Howard Webb’s decision-making process in the second half.

“Of course, it’s not easy to take. A game where we were very positive and had the initiative for most of it,” the Portuguese coach told Sky Sports.

“It’s a massive recovery for United. It’ll feel like a win for them, of course. We had it in our hands and let it slip.

“There were some strange decisions today though. At Old Trafford we lost two goals that were offside and I see Sir Alex speaking about the linesman just after they recall him.

“These things just keep happening. The first one is a penalty and I agree with it. The second is very, very unlucky.

“I’m not sure if Howard is trying to compensate for something,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, despite staring defeat in the face, Ferguson feels that his side should have taken all three points and were the better team throughout.

“We had two penalties in the second half which were justified. I think we could have had four penalties.

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“It’s two points dropped to be honest with you. We played ever so well apart from the period directly after half-time when we lost two goals. I thought we were by far the better team,” he defied.

The result means United are two points adrift of cross-town rivals Manchester City at the Premier League summit, whilst Chelsea move a point closer to Tottenham in third for the time being.

By Gareth McKnight

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Turn on a football related programme this weekend and you can expect to find a former player having his say about the sport we all love. With Robbie Savage working for the BBC and ESPN, Gary Neville for SKY and former Arsenal defenders, Lee Dixon and Martin Keown both on the BBC, the question has to be asked why football pundits must be formers players who were the most irritating of their time?

The simple answer is that we appear to live in a world where people who are most controversial succeed and these former players who have already established a reputation in the game use this to grind out a career in media after they have retired. By deliberately being controversial they guarantee a reaction from a viewer or reader, something that outside of football, comedians like Frankie Boyle and shock writers like Richard Littlejohn have realised to their advantage

With the added competition that showing football has, I think the media organisations like BBC and Sky are competing against each other to find the most controversial pundit who will ensure people tune into their coverage and not their rivals. The problem for footballers who are have a decent reputation in the game is that they struggle to gain controversy. A fine example is BBC pundit Alan Shearer who just seems to states the obvious every week on MOTD to everyone’s general annoyance and also Steve Claridge who does quite similar on the Football League Show. From the reaction when these two are on our screens it is obvious that football fans do not want to watch dullards discussing football and would rather someone who can keep them entertained, whether that is through intensive football knowledge or by making controversial statements that these supporters react to.

Gary Neville has been one of football most controversial and divisive figures for years during his illustrious playing career at Old Trafford. When Sky appointed him a pundit at the start of the new season they knew what they doing as Neville is never short of an opinion or two. I have actually been surprised by Neville’s intelligent and amiable punditry so far and he actually seems to think about the game. While soon to be dancer, Robbie Savage clearly has a bright future in the media profession as after hanging up his boots last season he won the Sony DAB Rising Star Award for his work on BBC Radio Five Live. Although I was not his biggest fan as a player he has carried through the controversial aspects of his game into his media career and he can certainly bring extra life to a mundane phone call during his 606 show. I actually think Lee Dixon is one of the best pundits around, his views on the MOTD2 sofa are normally well-thought out and balanced but he still maintains the ability to entertain, he is someone that pundits in better jobs like Shearer could learn from.

I think these newly retired players are freshening up the football media landscape after it had stagnated in recent year with many pundits who had been out of the game for many years falling out of touch with the game. Some of these younger pundits were involved in the game just last seasons so will have some idea what the manager is saying at half time or what players think of a certain referee, so their words carry more weight. This new breed of football pundit in the competitive world of football looks to continue and if this trend does carry as as it has I wouldn’t at all surprised to see in the future, pundits Joey Barton and El Hadj Diouf discussing the game on a Saturday night.

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Fulham striker Clint Dempsey believes Mark Hughes is the right man to lift the Cottagers up the Premier League table.

Draw specialists Fulham had to settle for another point from the weekend clash with Birmingham City, a result that left them only one point clear of the drop-zone.

Hughes, who replaced Liverpool-bound Roy Hodgson in the summer, has been coming under pressure of late, but USA international Dempsey said:“We believe in the manager and we can only keep working for him.

“It’s not wrong of fans to expect more. After last season, we’ve come to expect more of ourselves.

“We were taking the game to them before Birmingham scored. But we wanted to show character after last week’s game against Manchester City (a 4-1 defeat), although it’s frustrating with so many draws.

“Lots of guys have been here when it’s been backs-to-the-wall, including me, two out of the four years I’ve been here.”

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To say the transfer window (so far) has been uneventful is tantamount to saying the Arctic is a bit nippy, as the majority of Premier League clubs are seemingly being careful with their finances. In some cases clubs simply have to sell before they can buy, much to the frustrations, no doubt, of many managers and supporters.

