Guangzhou Evergrande extended their unbeaten run in the Chinese Super League to 11 with a 2-0 win over Shaanxi Chanba on Saturday.It took until late in the second half for them to find the breakthrough but they maintained their hold on top spot with the victory at the Tianhe Stadium.
Brazilian forward Muriqui opened the scoring on 76 minutes before midfielder Wu Pingfeng wrapped up victory in stoppage time.
Beijing Guoan were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw at home to Shandong Luneng.
Australian Joel Griffiths gave Beijing a 49th-minute lead and they looked to be headed for victory until Brazilian Obina struck a late equaliser.
Third-placed Liaoning Hongyun handed struggling Shenzhen Ruby a 6-1 belting.
Midfielder Yu Hanchao scored a brace, while Zhao Junzhe, Yang Xu, Valdo and Xing Xuefei were also on the scoresheet as Liaoning found the net three times in each half.
Only an own goal from Kim Yoo-Jin blemished an otherwise superb performance against bottom-placed Shenzhen.
Elsewhere, a goal from Uruguayan Paulo Pezzolano helped Hangzhou Lucheng to a 1-0 win over Shanghai Shenhua, while Nanchang Bayi slumped to a seventh-straight winless league game as an own goal from Sun Yifan handed Changchun Yatai a 1-0 win.
Qingdao Jonoon and the winless Henan Jianye played out a 1-1 draw, as did Dalian Shide and Tianjin Teda.
Meanwhile, Australian Bruce Djite struck the winner as Jiangsu Shuntian overcame Chengdu Blades 1-0.
After last week’s JPT final defeat at Wembley, Swindon were back in league action yesterday looking to increase the gap at the top of League Two.
However in a dire affair at the County Ground they had to share the spoils with Bristol Rovers after failing to find the cutting edge.
The best chance of the a rather uneventful match fell to Swindon’s Alan Connell whose shot hit the underside of the crossbar before bouncing away from goal after a superb Matt Ritchie cross. Di Canio’s men started brightly and could have been in front in the first few minutes if Jonathan Smith had made a better connection from just inside the box. Rovers tried to keep tight towards wingers Ritchie and Holmes so they could not pose the threat they have so often done this season. Matt Ritchie had a few crunching tackles come his way and after one, he had to receive treatment for a lengthy period due to a reckless challenge on the half-way line.
Rovers really didn’t test Wes Foderingham in the Robins’ net and mainly set out to frustrate the hosts and catch them on counter-attack with the likes of Chris Zebroski and Mustapha Carayol. However Swindon dominated the first half and really should have gone in-front after numerous chances went begging.
Bristol Rovers’ danger man Carayol had to be replaced at the interval after his hamstring started to tighten up, being replaced by Michael Smith. The second half was more of an even affair with Swindon’s chances falling to Ronan Murray and Paul Benson, a long ball over the top to Murray saw Bevan come slightly off his line, Murray then tried to flick the ball over the keepers had but in the end it was an easy save for the former Torquay stopper. Holmes was full of energy and ran at the defence every time he had the chance, he got to the by-line and curled in a right-footed cross towards Benson whom tried a diving header towards to the near post but it just went wide.
Bristol Rovers never really look like scoring themselves but did look a threat on the counter attack as they went forward in search of a winner and the Pirates will probably be the happier of the two sides after this goal-less affair but the point certainly doesn’t harm our title ambitions. We remain two points clear of Torquay but importantly have two games in hand, starting this week away at struggling Barnet.
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Other results in League Two were also beneficial to the Robins’ title hopes yesterday as 10-men Shrewsbury could only draw at home to Aldershot while Crawley were held to a 0-0 draw away at Burton Albion. This means if we can take all three points on Tuesday it will leave us eight points clear of 4th and one step closer to sealing promotion back to League One.
Tottenham firmly announced themselves on the European stage this week, with a comfortable 3-1 defeat of holders Inter Milan. After their impressive by ultimately futile, second half display at the San Siro two weeks ago, this performance had Tottenham legends of the past comparing the victory to some of the club’s most memorable nights.
