In Arsene We Trust

“In Arsene We Trust” is a phrase you’re likely to see on many Arsenal-related forums or blogs. The French tactician is revered by many due to his transformation of Arsenal Football Club. Wenger, despite all his success, doesn’t get the respect he should from some sectors of Arsenal’s expansive fanbase. The trophy drought has some people calling for his head. He is seen by some as being very shrewd unwilling to “splash cash” to better his team. Wenger is sometime guilty of letting his pride cloud his judgment.

Many Arsenal fans believe Wenger should be more active in the transfer market. Perhaps they see the Real Madrids and Manchester Cities of the world spending millions upon millions of pounds on players in the summer and Arsenal spending a lowly ten million on an unproven defender. But that’s where Arsene’s genius lies. He’s able to easily spot diamonds in the rough. You need only look at our line-up to see the gems he has unearthed. Fabregas, Diaby, Eboue, Song, Vermaelen; the list goes on and on. You have to feel that, given his track record, the other members of the squad who are, perhaps, underperforming will come good in the end.

Wenger’s youth policy has come under scrutiny from many Arsenal fans. Some prefer that Wenger spend his money on proven talent as opposed to developing his stars. But this is where “The Professor” shines again. You need only look at the rising debts of our closest rivals to know that Wenger is doing the right thing. Sure, we haven’t won anything in a few years but we’re hot on the trail of the Premier League title and we’re still in the hunt for the Champion’s League. And we’ve accomplished all these things while turning record profits this year.

Wenger doesn’t deserve some of the bashing he gets in the media and on blogs and forums. He’s a great man and an even better manager with an eye on Arsenal’s future. Through his brilliant youth policy and prudent spending, Arsenal can look forward to prosperity for years to come.

By Sean.

Gallas Watch: Will He Stay, Or Will He Go

As Arsenal step up their efforts to secure the future of key players and up-and-coming talents, there have been speculations about a few players who have yet to put pen to paper on new contracts. Gilles Sunu and Fran Merida make up part of this list (whose contracts are yet to be renewed), but the major concern has been on a veteran key player in the heart of Arsenal’s defense. William Gallas has been the subject of growing speculation as his contract runs out in the summer of 2010.

Amidst all the uncertainties, the latest piece of rumour reports that Claudio Ranieri, the current Roma manager is extremely interested in bringing the French international to the Stadio Olimpico on a free transfer. Gallas’ past working relationship with Ranieri at Chelsea before joining Arsenal seems to have contributed to the high possibility of this rumoured transfer. Having said that, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger will not easily let Gallas go. After all, the French tactician is still a huge admirer of Gallas’ intelligent defensive display week in week out for the North London club.

However, the rollercoaster ride endured by the 32 year old defender during his time at Arsenal might also have an influence on his future. William Gallas first joined Arsenal from Chelsea on a swap deal involving Ashley Cole going the opposite direction after an intense war of words between him and the then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, claiming that he would “score an own goal” if he wasn’t allowed to leave the club. During his tenure at the Emirates Stadium, he have reached the climax of his Arsenal career by earning the captaincy of the club during season 2007/2008. He led the team to the top of the Premier League for months until the Eduardo incident at St Andrews occurred and took away his captaincy.

Despite that, he stayed on at Arsenal in the following summer and slowly rebuilt his confidence and enhanced his performance for the club. But it was without another controversy, where it was reported that he has fallen out with former Gunner Kolo Toure. This incident has been speculated as the reason for the departure of the Ivorian centre defender. This season though, he has formed a very solid partnership with newly signed Belgium defender Thomas Vermaelen.

Currently, Gallas is still nursing a calf injury for a month after Wenger announced that he has suffered another setback on his journey to recovery. Some Arsenal fansites/blogs speculate that this injury might be the beginning of the end for his Arsenal career but today’s news contradict this speculation. Quoted from the latest article on the club’s official website (as of Thursday), Wenger said the club will try hard to find a solution to the Gallas situation.

Whether he will be at Arsenal in the summer of 2010, it is still a bit early to say. There might be some twists along the way and it now entirely depends on how much the club wants him to stay.

Article By Kelvin

Exciting Hoilett Earmarked For Bright Future

Junior Hoilett is one of Blackburn Rovers stars of the future, since turning down Manchester United at the age of 12 was just the beginning of his rollercoaster. Since turning down a chance to play football at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ the Blackburn Rovers starlet has had to overcome a work permit nightmare, serious homesickness and playing football in five different countries to reach the big stage of the Premier League.

