Manchester United have reopened their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League after beating Aston Villa 4-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The Red Devils took the lead from the penalty spot, with Wayne Rooney converting a spot-kick after seven minutes, before Danny Welbeck double the hosts’ advantage before the interval.
Rooney grabbed his second after 73 minutes to end the game as a contest, whilst Nani scored late on to seal the victory.
Sir Alex Ferguson was happy with his team after the game, and knows that they are close to winning their 20th Premier League title.
“I thought that was one of our better performances for a while,” the Scot told Sky Sports after the game.
“There could be twists and turns in the title race yet but I think the name of the game now is for us to enjoy ourselves, play with the expression we did today and hopefully we’ll be alright.
“My experience tells me that there’s always something’s going to bite you on the bum so hopefully we can avoid that.
“The name of the game is not to drop any more points,” he stated.
Ashley Young was fouled by Ciaran Clark for United’s opener, and Ferguson believes the referee was right to award a penalty.
“I think he played for the penalty. If the player decides to put his foot in and doesn’t stay on his own feet and read the situation then he’s fallen into that you know.
“He’s definitely taken him but I think it was a dramatic fall and I think that he maybe over did the fall but it was a penalty, there was no doubt about that.
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“And I don’t think he can have any compliant because he has actually taken him,” he concluded.
’s proposed transfer to Italian side Napoli has stalled, according to Sky Sports.
Napoli are only thought to be prepared to offer around £10 million for the midfielder who moved to White Hart Lane from Wigan in January 2009. However, Tottenham are insistent on recouping the full £12 million they paid for the 26-year old.
The Honduran made 30 appearances for Spurs last season and Harry Redknapp is reluctant to let the midfielder leave. However, with the emergence of Brazilian Sandro, Redknapp is willing to cash in for the right offer.
The Sun claims Napoli might even try and sign the player on loan with a view to a permanent switch but Spurs are thought to prefer a permanent deal.
The defensive midfielder has represented Honduras 71 times. He first played in England under Steve Bruce at both Birmingham and Wigan Athletic and has since made 85 appearances in 2 and a half seasons at Tottenham Hotspur.
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Polish goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski is determined to make the most of his opportunity to become the regular first choice at Arsenal.
The 25-year-old has impressed since taking over from the injured Manuel Almunia around six weeks ago and Fabianski is eager to prove his worth.
"I always say my only thing is to keep working hard and try to play as best as I can, to try to help the team," Fabianski commented.
"Of course I have been through a difficult period, but that is life, that is football. You have to just keep working hard and hopefully it will pay off.
"Even when there was a difficult time for me I was always focused on my job or I was always working hard. That is the only way I think you can achieve something.
"I just want to stay focused. That is the main thing for me, to keep working hard.
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"If there is a possibility to play, I will just try to play as best I can."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
They say if it aint broke, then don’t fix it but I’m going to try and attempt to get my hammer and screwdriver out with the Premier League’s current archaic relegation system. As we all know, over recent years the ‘top four’ has expanded to what is regarded as the ‘big six’ with the fourteen other Premier League clubs struggling to match the elite both on the field of play and financially off it also. Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has previously stated that clubs such as his own are now struggling to cope in terms of wages and revenue with the new breed of ‘super clubs’ out there. With the ‘big six’ usually near the top end of the table in any order, the rest of the clubs are fairly evenly matched on their day and the competitiveness of the promoted clubs this term serves to suggest that the jump from the Championship to the Premier League isn’t as big as first publicised; simply requiring effort, desire and careful guidance.
So if the jump from tier two to top flight isn’t that big, then why can’t there be a restructuring of the old and historic relegation system? Championship clubs have proved they can cut it in the big time. The bottom three go down at the end of the season. Simple. The worst three teams suffer for their bad form over the endurance of a campaign. But what if the 18th placed Premier League side had to play off with the 3rd placed Championship side in an end of season relegation play off?
