Manchester City had to settle for a point as they continued their unbeaten start to the season against Everton at the Etihad Stadium.
Roberto Mancini has now won just once in seven meetings against the Toffees since arriving in the blue half of Manchester, but will the draw as two points lost having won six out of seven games on home soil.
The Merseyside club have stuttered of late following a blistering start to the campaign, sharing the spoils for a third game in succession and haven’t tasted victory since beating Sunderland on 10 November.
Goalscoring opportunities were few and far between as both sides adopted a cautious approach during the opening phase of the game.
And it was the visitors to strike first blood in the 33rd minute, Marouane Fellaini needing to bites of the cherry to beat Joe Hart, bundling the ball home with his thigh after the City keeper had saved his header from Leighton Baines’ cross.
The hosts responded in robust fashion and went close to an equaliser when Tim Howard clawed Edin Dzeko’s strike round the post before the Bosnian won his side a penalty two minutes shy of the half time, going to ground after Fellaini tugged his shirt in the area.
Referee Lee Probert immediately pointed to the spot and Carlos Tevez stepped up to beat Howard from 12 yards, firing the ball straight down the centre.
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Fellaini then forced Hart into a low save just before the break but it proved to be Everton’s last clear cut chance of the game as they struggled to contain the home side in the second half.
Howard did well to keep out a powerful, swerving effort from Maicon with Mancini sending Sergio Aguero on for Carlos Tevez with 20 minutes to go but the Argentinian couldn’t provide the inspiration to find a winner.
Everton defender Phil Jagielka has admitted that there will be more opportunities for him due to John Terry retiring from England duty.
The Chelsea stalwart hung his boots up on international action earlier this year due to the ongoing FA investigations into his reported racist remarks to Anton Ferdinand.
As such, Jagielka feels that there is healthy competition for places at centre-back for the Three Lions, and is eager to be involved against Poland on Tuesday.
“John and Rio played together for England forever didn’t they?” Jagielka stated to reporters, published in The Telegraph.
“They had a great partnership. In the last 10 or 11 months, many things have changed. With John deciding to call it a day, it opens the door even more. It is not too cut out who is first name down and that only makes it healthy. No one is guaranteed a place any more.
“I wouldn’t say I resigned myself to not starting but that’s the role you get put into when there are people in front of you who aren’t particularly giving you the opportunity to get a game. If the manager did decide to rest a couple of players in the previous years, when the international qualifiers came around again, you would expect John Terry and Rio Ferdinand to be playing again.
“I’m gutted as an England fan. Terry has been a fantastic player for England, he’s put his body on the line for many years now.
“But he had his reasons. It was his decision — he wasn’t forced as in like a gun to his head or anything. If you look at it from a purely personal point of view, it was one less person to compete with playing for England.
“As much as I was gutted he wasn’t going to play for England again, it was also an opportunity for me to try to go higher up the pecking order. I’ve been around the squad for the last couple of years or so, played a game here and there, and I’d like to play on a more consistent basis,” he concluded.
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Manchester City are hoping to lure Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi to the Premier League during the January transfer window, according to reports from The Telegraph.
Roberto Mancini held his first meeting with new Director of Football Txiki Begiristain earlier this week and the pair have put the Italian international at the top of their list of targets.
The 29-year-old is believed to be unsettled in Rome following the arrival of new coach Zdenek Zemen.
Under the Czech manager De Rossi has been played out of position on the right hand side of a 4-3-3 formation, which has left the local hero disillusioned and frustrated.
City failed with an approach to sign the holding midfielder over the summer, as he pledged his commitment to the club.
However, Mancini believes he may now be able to entice his target to the Etihad Stadium by taking advantage of his unrest.
Paris Saint-Germain are also said to be monitoring the situation and could rival any approach from the Citizens.
De Rossi was a key member of the Italian squad during EURO 2012. His displays in the centre of the park aided the team on their journey to the final, which they eventually lost to Spain.
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Although he is a central midfielder by trade, the Roma vice-captain has been known to play as part of a three-man defence, which may appeal to the Premier League champions who have adopted the same system on multiple occasions this season.
Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew was shocked by the news that club captain Fabricio Coloccini wants to leave the club in January, as reported by The Independent.
Coloccini’s demands are just another blow to Newcastle and Pardew who are just two points above the Premier League relegation zone and without an away win all season ahead of their visit to Norwich this afternoon.
The Argentinian defender has reported personal problems and wants to head back to South America and join boyhood club San Lorenzo this month.