The lack of spending at the top of the Premier League has surprised many, especially given the open nature of last season’s title race. You would have thought the likes of United and Chelsea would have looked at a big outlay this summer, to ensure the also-rans remain at an arm’s length in their pursuits of the title. Only City have made substantial moves this summer, although you do feel that they may well struggle to strike a balance. This means this season’s race for the title, Champions League and Europa League places are very much as they were last year, unless we witness a major change in the transfer wind in the coming fortnight.

The media is predicting that a transfer storm is set to erupt, but it begs the question as to whether Liverpool really need to partake in some last minute shopping.

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Does Roy Hodgson really need to bring any players in before the transfer window shuts in 16 days time and if so who would you like to see him bring in?

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has moved to play down speculation linking him with a move to Italy at the end of the season.Guardiola, 40, has been the subject of reports in the Italian press suggesting he could be set to coach in Serie A with either Inter Milan or Roma in 2011/12.

He spent three seasons in Italy as a player with Brescia and Roma and is believed to be interested in a return to the country at some point in the future.

But the former Spain international has announced his intention to at least fulfil his contract at Camp Nou, which runs until the end of the next season.

“I still have an ongoing contract with Barcelona. Inter are a great club but I’ll stay with my current club for an additional season,” Guardiola was quoted as saying in La Gazzetta dello Sport .

“Either way I’d never do anything without speaking to Barcelona president Sandro Rosell first.”

Last week, Manchester City played Stoke City twice in a few days, in the FA Cup final and in the league. Everyone got on pretty well. City decided not to parade the FA Cup before or after the league game in respect to Stoke fans, we clapped their fans away and Delilah was played over the loudspeaker.All very nice, and message boards for both clubs contained many a thread praising the opposition fans, and mentioning a new-found respect after the carnage of our double relegation in 1998 when trouble after the final game (Manchester City won it 5-2, to no avail) was widespread.This new found respect and praise didn’t sit very well with some fans though. It just wasn’t football to be praising opposition fans, or to be getting on with them this much. Afterall, part of being a football supporter is to hate most other fans, and most of all, other clubs.It’s easy to hate. Obviously I am required by law as a City fan to hate everything about Manchester United. Older City fans hate Everton because of the commonplace violence in away games in the 80s.  And they always beat us. A (perceived) bad reputation of fans makes plenty of other teams easy to hate. Spurs and Arsenal fans are arrogant, Blackpool were fine until their manager’s tiresome press conferences and toadying up to Alex Ferguson (along with many other sycophants in the managerial game) began to hit home.Liverpool fans think their club is more important than anyone else’s, Newcastle fans think their fans are better.  I don’t like QPR now Warnock is their manager. Or West Ham now Gold and Sullivan are weaving their magic as owners. I hated Crystal Palace while Jordan was chairman.[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’right’]Don’t take all the above as my opinion – mere hyperbole to show how easy it is to take against clubs, as if it is almost frowned upon to like other clubs. Any little thing you can seize upon- one arrogant letter from an Arsenal fan on a website is enough for you to tar all Arsenal fans with the same brush.It’s a similar theme at matches. Ninety minutes of winding each other up and sneering (or more) outside. This seems to be a habit restricted to British clubs though – perhaps familiarity breeds contempt, but it’s a lot harder to really detest a foreign team. Though I am tempted to start hating Barcelona because everyone fawns over them so much. And because of Busquets of course.I hate Ipswich because their fans sneered when we got relegated once. I hate Luton because they relegated us in 1983 and David Pleat ran across the pitch. And because of those portakabins down the side of the pitch. God I hated them. I hate Portsmouth because they have a drummer and lots of bell ringing.And that’s the thing with irrational dislikes – football clubs are massive entities, with a large coaching and managerial staff, a large pool of players, a set of fans that can number millions and a proud history stretching back over a century, but it only takes one individual or one tiny detail at a club for me to take a dislike to them. Thus, whichever club Harry Redknapp is attached to I am duty-bound to hate. This is because of the spurious reasons of him having so many friends in the media he seems untouchable, and because he likes to talk about players in the press that he thinks are ‘triffic, perfectly illustrated when he unsettled Eyal Berkovic away from Manchester City many years ago. Time has not healed the wounds.Why do we take so easily to hating other teams? It doesn’t happen in other sports. Football is of course tribal, more now than it has ever been, and we mark our territory and stand our ground. We see everything through blinkers, and excuse our own team and fans whilst pouncing on the actions of others.  We can’t sit with opposition fans or we will kill each other. We can’t debate without prejudice, we can’t accept the opposition fans were louder, the opposition team were better, or that the penalty they got was a fair decision. And some rivalries are more deep-seated of course – splits caused by religious differences, historical rivalries between cities, but often nothing more than a fiery game three seasons previous.This is football, and part of what we love about it. It’s fine for me to hate Plymouth Argyle, because no one should play in green (ok, that’s pushing it a bit) . But my most irrational hatred of all concerns a tannoy system. A certain championship side, who shall remain nameless, once scored against City, and the PA system erupted to the sound of Tina Turner and “Simply The Best”.Surely a just reason to hate a whole club? I think so.