The German Bundesliga currently operates with this system and the Dutch Eredivisie negotiates this ruling also, with the slight difference that two top flight teams in Holland have to do battle with two second tier sides instead. Not only would more excitement stem from a one off game but clubs in the Premier League would strive even more to avoid a hazardous one off game, and clubs in the Championship would strive even more to clamber into third position, for a chance to achieve promotion. Perhaps we would see greater competitiveness as a general pattern. The current Championship play-off system is a very exciting one, but you do feel it is a waste of hope and time for the sides that fail to reach the final of it.
It is my opinion that the so-called ‘late surger’ or sixth placed side often has the momentum to topple the sides immediately ahead of them, distorting the points tallies which may be significantly greater for the third, fourth and fifth sides at the end of a campaign. All of the clubs know the pitfalls of the playoffs already, but I think whilst play off glory may be joyous for whoever wins, the other teams’ exploits over a course of a season are cruelly taken away and unrewarded. Therefore, if the third place side hierarchically had to do battle with the 18th placed Premier League side, this type of play off would be far more fair and reasonable.
Of course, if the Premier League were far superior to the Championship then redemption for the 18th placed side would almost be guaranteed and widespread criticism would be received for such a system. However, in a metaphorical ‘relegation play-off game’ it would be an interesting experiment as the lack of morale and heads down nature of the Premier League team verses the hopeful and upbeat nature of the Championship side would make for what could be considered an even and keenly-fought contest. Not only would we gauge a realistic outlook of how close the respective tiers are but we would see a shift in attitude in this country that play-offs can be implemented at the bottom of the table as effectively as they are placed at the top.
Whilst critics may point to the argument that we’d see lesser quality in the Premier League if the Championship side were victorious in the one off game, they only have to be reminded that 18 of the 24 current Championship sides have tasted Premier League action before, and it is the acclaim of managers everywhere that England’s second tier is one of the most competitive and hardest to negotiate.
Last year’s final day in the Premier League was exciting (and gruelling) for the teams involved at the basement of the division, but by implementing a relegation play off there would be a far more systematic element as to how clubs rise and fall. For example if Terry Connor’s Wolves clambered to 18th position from their current position, this could be considered a success and a chance to survive, hence greater excitement and drama surrounding an 18th placed finished as opposed to the swift reality of dropping out of the division at present.
Perhaps these concepts may seem like meddling and tampering with an already astute system, but adopting such a system would spark even more excitement into an already enthralling division, rightly considered the best in the world.
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What do you think of this idea? Are we too rigid in this country towards change or should I be taking a lay down? Follow me @ http://twitter.com/Taylor_Will1989
Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given has enjoyed an indifferent time since his transfer from Newcastle nearly two and a half years ago. Given made an immediate impact following his signing for a reported £8 million and was a mainstay the following season until suffering a dislocated shoulder in April 2010. Then, Roberto Mancini surprised many when, at the start of this season, he picked young English keeper Joe Hart for the opening league fixture against Tottenham Hotspur. Hart has progressed at a phenomenal rate becoming a regular starter for both club and country and Given has been restricted to only four appearances for City; One in the Carling Cup and three in the Europa League.
Given was linked with numerous clubs in January but chose instead to stay put. But, with both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur both rumoured to be interested in signing the 35 year old this Summer, is it time for the Irishman to move on?
Given has undoubtedly been one of the most consistent goalkeepers in the Premiership since he was first signed by Newcastle in 1997. He has gone on to make nearly 400 appearances in the Premier League alone and earned 110 caps for Ireland, seven of which came this season. But, the player himself has begun to admit that sitting on the bench is not helping his cause for club or country. At the age of 35 he should be at the peak of his powers and playing regular football.
But, Manchester City are able to offer Champions League football next year and will surely make some exciting signings this summer as they look to form a title challenge. Given himself will surely be tempted to stay at Eastlands and fight it out with Hart for the Number 1 jersey and get paid handsomely to do so.
But, displacing Hart will be no easy accomplishment. Mancini favours the Englishman over Given and he is fast becoming one of the best keepers in the league. Perhaps, therefore, he would be best moving on, but where would represent the best home?