During a busy week for Spurs, there was also enough time for a controversial late goal conceded last week, and a very interesting game of cat and mouse between Harry Redknapp and the Premier League.
Wednesday’s result has sent the blogging networks into overdrive. There are entries on Gareth Bale’s rise from statistical burden to world beater, Peter Crouch’s none too impressive strike rate since his move from Portsmouth and potential transfer targets for Spurs during January’s window.
As always we also have the best of the web.
Featured articles of the week
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The Premier League’s new comic strip # 2
Walcott and Bale finally fulfilling the hype
Why Peter Crouch needs to take a back seat
Four transfer targets for Tottenham to ponder
Another FIVE things we learnt from Tottenham’s demolition
How Inter star failed his transfer audition at White Hart Lane
Give technology an inch in football, then eventually it will take a mile
One DEAL that Daniel Levy has to get right
There’s simply no better inspiration for Gareth Bale to follow
Spurs, Liverpool, United…whose need for Real Madrid swoop is greater?
WAG Weekly: Bale scores a beauty…well sort off!
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Click here to see the Best TOTTENHAM BLOGS around the Web this week
Best of the Web
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Do you know your history? – Dear Mr Levy
Inter for supper: Trotters for lunch – Spurs Musings with JimmyG2
Bale, Taxis and Two Fiddy’s Up – Who Framed Ruel Fox?
Sign This Petition And Help Get Him Sacked – Harry Hotspur
Another fine mess Mr Clattenburg- Spurs Musings with JimmyG2
Manchester United were pipped to the title on the final day of last season by bitter rivals Manchester City, relinquishing their stranglehold on the league in the process. A key part of manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s gameplan last term was the blooding in of several younger faces, yet the Da Silva twins – Fabio and Rafael – still both struggled for time on the pitch. It begs the question, when will they ever break into the starting eleven?
Liverpool clinched the signings of Florent Sinama Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec in a joint deal back in 2001 from French club Le Harve to much fanfare, reportedly beating off competition from the likes of Juventus and Barcelona in the process after the pair sparkled in the European U-16 Championships and later the U-17 World Championship. At the time, the move was heralded as something of a transfer coup, beating some of Europe’s elite to the signatures of two of its hottest prospects.
However, while at Anfield, they failed to make the grade in the first-team despite their reported huge promise. They were shifted about on loan to various countries in an attempt to grant them the first-team opportunities that they were being deprived of at their parent club before finally being allowed to move on, with Sinama Pongolle moving to Spanish side Recreativo in 2006 and Le Tallec ending up at Le Mans in France in 2008.
I think it’s fair to say that both struggled to live up to the hype and while the Da Silva twins are clearly players of more potential and greater quality, you have to wonder if the two situations are in danger of mirroring themselves with both players being linked with loan moves away this summer.
The Manchester United defence isn’t in the best of shape. It’s sure to be bolstered by the return of club captain and all-round hard egg Nemanja Vidic, alongside either Jonny Evans or Rio Ferdinand in central defence. Then, of course, there are the likes of utility defenders Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, while Patrice Evra firmly remains the club’s first-choice left-back.
Nevertheless, the defence is in more of a state of flux than in years gone by; these are transitional times for the United back four and, you would think, the ideal period for both the Da Silva twins to make their mark, but a series of niggling injuries and penchant for the treatment table have seriously hindered their progress in recent years.
Manchester United have been heavily linked with a move for Everton left-back Leighton Baines this summer, which would indicate that Ferguson has finally cottoned on to the significant drop in performance of Evra over the past year or so. This would indicate two things – firstly, that the club are in the market for a new left back and long-term heir to the Frenchman and secondly, that Ferguson simply doesn’t trust Fabio yet.
Rafael battled gamely with John O’Shea the year before last for the right-back role and with the Irishman having surprisingly been allowed to move to Sunderland at the beginning of last season, the spot was there for the taking, but he went on to make just 18 appearances in total last term and you have to wonder if his chance has now passed, more by circumstance as opposed to any real fault of his own.
