Match report sunderland 2-0 arsenal

Sunderlands good run of form since martin o neil joined as boss conitinued as they beat arsenal 2-0 to put themselves into the quater finals of the fa cup with budwiser. However that result did absolutly nothing to ease pressure on gunners boss Arsene wenger.
Fourth in the premier league pretty much out of the uefa champions league due to the 4-0 defeat to ac milan in midweek arsenal look like their goinf to have a seventh consecutive trophiles season.

The game started in a end to end fasion with sunderland just about edgeing the game and creating the better of the chances . Arsenal where later in the second half punished for giving a way a free kick slopperly when Sebastian larsonn crossed to find kieron richardson who smashed a shot into the far corner.
In the second half arsenal did pressure but never really made a proper chance and eventually sunderland scored when Alex Oxlade Chamberlin turned Seb larsons shot into his own net.
The game finished 2-0 at again mr wenger is centre of attention but sunderlans performance was top class . The makems will now play everton away in the quater final

Weekend review

This weekend in england has been fa cup 5th round week, if your team is lucky enough to still be in the competition.also this weekend has but two managers under extreme pressure Andre villas boas (chlesea) ,and Arsene wenger (arsenal). Chelsea despite playing a full strenth team drew 1-1 at home to championship side Birmingham and Arsenal lost 2-0 To sunderland at the Stadium Of Light
With kieron richardson on the scoresheet. In other games this weekend in the Fa cup Stoke city despite going down to 10 men early beat League 2 crawley 2-0,also Bolton made up for last weeks horror show against wigan with a much needed 2-0 win and championship strugglers millwall.Probably of the biggest shocks of the 5th round was leicsters win at mid table premier league side norwich
At carrow road.Leicter took the lead before Norwich equalised through wes Hoolahan but in the second half david nugent finished brilliantly to secure His team won 2-1 and are in to the quater finals one game from wembley.Also stevenage v spurs will go to a replay as the game finished 0-0 but didnt lack exitement. In the other sunday game liverpool beat brighton 6-1 .In the n power championship southampton took full advantage of west ham not playing as they thrashed Derby 4-0 at Home. Also Leeds' New boss Niel Warnock was in the stand to see his new team beat Bristol city 3-2 despite bieng 2-0 down

The relegation battle 2011/12

I think there are five teams who are in seirios danger of facing the dreaded drop wigan,bolton,blackburn,qpr,and wolves. But all of those teams can get out of it if they string a decent run together

Why these teams are here

Bolton

I didnt expect them to be where they are but losing their to best players in the summer sturrige and elmander didnt help with no real replecement being brought in by owen coyle. also, this seasons defending from bolton has been below par also if they want to stay up they must improve their home form.

Wigan

Wigan always seem to be in the bottom 3 at this stage in the season ,and somehow find a way to avoid relegation. but the reason they are down here this season is because of their lack of goals and pace upfront , but saturdays 2-1 win against local rivals bolton has lifted spirits around the DW stadium there next few games are winnable with 2 home games agaknst swansea ,and villa amongst them.

Blackburn

Well again its their defending thats put them where they are ,also the protests against manager steve kean have really not helped at all and have only really put a gloomy affect around ewood park and have caused blackburn to play much worse in that particular game. However in the recent defeat at arsenal in witch they lost 7-1 they can have no complaints


Wolves

Wolves are down at the wrong end of the table for not simply converting te chances they create, aslo they struggle to keep a lead.and key players like mathew jarvis , and kevin doyle havent played up to their potential so far.

Qpr .

There is no doubt in mind that there squad has talent, but there is so many players there that team morale cant be good players like dj cambell have bearly had a sniff of action all season, also a problem is there defence but mark hughes chould sort that out.


What players can provide the spark to keep their team up

Bolton : mark davies

The midfielders driving runs from midfield are going to be needed if bolton are to survive, aslo he needs to start scoring more goals.

Wigan : victor moses

The pacy winger needs to carry on playing how he is playing, but also chould do with getting a few more assists , and goals due to wigans strikers failing to score.