Blackpool manager Ian Holloway was disappointed with his side's first-half display as they crashed 4-0 at Premier League holders Chelsea.

The rampant Blues went ahead inside two minutes at Stamford Bridge as Salomon Kalou stabbed home from close range and Florent Malouda guided in Didier Drogba's centre soon after.

Drogba got his name on the scoresheet as his deflected effort wrong-footed Matt Gilks in the Seasiders' goal and another fine strike from Malouda added gloss to a sterling opening 45 minute display.

Carlo Ancelotti's team couldn't add to their tally in the second period and, although Holloway was pleased with the response, he was unhappy with the manner of their early capitulation.

"I thought we were absolutely useless first half, but they showed a champion's mentality from the first corner," said Holloway.

"And all our game plan went out the window after a minute or so. I was much happier with the second half but they took the foot off the gas.

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"We drew the second half and created a couple of chances but it was all about pride then, it was too late.

"We're all very proud people here and I thought we would have given them a much better game than that but sometimes you have to say how good they are."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Brazilian forward Robinho signed for Manchester City on transfer deadline day on September 1 2008 for a British record transfer fee of £32.5m. After a decent start at Eastlands relations turned a little sour and the player was loaned out to Santos last January, but what would represent the best move for the player now?

The 26-year-old’s fate would have been so much simpler but for his impressive performances in the World Cup when he showed why City decided to splash out so much money on him in the first place. Robinho played five games during Brazil’s campaign, scored two goals and was the spark in a fairly pragmatic Dunga squad.

He also had a successful return to former club Santos on-loan, which led many to believe his fate may be back in his homeland, but now there are calls for him to stay from certain players like Shay Given.

The Citizens’ goalkeeper said:

“I don’t know what his current situation is but there’s no denying he’s had a great World Cup.

“The bottom line is he remains a Manchester City player no matter what’s been written.

“I’d love to see him back at City, he’s gone out and proved a lot of people wrong in South Africa.”

(Daily Mail)

Now manager Roberto Mancini is facing something of a headache, should he convince him to stay, or would Robinho be better off elsewhere?

Many are quick to forget that Robinho’s second season for the Sky Blues was interrupted by injury, his only goal came against Scunthorpe in the FA Cup and he fell down the pecking order before Mancini arrived to ship him out to Santos.

Now that City have added the talents of stars such as David Silva and Yaya Toure to their ranks the club stand a much better chance in challenging the top sides. But it may not be enough to convince him of staying at the club, particularly when they seem willing to ship him out on a season-long loan to Valencia in an attempt to save on some of his £150k-a-week wages…if you can count the Daily Mirror a reliable source, which you can’t.

If they are going to pay such high wages for him surely it is worth taking a gamble on Robinho. It would definitely be worth a potential buyer to take a risk on him, particularly if they can sign him for less than the Manchester club originally paid for his signature.

As Chelsea seek some extra creativity amongst their ranks they may decide to renew their interest in Robinho, who wanted to go from Real Madrid to Stamford Bridge in the first place and even called his own press conference to try and force the move whilst he was still at the Bernabeu club.

However, many would have been unimpressed by what was perceived as cry-baby antics from the Brazilian forward in order to get out of Madrid. Also, he seemingly arrived in England thinking he had signed for Chelsea and it didn’t seem like he had even heard of Manchester City.

Alternatively, if City think they won’t be able to get the best out of the former Real Madrid man then maybe they should cut their losses and sell him on.

Should Robinho have another shot at City, or is it time for him to move on?

**

Follow me on Twitter: ajwilliams1987

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Click on image below to see the ITALIAN babes at the World Cup

Arsenal winger Theo Walcott has admitted to being disappointed at being left out of England's 23-man squad for the World Cup finals.

Fabio Capello opted to include Shaun Wright-Phillips and Aaron Lennon in his squad that will travel to South Africa on Wednesday evening rather than Walcott, who was a shock inclusion in Sven-Goran Eriksson's squad for the 2006 World Cup.

The former Southampton speedster was the most high-profile absentee from the squad Capello named on Tuesday afternoon.

The 21-year-old, who has endured an injury-ravaged season and failed to impress in the recent friendlies against Mexico and Japan, said:"I am very disappointed not to be included in the squad going out to South Africa, but completely respect Mr Capello's decision.

"I would like to wish the team the best of luck and hope they have a really successful tournament."

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In September 2008, Walcott played a major part in helping England qualify for this summer's tournament when he grabbed a hat-trick in the 4-1 win at Croatia.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email