They both clearly have fantastic potential – energetic, committed (sometimes too much) and with an excellent work-rate – the only thing really missing is the fact that they lack positional discipline, which is something that’s easily solved the more that they play, but they’ve made just 44 league appearances between them in the last two seasons.
Injuries have hugely restricted their development at a crucial time in their respective careers. Now should be the time when we are talking about how settled the side are when it comes to the full-back positions for the next decade or so, particularly when you consider their age, but it still hasn’t happened yet.
Ferguson has utilised the loan market to his benefit in the past, with Danny Welbeck at Sunderland and Tom Cleverley at Wigan both earning rave reviews playing week-in, week-out which granted them the platform to push on once they returned to Old Trafford, and the Da Silva twins are more than capable of doing the same.
However, with both Welbeck and Cleverley, you could understand why their route into the starting eleven remianed blocked for the time being, considering the established players and depth of talent that they had in front of them, but that simply doesn’t apply to Fabio and Rafael.
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The French pair of Le Tallec and Sinama Pongolle were expected to achieve great things at Anfield but ultimately, they not only fell well short, they were cast by the wayside and there remains a very real worry that Ferguson is beginning to see a future beyond the talented Brazilian twins, instead choosing to cast his eye elsewhere at more reliable and durable options. If they manage to stay at the club next season, it will remain the biggest of their careers, for even the word ‘potential’ has an expiry date on it.
Everton duo Tony Hibbert and Leon Osman have both put pen to paper on two-year contract extensions to keep them at Goodison Park until the summer of 2014.
Right-back Hibbert and midfielder Osman, both 29, have spent the whole of their careers to date with the Toffees and are more than happy to stay put.
Hibbert told the club’s official website: It is good to have a couple more years on top of what I had. We have come through as two local lads and made a good career, so it is pleasing.”
Osman added:“I’m feeling great, it has been under discussion for a few weeks and I’m really happy to put pen to paper.
“There was never any question that I wanted to extend. We are really happy to be at a club of this stature.”
Meanwhile, manager David Moyes is hopeful that his side can build on their 2-0 Merseyside derby win over Liverpool and push up the Premier League table.
He commented:“We think we’re a side who are good enough to be at the top end of the league.
“We didn’t show that in the opening games of the season. We were all a bit surprised by it after the way we’d finished the season before.
“You need to get on runs in this league. We probably played better in other games than we did against Liverpool last week and didn’t win.
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“Let’s just hope we’re on that run that wins us games now.”
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Martin O’Neill is reportedly in line to replace Avram Grant as West Ham United manager, regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s match against Arsenal.West Ham are bottom of the English Premier League, but have lost only one of their last seven games under Grant, seemingly earning the former Chelsea manager a stay of execution.
West Ham beat Birmingham City 2-1 in a Carling Cup semi-final first leg on Tuesday, but it appears even having one foot in a Wembley final will not be enough to dissuade West Ham owners David Gold and David Sullivan from showing Grant the exit.
The 55-year-old Israeli, who took over at Upton Park with a four-year deal in June 2010, has been consistently linked with the sack throughout a difficult first half of the season for West Ham.
He left Fratton Park after failing to save Portsmouth from relegation in 2009/10 and was also removed as Chelsea manager in 2008, despite guiding both clubs to the FA Cup and Champions League finals respectively.
Survival specialist Sam Allardyce, who was dismissed from Blackburn Rovers in December, had been tipped to replace Grant, but O’Neill has now emerged as the surprise front-runner.
The 58-year-old Northern Irishman – a former Leicester City and Celtic boss – made an abrupt exit from Aston Villa at the beginning of the season.
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After reportedly walking out of Villa Park due to transfer budget cuts and a perceived lack of ambition from the club’s owner, he is an unlikely choice to take over at relegation-threatened West Ham.
West Ham host title challengers Arsenal at Upton Park on Saturday.
Arsenal have agreed terms with Nuri Sahin, who will now move to north London on a season-long loan according to The Daily Mail.