Blackburn : yakubu
He is a proven goalscorer at this level, and he has been the main source of goals for rovers so far, so he needs to be firing.

Qpr : joey barton he makes the midfield tick if he is on form, And will create chances galore for the strikers if he is playing well.


Wolves : steven fletcher

Wolves create many chances, so fletcher needs to fire , also he must stay fit.


The teams ratings and where i think they will finish

Wolves 3/5

At times this season wolves have looked like they have a chance of staying up , but recent results especially at home have dampend there chances of staying in the premier league and sacking manager mick mcarthty was not a wise move.

I think they will finish 19th

Wigan 4/5

Wigan have been inconsistent this season what the pattern has been is go on a losing streek of about 7 games and then have a mini revival for about 5 games.but if wigan are to stay up they need to improve their home form and score more goals,however i think roberto martinez' men have what it takes to beat the 'dreaded drop'

Predicted finish 17th


Bolton 2/5

Bolton,Bolton,Bolton Where has it gone wrong this season?

Bolton have lacked firepower this season and there defending is a shadow of last season.On paper boltons strike force isnt to bad with players like martin petrov, David ngog , mark davies, tuncay and more all bieng proven top-flight players.
This season has been extremly poir and i cant see where it stops as tere confidence is certinetly the lowest out of all the 5 in this scrap also the january buys arent up to standered

Predicted finish 20th


Qpr 3.5/5

I really cant understand why the hoops are down in this dog fight there strikeforce is europa league quality and even since the january buys have come in results have not improved at all tey chould do with taarbat and barton creating chances now and scoring to.
I think that they will go down simply because they need to 're gell " wotch chould take months also they have a very big squad so many players will be unsetteled.



Predicted finish 18th

Blackburn 4/5

Similar to wigan inconsistent but different to each of there other relegation rivals they have a striker who will score goals, yakubu the nigerian has provided many goals at vital times for rovers this season and, if he can keep firing expect a fight from blackburn

Predicted finish 16th

Monday Madness!

Redknapp's applies for England job! 

Twitter's community of football fans have been having their fun at the expense of Harry Redknapp - mocking up a joke application for the vacant England job that's gone viral. 

Clarke Carlisle for England?

The Burnley defender, on loan at Northampton Town, revealed his shock on Twitter after finding out he was a 500/1 long shot with bookmakers to replace Fabio Capello, who resigned from his position on Wednesday afternoon.

‘Ha Ha!! Apparently I'm 500/1 for the England job!!!!! Utterly ludicrous!!,’ said the 32-year-old on his social network page. 

  

The next Suárez?

A young Aston Villa mascot showed that kids really can be influenced by Premier League stars, by seemingly refusing to shake hands with a rival one day after Luis Suárez's high-profile snub of Patrice Evra. 

It was the cat's fault!

Sergio Busquets seemed to get a serious knee injury the same night a black cat rat across the Camp Nou. It happened at Anfield in Liverpool's stalemate with Tottenham!

Tevez: mancini treated me like a dog

Carlos tevez will resume his manchester city career despite accusing city boss roberto mancini of treating him "like a dog".

In an interview with an argentinen newspaper the striker goes on to say the city boss swore at him and said "horrible things" after he apparently refused to warm up in citys 2-0 defeat in munich in september.

Tevez did add
"hopefully i can return to help city be champions again"

He will add to citys strong (very strong) attacking line with great players such as nasri david silva aguero dzeko ballotelli milner and more.

Weekend review

Quite a eventfull weekend this and it all kicked off well in the premier league when luis suarez refused to shake patrice evra's hand in the 12:45 kick off at old trafford witch man united won 2-1 a great start to the weekend (from a neutral perspective anyway) .