The 30-year-old was set to lead the team out at Carrow Road today but it is yet to be seen what frame of mind he and his manager will be in going into the vital Premier League clash.
If Coloccini does push through the move, Newcastle will be left with very little defensive cover and will need to sign at least one defender in this window or face a long second half of the season.
Steven Taylor is still injured and so Mike Williamson would be the only recognised central defender at the club but freeing up Coloccini’s high wages could give Pardew some extra funds to spend.
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James Milner hopes to help Manchester City move on from their failed title bid by securing the FA Cup trophy.
Manchester United’s 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Monday ended City’s hopes of successfully defending their league crown.
Milner admits his side is bitterly disappointed to have failed to defend the Premier League title but hopes to end the season with silverware by securing the FA Cup title.
City will take on Wigan in the final next month and Milner is desperate to add the FA Cup to the Etihad Stadium trophy cabinet.
“It hurts,” Milner told Sky Sports News. “Well done to Manchester United, they’re obviously a strong team and the league doesn’t lie, so they deserve the league.
“We’re massively disappointed, but it fuels the fire for next season and we’re desperate to go again next season to try and win it back.
“Hopefully we can finish this season with silverware.”
The England international feels City must take inspiration from United’s efforts this season in the 2013/14 campaign.
Milner believes United have used the disappointment of missing out on the Premier League title last season as motivation this term, and he feels City must do the same next year as they bid to wrestle the title back.
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He added: “We’ve seen how hard it is to retain the title and how much they (United) used that disappointment from last season to drive them on this year.
“They’ve been very good in the league, very solid and seem to grind out results every week. They’ve deserved it and we have to look at where we’ve gone wrong and try to put that right.”
Arsene Wenger has maintained that the January transfer window will not remedy Arsenal’s problems in the Premier League this season.
The Gunners boss instead believes that solutions will ultimately come from within the current squad rather than through the acquisition of another player in the winter, stating that it was important to “find solutions before January.”
Commenting on the competitive nature of the league, he noted that spending would have little or no impact because “it is difficult for everybody at the moment, all teams, even those who have invested a lot of money.”
The league table makes grim reading for Gunners fans, with a 2-0 loss to Swansea at the Emirates on Saturday opening a five-point gap with Tottenham Hotspur sitting in 4th spot.
The loss marked a season haul of 5 wins from 15 games in the Premier League, as Arsenal sit 10th and one point behind Stoke City. It’s the worst position for Arsenal at this stage of the season under Wenger’s guidance.
Reports later verified that approximately a thousand supporters protested after the game, in the name of the Black Scarf Movement. The BSM function as the mouthpiece for growing fan anger at the greater commercialisation of Arsenal – relating to high ticket prices and an expensive match-day experience – after their move to the Emirates coinciding with a seven-year trophyless spell.
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Some fans believe that the club’s frugal transfer policy isn’t in line with the exponential monetisation of Arsenal at the Emirates. There seems to be a huge disparity between Wenger’s transfer policy and a belief that the club have a substantially healthier balance sheet since moving to their new home with many fans believing that the financial clout is there but the desire to spend in the winter is not.
Juventus have made a move for highly rated Udinese defender and Liverpool FC target Pablo Armero, according to talkSPORT.
The Italian press have reported that Juventus have made the first step in claiming Armero, by tabling an €8 million bid. However, it is thought that Udinese will hold firm for their €10 million valuation of the Columbian international.
It was thought that Brendan Rodgers was keen to bring in defensive options in January, after a less than impressive start to the Premier League season. Juventus’ swift movements will mean that the new man at Anfield will have to act quickly or risk losing his top transfer target.
Armero started his career with Columbian side Deportivo Cali before moving to Palmeiras in 2009. Impressive performances for the Brazilian side ignited interest from Italy and while a move to Parma collapsed at the last minute, in August 2010, Udinese claimed the defender.
At just 26, Armero already has 30 caps for Columbia. His position for his club tends to be at left wing back as Udinese play with an effective 3-5-2 formation. However, the South American plays left back for his country and started at centre back for Palmeiras so is versatile along the back line.
No comments have been made by the player himself but it is thought that now Italian giants Juventus have made their interest known, that will be Armero’s likely destination in January.
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Over the fifty years of its history, the League Cup and especially this season’s Capital One Cup, has seen more than its fair share of last-minute drama – and since the turn of the 21st century, every season seems to have been littered with late, late winning goals. With the advent of the extra-time period to replace replays, we now have the opportunity for two separate periods of last-minute drama in the same game (see Reading v Arsenal this season) to keep fans of the League Cup entertained.