The 19-year-old Canadian who recently signed a deal to stay at Ewood Park till 2010 has earned the chance to establish himself as a regular in the world’s biggest league, but there were times when even he doubted it would ever happen. Like when the government refused him a visa to play in England aged 16, having spent the last three years of his life learning his trade in Rovers’ youth set-up, or when he missed his family so much it would have been easy to have turned his back on his dreams and return to Canada.

Hoilett can look forward to a more settled future but he won’t forget the long and, often frustrating, journey he has taken to get where he has. He said: “I have had to go over a few hurdles but they have all helped me. They have all made me stronger and I feel I am ready for anything. “They have made me stronger as a player and a person. This is just the start but it feels as though I have been through a lot to get here. There were times when I had little doubts and I guess it would have been easy to have taken the easy option and gone home. I have always wanted to be a professional footballer though and that helped me through some difficult times.”

It was a tournament in Wales that was to prove the turning point in his life though as an 11-year-old Hoilett travelled with a Canadian team to play against teams from around the world. He was competing for fun but, by the end of the 10 days, scouts had spotted his obvious potential and his Premier League adventure was just around the corner.

“I didn’t know a tournament that lasted 10 days was going to change my life,” he said. But a Blackburn scout came up to my father, a number of scouts came up to my father actually. They all asked me to come on trial. Manchester United was the first club I came to on trial to but I decided to come to Blackburn and I liked Blackburn so I came here. Manchester United were quite keen on me at the time and asked me back but I had decided to come to Blackburn. The tournament was in July and I came over in March to Blackburn. Then I went back in the summer. They wanted me to move over but I needed a year to think about it.”

Blackburn Rovers and a new life in East Lancashire it was then, albeit not before a year of soul searching for him and his family about him leaving home in pursuit of a professional football career. Mother Ingrid took three months off work to help Junior settle in but, while Hoilett senior also regularly flew back and forth to support his middle son, life was far from plain sailing in those early days. He said: “The first year was very difficult but I got used to it. Everyone supported me and it showed with my football.”

But since then Hoilett has made a big impact in Blackburn Rovers’ Premier League Season making 10 appearances for the team Holiett has made improvements to the team in vital moments but will he continue to do so well next season? Only time will tell.

Article By Charlotte

Carragher – Torres makes Liverpool a better team

Jamie Carragher hopes Fernando Torres can enjoy an injury-free spell to help fire Liverpool into the Premier League top four.

The Anfield defender saw the Spanish striker celebrate his first Liverpool start since January by scoring the winning goal as his side beat Blackburn 2-1 in the Premier League at the weekend – although the game was marred for Carragher as he gave away a penalty to allow the opposition back into the match.

The victory made sure Liverpool remain in the battle for fourth after a weekend which saw rivals Manchester City and Spurs both record wins.

As a result Liverpool are now one point behind Spurs who are in fourth place, although they have played more games than rivals City and Aston Villa. However, the Premier League odds make Liverpool favourites to secure the final Champions League place.

Torres was absent for six weeks of the season and Liverpool missed his goals during this time. Indeed, he remains the side’s top scorer with 13 goals in 17 Premier League appearances.

Carragher admits is “goes without saying” that Liverpool miss the forward as he is a “special player” who can make a real difference in games.

“He’s a big, powerful lad, who is right up for the fight, and he’s ideally suited to English football,” the defender said.

“He makes a big difference and you can see we are a much better team when he is with us.”

Liverpool face Wigan in their next Premier League game before resuming their Europa League battle later that week against Lille.

For his part, Torres will be looking to ensure he is in peak condition going into the World Cup.

The World Cup odds make Spain favourites for the competition and Torres should play a key part in their tournament.

Premier League Getting Interesting

Things are warming up in the Premier League after a bunch of mixed results over the weekend. The big news was Everton’s win against Manchester United. This gives Chelsea a four point lead at the top of the ladder.

After a slow start, Everton have done very well and have risen to eighth spot. They were unlucky only to draw against Arsenal and then defeated Chelsea so have bounced back to their best as seen previously. David Moyes has got them playing some good football.

Things are very tight for fourth place with just one point separating four teams. Tottenham is there on 46 with Manchester City also on 46. Liverpool and Aston Villa are both on 45. Both Villa and Man City have a game in hand on the other two.

Down the bottom of the ladder, Portsmouth are all but certain to be relegated. You will be hard pressed to find any bookmakers taking more bets on this. With only 16 points from 26 games, they are highly unlikely to get about 20 from their final 12 games. Then there is a huge dogfight down the bottom to see who the other two teams to go down will be.