The Emirates Stadium club are eager to bring in an extra central midfielder after selling Alex Song to Barcelona, and have been in pursuit of the Real Madrid playmaker for the last fortnight.
Sahin has found his opportunities in the Spanish capital limited since moving to the Santiago Bernabeu from Borussia Dortmund last year, and has prospects with Jose Mourinho’s team for 2012-13 were not good.
However, Sahin is eager to reignite his career with Arsene Wenger’s men, who have beaten off competition from Liverpool and AC Milan for the Turkey international’s hand.
There was a stall over the deal between the clubs, but a fee of £14 million has been agreed should the Gunners want to make Sahin’s move permanent next summer.
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Tottenham Hotspur number one Brad Friedal took to Twitter to share his anger at comments made by former Manchester United and France goalkeeper Fabien Barthez in regards to Hugo Lloris’ situation at White Hart Lane.
Lloris, who impressed on his Spurs debut in midweek, has been told that Friedel is still the number one choice between the sticks by manager Andre Villas-Boas but Barthez felt that was wrong.
“Lloris is one of the five best goalkeepers in the world.” Barthez had said last week.
“He is faster than Friedel, he jumps higher, and he is very strong mentally. What is happening now is incomprehensible, but I am not concerned. He will become the centre-piece for the club.
“Hugo is a calm guy, a good worker. Tottenham will not let him stay on the bench for a long time.”
But Friedel has acted angrily to the comments and felt they were ‘ignorant and disrespectful’.
“Just saw barthez comments. I normally don’t comment on such crap but when disrespected by someone I don’t respect I must.” Friedel wrote on his personal Twitter account (@friedel_b).
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“Barthez was ignorant, disrespectful and out of order to mention my name.”
Andre Villas-Boas will probably already be making an intricate set of preparations for his side’s trip to Reading this Sunday and there can be no doubts that however he chooses to set his team up, they’re in dire need of attaining all three points.
The set-up in which the Portuguese has adopted since his arrival in North London, has of course been the current 4-2-3-1 set-up, which has certainly not been without it’s set of teething problems. Of course, the fact that he was employed with this ethos in mind, yet failed to attain a set of players able to play it properly till the end of the transfer window, hasn’t helped anybody. Spurs’ chairman Daniel Levy certainly made life tough on the ex-Chelsea man for his team’s first three league fixtures.
Yet when Emmanuel Adebayor is fit enough to lead Spurs’ line of attack on his own and Moussa Dembele is able to start from the off in a deeper midfield role, Villas-Boas should have the tools to get his new system firing on all cylinders. Of course, the touted transfer of Joao Moutinho would have been catalyzed Spurs’ transition to with far, far greater ease, but the side looks far more suited to playing in this way than what it has for their opening games.
However, Tottenham’s well oiled machine of last season may have undergone wholesale changes, but a few of the old cogs are still massively prominent in its post-Redknapp facelift; and it remains to be seen whether these cogs, predominantly to the names of Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon, can work effectively under Andre Villas-Boas’ stewardship.
Spurs’ opener against Newcastle at St. James Park last month may have ended in defeat, but the suggestions were that their all important wingmen in chief, were up to the task of playing in a more varied role. Gareth Bale seemingly spent the second half of last season auditioning for a more central role and he seemed more than happy to oblige, picking the ball up from a variety of positions and causing all sorts of problems; even hitting the bar with a header at one point.
Likewise, Aaron Lennon seemed to be popping up all over the shop, dinking balls in from both the left and the right. Indeed, Jermain Defoe’s equalizer at the time came as a result from one of Lennon’s forays from the left hand side. It seemed that although there was work still to be done, both of Spurs’ wingers were up to the task of playing in the Villas-Boas’ three behind the frontman.
The last two games, however, seem to have counterbalanced the real positives that fans took from the seasons opener. As stated, it is both unfair and unrealistic to judge Villas-Boas entirely from three games in which he hasn’t had the right players to play the system he’s been brought in to employ- and part of that blame must lie with the chairman. But the problem is, two of his sides’ most lethal assets have carved their reputations playing in a different role. A role that has in no small part, defined a large part of Spurs’ recent success.