This list includes some of the most famous last-gasp goals in the League Cup’s recent history, as well as one or two game-winning blasts from the past. There’s everyone from Arsenal to Derby County and Luton Town represented, so whether you cheer the Goliath or the underdog, this list is for you…
Click on Theo Walcott to see the full countdown of last-gasp goals
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Tottenham have enjoyed a decent start to their Premier League campaign under new boss Andre Villas-Boas, taking eight points from their first games to sit in eighth in the table. One of the major plus points of this start has been the form of striker Jermain Defoe, who appears to have adapted brilliantly to his new role as a lone front-man. This in turn has cast a shadow over Emmanuel Adebayor’s starting place in the side, but is there a way for both of them to co-exist?
The 28-year-old Togolese front-man was superb last season at White Hart Lane, finishing the term with 17 league goals and 12 assists and it should have been a lot more given his sometimes profligate ways in front of goal, Nevertheless, he was a fabulous focal point to their attack, holding the play up well, bringing the best out of Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon out wide and ensuring that the side were an extremely dangerous side to play.
Defoe’s start to the new season, though, which has seen him strike four league goals in their opening five games has really caught the eye. He can still be wasteful, with the game against Reading serving as a prime example – his movement throughout was nothing short of brilliant and he managed to create space for himself easily against a shaky defence and despite a marvellous solo goal, it’s also worth remembering that he missed at least three other gilt-edged chances that game despite finishing with a double.
Nobody in their right mind felt that Defoe was tailor-made for Villas-Boas’ system and in a lot of way, he still isn’t, he struggles to hold the ball up and he can go missing for spells, but he’s a very good finisher when in this kind of form and he thrives on the sort of service that both Bale and Lennon provide, particularly against lesser opposition.
However, whenever the side’s two wingers manage to beat their full-back on the outside and arrow in a low cross, Defoe is often caught on his heels and it’s the sort of run that they’re used to Adebayor making. They may have scored eight goals in the league so far this season, but with the sheer volume of chances that they’ve created, it should have been many more and they were scintillating in the second half against QPR in particular.
A noticeable aspect of the club’s lacklustre first half performance against the Hoops’ was how much they lacked a cutting edge up top, failing to establish a platform in midfield. This all changed in the second half after a tactical substitution by Villas-Boas, as he compensated for his initial mistakes on what was an unbalanced starting line-up.
This saw the ineffectual and quite frankly awful Gylfi Sigurdsson hauled off, Bale restored to the left wing and Clint Dempsey moved inside behind Defoe, with Steven Caulker coming in at the heart of the back four, with Jan Vertonghen shifting to left-back. The result was an excellent second half performance from the entire side, with Bale and Vertonghen a constant threat down the left flank and Dempsey coming into the game more and more through the middle.
Liverpool were linked with a move for Dempsey all summer but they were pipped to his signature by a late move by Tottenham on transfer deadline day. Moreover, I always insisted that Dempsey was not ideally suited to playing in a 4-3-3 formation, given that he was too slow to play on the wing and would narrow the midfield and played more as a conventional forward last term than midfielder for Fulham.
While he is certainly a key squad player and he did well against Lazio in their Europa League clash mid-week, perhaps seeing Adebayor given the nod ahead of the American would see the side become even more of a goal threat. Defoe’s movement could see him drop deeper behind the Togolese striker and be a success, while they’d still retain the physical option of the former Manchester City man as the spearhead to their attack.
Sigurdsson has started life slowly so far at White Hart Lane and unless he’s scoring, he doesn’t especially contribute a whole lot else to their attacking play and his passing can be both ponderous and wayward. Dempsey is the natural choice to fill the role instead given his successes at Craven Cottage last year and they would be mad to drop Defoe while he is in such good form, but Adebayor is a class act and it was a surprise not to see him given a run-out against Lazio.
He appears to still be counting the cost of missing nearly the entirety of pre-season and while he may still be a bit rusty, he is only going to get better with games. His move from the Etihad was completed nearly two months later than initially expected and like Robin van Persie at Manchester United, he will inevitably be a bit off the pace as a result.
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Tottenham may have threatened during decent spells in certain game and the signing of Moussa Dembele already looks a masterstroke give what he can offer the team’s midfield with his surging forward runs and ability to beat a man in the middle of the park, but they have also flattered to deceive just as many times, drawing their opening two home games against Norwich and West Brom at the start of the season.