Bolton and Burnley are currently in the hot seat with 23 and then you have Wolves and Hull just safe on 24. Wigan is on 25, Sunderland 26 and West Ham 27. It is that tight that any of these seven teams could go down to the Championship. Just one win would see one of these teams rise sending someone else to trouble.

It is that close that goal difference could prove to be the ultimate difference between the teams.

In the next round of games, Bolton take on Wolves and Portsmouth travel to Burnley. These are both massive games.

Up at the top of the ladder, Man City meet Chelsea in what should be a pretty entertaining clash.

Tottenham hosts Everton is a game which promises to be the best of the weekend’s action. Last time the two met, Spurs wasted a 2-0 lead to end up drawing 2-2. They had a chance at the end to win it but a penalty was saved. This game was marked as the turning point of Everton’s year and many also said it showed that Tottenham weren’t top four material.

At White Hart Lane, both will have a lot to prove and so should be quite entertaining fare.

Darren Albert writes for this blog. He also writes about online betting.

Battle of London

It is a huge weekend in football with there some massive matches in the Premier League. The biggest game would be the tussle between Chelsea and Arsenal. Both are under pressure. Arsenal were hammered and embarrassed by Manchester United last weekend and will be looking for redemption.

Chelsea were held by Hull in a 1-1 draw and are drawing from the fallout from the John Terry scandal. Currently Arsenal are six points behind Chelsea and should they lose here you would think that is it for their title aspirations.

Everton travel to Anfield for the Merseyside derby. Last time they met, Everton were a mess and were no match for Liverpool. Since then they have got most of their injured players back and are a lot more confident and bookmakers have more faith in them. They have risen to ninth place and it seems ridiculous now that only two months ago they were just above the relegation zone. Now soccer betting has them as an outside chance for qualifying for Europe.
Speaking of the relegation zone, things are tight with Hull in 18th spot on 21 points and three other teams also on 21 points. Then you have Wigan in 14th spot on 22 points. Things are very tight at the bottom of the ladder.

Manchester United should have an easy time of it against Portsmouth at Old Trafford. Portsmouth are struggling in last spot and are just about assure of being relegated.

What should be a much tighter contest is fourth placed Tottenham against seventh placed Aston Villa. Only two point separate them and the winner of this could find themselves in the Champions League next year.

Hull now face the blue half of Manchester in a game which could be quite even. Games with relegation implications are Sunderland against Wigan, Stoke and Blackburn, Bolton and Fulham.
On Sunday, Wolves travel to Birmingham to take on the inform side.

Now two-thirds of the way through the season this is the time when you want to make your mark. The worst of winter has gone and European action is about to get back under way. A couple of wins here and you can make your season.

Darren Albert writes for this blog. He also covers online betting.

The Season Starts Now

This is the time of year when the title is won and lost. You have just come out of the busy Christmas/New Year period but the amount of games isn’t diminishing – there are FA Cup and European ties to contend with in addition to the Premiership games.

At this point in time Chelsea look like the time to beat. They didn’t have the best run in late December and early January but the thing is that they they didn’t drop as many points as they could have They are still top and have the springboard to go higher.

Manchester United haven’t had it any easier. They lost in the third round of the FA Cup under Sir Alex Ferguson for the first time and also dropped points. They are second and just ahead of Arsenal. Arsenal have made ground on Chelsea – following their loss to them, Arsenal fell to being eight points behind Chelsea but this is down to three.

There is a fierce battle for fourth spot with Manchester City, Tottenham and Aston Villa all contending for it. You could include Liverpool but they just aren’t playing good football. They are out of the Champions League but still in the Europa League but out of the FA Cup. Who knows what is happening at Anfield apart from the fact that things have to change.

Everton are in good form and have climbed from relegation danger to mid-table safety. They are slowly receiving all of their injured players back and should finish in the top half of the ladder after a disastrous start to the season.

Relegation wise, Portsmouth look absolute certainties to go down. Most soccer betting isn’t even accepting any more bets on this. That is if they aren’t kicked out for bankruptcy. The truth of the matter is they will be lucky if they can compete in the Championship. Bolton and Hull are also in high-danger. Hull only escaped relegation on the final day of the season last year and two years in a row could be too much.

You could also include Burnley, West Ham and Wolves in the mix. It is going to come down to the matches involving these six teams and who gets the points.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about the Australian Open.

20 years On

Who can forget that day in May 1989, when Arsenal won the league with the last kick of the season. Liverpool would go on to win the league the following year but it has the been the last time they have done so. They’ve won three FAC ups and the Champions League since then but it is the lack of a league title which really drives them on.