Looking backwards is by no means going to help the club move forwards, although Redknapp’s side was focused upon a very traditional sense of wing play. The emphasis of their play has always revolved around getting the balls out to the flanks and letting both Bale and Lennon cause carnage. Be it the balls the pair put into the box, the space they made from searing runs at defenders or their craft at cutting back inside, they have made both their own names and that of their teams’ on the back of such play.
No one can deny that for all it’s success and swashbuckling style, the 4-4-1-1 itself had it’s fair share of tactical faults. But importantly, it was the pair of Bale and Lennon that made it tick. Andre Villas-Boas new system is one that is very much embraced by the top European sides and is very much in keeping with the modern game. Contrary to what the doubters or those of the old-school may say, there is absolutely no reason why it can’t work at Tottenham Hotspur. But whether it can work with both Bale and Lennon in it, remains to be seen.
Because in both home games against West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City, Spurs have looked disjointed- particularly going forward. No one denies that the new regime will take time to implement, but it has been the lack of cohesion and direction that has been particularly worrying. The three behind the striker must be mobile, quicksilver but perhaps just as importantly, they must have a degree of tactical nous. Getting two traditional wingers to play in this way is asking questions of Bale and Lennon- and they’re both giving some uncertain answers.
Gareth Bale has been creating opportunities throughout all three games, but again, they’ve come from his traditional marauding raids down the left-flank. This isn’t to say that Villas-Boas set-up can’t allow for these runs, in the slightest. But both Bale’s and Tottenham’s most prominent opportunities have come from his traditional wing play. Not his stuttering and often ineffective play more centrally. Last season he showed a continuous desire to move in from the left hand side, but bar his virtuoso performance away at Norwich, he often failed to make an impression. He will need time to adapt, but he must show more to suggest he has a real future playing in this role.
Aaron Lennon also has looked uncomfortable at times playing in his newer role. He naturally wants to get chalk on his boots and run at his man. Intelligent movement has never been the fulcrum of his game because it doesn’t need to be- he does one thing, but he does it very well. There is nothing wrong with that. But the problem is if both Bale and Lennon revert back to their natural instincts, then the system will ultimately be doomed to failure. The system needs them to be able to make an impact more centrally as they have to chip in with the goals to make it stick.
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There’s nothing to say that both Bale and Lennon can’t refine their roles in this team. Nothing happens overnight and they’ve both had to play in a system, as the rest of the side has, that hasn’t had the players to cater to it. But unfairly or not, the side is already under a real level of extrinsic pressure and Villas-Boas can’t afford to give them half a season to make it work. He simply doesn’t have the time.
The sticking point is that both Lennon and particularly Bale’s ability are too important for Spurs to leave out- even if he wanted to, there simply aren’t any viable alternatives. Villas-Boas must be brave and he must stick with his philosophy and what he believes in. But these are the tools of which he has to work with and if until January he can’t get them to adapt, he must do whatever it takes to do so. And the realties of that aren’t particularly easy at all.
What do you think about Bale and Lennon’s role in this Spurs team? How long can AVB afford to give them to adapt and can they both co-exist in the new set-up? Let me know what you’d do on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and bat me all your views.
Ambitious Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg have made a £25 million bid for Manchester United winger Nani, according to The Daily Mail.
The Portugal international is out of favour with Sir Alex Ferguson, and his future is unclear as negotiations over a new contract have broken down with the Old Trafford club.
With added competition for places in the Red Devils’ squad Nani has been linked with a move elsewhere, with Juventus known admirers of the tricky wideman.
However, Zenit are eager to wrap-up a deal for the player before the close of the transfer window and have tested United’s resolve with a large bid.
The player’s representatives are said to have met with the eastern European powerhouses in Amsterdam on Monday, with a move now dependent on whether Sir Alex Ferguson wants to cash in on the star.
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