Defoe is on fire and is assured of a starting place at the moment, but with Villas-Boas showing a willingness to adjust his side if it isn’t doing well against QPR, bringing in Adebayor from the start is the next logical step in making the side an altogether more aesthetically-pleasing and dangerous outfit.
It’s a name that’s been linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur for nearly a season now, but as the transfer speculation heats up regarding the club’s potential swoop for Hamburg forward Heung-Min Son, some supporters are already turning their attention to where the Korean might fit in their side.
While the club’s interest in Son can be traced back to the summer of 2012, it’s believed that the 20-year-old’s hesitation in signing an extension to a contract that expires next season could see him leave the Imtech Arena for as little as £8.5million.
And further still, if a report in this morning’s Independent is to be believed, the player himself is said to be keen on the prospect of linking up with Andre Villas-Boas’ side, too.
But with the team screaming out for a forward of the highest calibre and several other elements of the side needing addressing come the summer, can Spurs really afford to invest the best part of £10million in a player whose age and inexperience ensures a potential deal remains very much an eight-figure gamble?
The cynics among the Lilywhites support won’t even necessarily need to have seen the Chuncheon-born talent play, to raise suspicions about the club’s motivation to acquire his signature this summer. Barely out of his teens and adjoined with a lofty reputation forged on the continent, Son bears the hallmark and resale value of the sort of player that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy loves to bring to the club.
Throw in the usual skepticism that follows the import of a player with the marketing capacity to unlock the lucrative Asian market and perhaps it’s understandable that not all supporters are jumping out of their seat at the prospect of the South Korean making the move to N17.
But regardless of what Son might bring to the club off the pitch, he also has the capacity to have a profound effect on the field of play. His signing might please Levy, but don’t think for five minutes that Son might find himself out of his depth in the white side of North London.
After joining the Bundesliga side at the tender age of only 16, Son has had to endure the usual sort of labeling that comes with such a high-profile at such a young age. Certainly, the ‘Asian Lionel Messi’ was a tag did little to encourage his development when he first arrived on German shores.
But if the pressure did little to aid his evolution from a fledgling, enigmatic youth player, it’s not done much to harm him, either.
Still three months off his 21st birthday, Son can already lay claim to 13 caps for his country, 67 top-flight appearances for Hamburg and an extremely impressive 17 Bundesliga goals to go with them – nine of which have come during the 2012/13 campaign.
The finished article, Son most certainly is not, but don’t let his age belie his capabilities. Equally adept with either foot, Son offers a threat from anywhere across a front attacking three and what’s more, he doesn’t seem to have a preference where, either.
“I don’t care where I play,” were the South Korean’s words upon breaking into the team in Hamburg.
“The main thing is I’m in the game. I can play right, left, as a forward or behind. What the coach says, I’ll do. I don’t have a favourite position. I’ll be anywhere and always on the throttle.”
With Tottenham’s lack of attacking potency past the duo of Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon being woefully exposed in recent games, oh how Villas-Boas’ side could do with Son’s talents now, as opposed to three or four months down the track.
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He offers pace, close control, an admirable work ethic but most importantly, a goal threat when positioned out on the flank. This season has seen the South Korean stationed out on the right-hand side more often than not for Thorsten Fink’s side and while supporters will be mindful of the worth that they place on current incumbent Aaron Lennon, Son would offer Villas-Boas a completely different option in terms of setting his side up.
The notion of recreating the 4-3-3 that the Portuguese enjoyed so much success with at Porto has largely been made redundant due to several factors, but the lack of another goalscoring winger has been one of the most poignant. Son’s composure in front of goal could open some more doors for Villas-Boas tactically and ease some of the goalscoring burden that Bale has had to shoulder for far too long this season.
For as efficient as Son might be in front of goal, despite his ability to play as a central striker he wouldn’t really offer Spurs a viable option as a long-term centre forward and that must be the priority at White Hart Lane this summer. But should the 20-year-old continue to stall upon a new deal at Hamburg, there’s absolutely no reason why the club shouldn’t pay the rumoured £8.5million fee that the German club are asking for.
Even at such a cut-price figure, there can be no denying that any deal to take Heung-Min Son to White Hart Lane will be something of a gamble. But if the £15million that Manchester United have recently shelled out to take Wilfried Zaha to Old Trafford can be deemed as something resembling a good investment, then Son’s signature must surely be a potential steal.