Then in the 3.00 kick offs there was a equal amount of excitement as especially at the bottom of the table results were intresting like wigan winning 2-1 at bolton and blackburn beating qpr 3-2 despite a late revival from the visitors.in other games thierry henry provided a great end to his loan spell at arsenal as he fired in a late goal at sunderland witch saw the gunners win 2-1 also everton beat chelsea 2-0 to heep presure under andre villas boas. In la liga barcelona sufferd a shock defeat 3-2 to oasasuna

Sunday was also entertaning as wolves lost 5-1 at home to black- country rivals west brom (ouch!) a result that saw wolves boss mick mcarthy lose his job . Also man city won 1-0 at aston villa.

In the championship southampton beat burnely 2-0 to move 1 point behind top of the table west ham , however west hams game at peotoborough was called off. In other results reading beat bottom club coventry 2-0,milwall drew 0-0 at home to Derby county , also leicester beat cardiff 2-1 .

Africa Cup of Nations 2012: Team Reports

★=Shocking

★★=Bad

★★★=OK

★★★★=Good

★★★★★=Excellent

Group A:

Equatorial Guinea: ★★★★★

Considering they were ranked 151 in the world (worst ranking in the competition), qualifying for the last 8 would be almost impossible. They showed great organisation and managed to finish the group in second place after beating Libya 1-0 and Senegal 2-1 after a 95th minute goal. However, their dream run ended with a 3-0 loss the Ivory Coast in the quarters.

Best player: Kily Gonzalez. Had an amazing game against Senegal. He plays for a Spanish 4th division side and scored the winner against footballers at some of the biggest clubs in the world.

Libya: ★★★

Just months earlier, Libya was in crisis with the revelution and Gadaffi. Their players were stranded. They hadn't played football for a year. They came into the competiton not expecting much. They ended up 3rd in Group A.

Best player: Ahmed Osman. Scored 2 of Libya's goals and was simply their best player.

Senegal: ★

Everyone expected Senegal to do well. They were the third favourites but had a shocking tournament. They lost every game in their group. It wasn't even a tough group.

Best player: The woodwork. That's how bad they were.

Zambia: ★★★★★

The champions! Their aim was to honour the Zambian footballers who died in a plane crash in Libreville in 1993. 19 years on, they won the competition in a final hosted in the same city. They just wanted to do well and make Zambia proud. Instead, they did much, much more. Definitely deserved to win it as they beat teams like Senegal, Ghana and Ivory Coast on the way.

Best player: Christopher Katongo. Their captain guided them to their historic win.

Group B:

Angola: ★★

Won their first match but just seemed to disintegrate from there onwards. Unlucky to have gone out on goal difference to Sudan. But still should've done better.

Best player: Manucho. It was a 1 sided team, really. No-one else played extremely well.

Burkina Faso: ★★

Not a nation famous for its footballing talent, except for the Kaboré brothers. Played quite poorly though and lost every match. Didn't do Angola a favour by losing to minnows Sudan.

Best player: Alain Traoré. No-one really stood out but he scored an awesome free-kick against Angola. That's the only reason why.

Ivory Coast: ★★★★

Their "golden generation" just had to win the competition this year. The last few years they have come so close but this year they had a perfect opportunity with most of the big teams not even qualifying. Their world superstars walked through their qualifying group. They walked through every game infact. Going into the final against Zambia, they had won every match and not conceded a single goal at all. Would they become the first team to do so? No. They became the first team not to win the competition after getting clean sheets in every match, instead.

Best player: Boubacar Barry. Everyone played well but Barry didn't let a single goal in.

Sudan: ★★★★★

They just somehow managed to creep into the Last 8. This was the first time they qualified for the competition in 42 years. They were the second worst ranked team in the competition - and it showed. But as I said, they creeped in after beating Burkina Faso in the last match. They lost to Zambia in the Last 8, 3-0, by the way.

Best player: Mudathir. For trying to replicate Maradona's hand of God. It didn't work.

Group C:

Gabon: ★★★★★

Gabon were excellent. They played like contendors for the competition. They claimed a historic win against Morocco after M'Banangoye curled in a free kick in the 98th minute to make it 3-2 to Gabon. They were inspired by key players Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Daniel Cousin. Sadly, they went out to a penalty shootout against Mali.