It is not going to happen this year with Liverpool struggling in 7th spot. Time has caught up to them. They could cover over the cracks while they were still going deep into the Champions League but now they are out of that it’s a different story. True they are still in the Europa League and knowing Rafa Benitez’s luck they will probably win that and in the process grant him a stay of execution. Soccer betting is taking bets as to when he will be sacked. Most people think it will be sooner rather than later.

Arsenal has won the league four times and the FA Cup four times since then. They also were  runners-up in the Champions League in 2006. They have gone close a number of times to winning trophies but for a club of their size, close is no consolation. They haven’t won anything since the 2005 FA Cup and in modern parlance that is an eternity.

Arsenal have a game in hand of Chelsea but are still 8 points behind them. The fact is that Tottenham, Aston Villa and Manchester City have put on a concerted push on the top four which is really making an impact.

Villa travel to Old Trafford on Saturday in what is a huge game. This is a repeat of the Macheda Game when Federico Macheda scored a stunning injury-time goal to hand United a thrilling 3-2 win over Villa. The motivation will be there for Villa to try and exact some sort of revenge.

Elsewhere Spur host Wolves and Man City travel to Bolton. Top of the table Everton host injury-ravaged Everton. If Everton were already stretch thinly enough they will have to make do with the absence of talisman and inspirational leader Tim Cahill. He is suspended for one match but John Heitinga returns after serving his one game suspension. The Toffees are clearly a better side than what the ladder suggests and should improve once some of the players return from the sick bay. This is balanced by the absence of Michael Essien but still Chelsea should be too strong.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about tennis betting.

Man City are growing, keeper states

Manchester City need to maintain the standards they have set in their last two matches to get into the Premier League title race, according to Shay Given.

The Irish keeper has seen his side record wins over both Arsenal and Premier League leaders Chelsea in the last week, with Given saving a late penalty in the latter to ensure his side were victorious.

City had endured a string of seven Premier League draws on the bounce and the victory over Chelsea sees them sit sixth in the table, one point behind Aston Villa with a game in hand.

Mark Hughes’ side are looking to break into the top four to qualify for the Champions League in 2010 and Given admits the players at City had conducted their own inquest into their failings and managed to turn things around.

The former Newcastle goalkeeper told the Manchester Evening News: “The odd rollicking never did anyone any harm if you take it in the right way. We’re all grown men as well, and you have to take criticism when it comes along. We’ve set the bar now and we can’t drop below it.”

City’s defeat of Chelsea at the weekend has helped out their rivals Manchester United’s Premier League title ambitions.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s men managed a 4-0 win away at West Ham to close the gap on their West London rivals to two points.

A Third of the Way Done

We are about a third of the way through the Premier League season. It is a busy time of the year with the 2010 World Cup draw about to take place, European competitions gearing up before they close down for the winter and of course the Premier League.

Now is the time of the year that you want to make your mark. You can climb up the ladder with some great performances and the name of the game is consistency. This week throws up some very interesting match-ups.

On Saturday, Tottenham takes on Aston Villa in a battle of fourth against fifth. Soccer betting has this one just about even. Spurs are flying after their 9-1 demolition of Wigan and Villa are a reliable side who always provide a good contest.

Manchester United travel to last placed Portsmouth and anything could happen here. United are just getting into gear and could run riot. Soccer betting has United as unbackable favorites.

Sunday should be very entertaining. Everton hosts Liverpool in what should be a fascinating Merseyside Derby. Decimated by injury, Everton haven’t been the consistent side they have been in years gone by. They are struggling and are a lot better than where they are placed. Liverpool are in 7th spot and having a nightmare season by their standards. They have also been hit hard by injuries and would love nothing more than to leave Goodison Park with three points.

Following this Arsenal hosts top of the table Chelsea. Arsenal just lost to Sunderland and don’t want to lose more ground on Chelsea. The Blues currently have a lead of eight points and there is a world of difference between it being reduced to five or extended to 11. If Chelsea wins you could just about say with certainty that the premiership is down to a two-horse race.

Arsenal used to be the main rival to United for the title but it looks as though they have been usurped by Chelsea. Could it be time that Arsene Wenger moved on? He has been there a long time and could it be up? They are now signing the quality of the player they used to and it won’t be long until reality sets in at the Emirates. Down the bottom end of the table, Wolves, Bolton and West Ham will be desperate to make up to their slow start to the season and to start winning some games.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about tennis betting.