Arsenal have been rumoured to be interested in Given for some time. Manuel Almunia is seemingly on his way out of the Emirates whilst Fabianski is either inconsistent of injured. Wojciech Szczęsny has had an impressive debut season but it still young and learning. Given could be just the man to aid Szczęsny’s development and bring some leadership to a back four that has appeared troubled since the departure of William Gallas. But, much of this will hinge on whether Wenger sticks to his rule regarding only offering one-year contracts to players over 32, particularly as Given signed a four and a half year deal at Manchester City.
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Fans of Tottenham appear to be losing patience with Heurelho Gomes and some of his errors have costs Spurts points. And, unlike Wenger,Harry Redknapp cannot resist a bargain and will sign a good player regardless of age. Spurs might not be able to offer the glamour of the Champions League next season but would provide Given with opportunity to be part of an exciting project at White Hart Lane under Redknapp.
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Admittedly both teams have performed under expectations this season and find themselves currently sitting in fourth and fifth place respectively. But, unlike at City, both would offer the opportunity of regular football in ambitious sides looking to make the next step up.
Arsenal have faltered in recent seasons but, with the right players and manager at the helm, most fans will agree another title challenge will come soon. And, whilst Spurs are yet to become Champions League regulars, their fantastic run to this year’s Quarter Finals shows the progress they have made under Redknapp and fans will hopefully get to see a resumption of their fine European performances in next year’s Europa League and beyond.
Blackpool boss Ian Holloway has admitted to being tactically out-thought by Alex McLeish, following his side's 2-0 reverse at Birmingham City.
Goals from Liam Ridgewell and Nikola Zigic gave the Blues their first win in seven league games, while the Seasiders are now just one point above the relegation places, having lost four of their last five games.
Holloway admitted:"I have learned a football lesson. We weren't prepared for what Birmingham did – the balance of their team was excellent and caused us some problems.
"I didn't know they were going to play that way and I didn't tell my team. They stopped our flowing movements and my lads didn't understand, I hadn't told them Birmingham could be doing that.
"Tactically we didn't tell them. It's not that I can't, course I can. I can coach anything. I wasn't anticipating them to do that.
"I want to play them tomorrow, when we play them again, we'll know they are capable of that.
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"I shall have a right good go at my scouting set-up because no-one told me Birmingham play a 4-diamond-2. I've seen them play 4-4-1-1, but that really scuppered us."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Fulham manager Martin Jol has admitted that his side have taken a risk by signing Pavel Pogrebnyak as Bobby Zamora’s replacement, as the Russian forward is out of form.
Pogrebnyak joined The Cottagers from Stuttgart on a six-month loan deal on transfer deadline day, as Zamora was sold to London rivals QPR.
The Dutch coach is aware that his new forward represents a gamble, but is hoping that Pogrebnyak can recapture the form that saw him shoot to fame in his earlier career.
“He’s not had a great couple of years, but if he had we wouldn’t have got him,” Jol told Mirror Football.
I spoke to (Russia boss) Dick Advocaat and (predecessor) Guus Hiddink about him and they told me he’s got 45 caps and he’s had some great spells.
“It’s a very good opportunity for him and us, but he has to prove it now,” the trainer challenged.
Pogrebnyak is currently waiting for a work permit for England, and hopes to make his Premier League debut for the Craven Cottage side against Stoke on Saturday.
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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.
Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce blamed a defensive 'mess up' for Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Stoke City.
Matthew Etherington capitalised on defensive hesitation to feed Jonathan Walters and his strike settled a hard-fought encounter at the Britannia Stadium.
"The biggest frustration for me is the goal that we conceded here today," said Allardyce.
"It was such an easy defensive position to defend. We don't often see our central defenders mess it up like that to let what was a nothing situation develop into what was then a goalscoring situation which they took and it ended up being the winning goal.
"It is very frustrating to concede that type of goal at that particular time of the game.
"Goals are always difficult for us to come by, we know that, but we have scored in every game and if we had kept that going it would have gotten us a 1-1, but it hasn't happened.
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"Our deficiencies defensively have made it so easy for them to nip through and score, bog standard basic defending has let us down.
"We went the goal down, we changed the system we went to three at the back and switched to a 3-4-3. But we huffed and puffed really without creating a chance."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
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.