Best player: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. This guy is amazing. He's got speed and flar. He'll get signed up by a big team definitely.

Morocco: ★★

They were great against Tunisia. But they lost. They were great against Gabon. But they lost. They were unlucky in the compeition.

Best player: Houssine Kharja. Scored three goals in three matches. Was a great leader for Morocco.

Niger: ★★

Nigeria didn't qualify this year, but neighbours Niger did. The poor country from West Africa were drawn in a tough group with Morocco, Tunisia and Gabon.

Best player: Tonji N'Gounou. Scored Niger's first ever AFCON goal.

Tunisia: ★★★

They haven't been consistent at all. Their qualifying campaign wasn't convincing and neither have the finals. Tunisia managed to get to the quarters but lose to Ghana after extra time.

Best player: Youssef Msakni. He set up most of Tunisia's goals and scored two himself.

Group D:

Botswana: ★★

They aren't recognised for footballing ability and they didn't surprise us either. They did lose 6-1 to Guinea though.

Best player: Mogakolodi Ngele. Because he scored. That's it.

Ghana: ★★★

Over the last few years, Ghana have been impressive. Winning the U20 World Cup in 2009 and reaching the Quarters in the World Cup in 2010. However, this year, they weren't as impressive. Maybe because they didn't have key player Kevin-Prince Boateng?

Best player: John Mensah. He was sent off twice but the defender did score two crucial goals for Ghana.

Guinea: ★★★

They beat Botswana 6-1. But still went out. They played well but they just didn't get through. They had a tough group, though. With Ghana and Mali.

Best player: Abdoul Camara. Controlled the right wing in their matches.

Mali: ★★★★

Had a great competition. Came third. They lost to Ghana in the group stage but reversed that in the 3rd place match. They also faced a nervy penalty shootout against Gabon in the quarters. They played quite well, Mali.

Best player: Seydou Keita. The Barcelona midfielder was Mali's key player and leader.

So that's my opinion on the teams this year. Some of the big teams didn't even qualify. This gave the not-so-good teams a chance and they took it (except for Botswana losing 6-1 to Mali)! A few big shocks. Senegal were shocking. Zambia were excellent.

Suárez: I'm sorry

Liverpool's Luis Suárez has apologised for not shaking Patrice Evra's hand before the Man Utd v Liverpool game. 

His statement on the Liverpool website reads:

"I have spoken with the manager since the game at Old Trafford and I realise I got things wrong. I've not only let him down, but also the Club and what it stands for and I'm sorry. I made a mistake and I regret what happened. I should have shaken Patrice Evra's hand before the game and I want to apologise for my actions. I would like to put this whole issue behind me and concentrate on playing football."

Match report: Bolton 1-2 Wigan Athletic

This relegation six pointer went to wigan but in truth it should have finished more than 2-1. early on in the match franco di santo forced a good save off wanderes keeper adam bogdan also victor moses drilled a shot into the side netting before all wigans pressing payed off when caldwells header from jean beausejours corner looped into the top corner after 43 mins .the second half started in a similar fashion with wigan creating many chances and james macarthur should of scored from a victor moses cross before kevin davies ought to have been sent off for a lunge on maynor figueroa . Wigan where mayed to pay for missed chances when mark davies scored from a lump upfield by keeper bogdan but shortly after james macarthur made up for his earlier miss when he converted victor moses' shot into a empty net and wigan held on well for the remaining 10 mins to secure a vital victory witch leavs them within 2 points off 16th

Man of the match:
Gary caldwell wigan
Scored a great header and kept bolton at bay well

bolton v wigan preview

As the bottom six go head-to-head across the country over the weekend, nowhere will the stakes be any higher than at the Reebok Stadium.
Bolton Wanderers versus Wigan Athletic might not readily quicken the pulse-rate of the neutral, but for supporters of these two clubs this fixture has loomed large since the New Year. both teams need the win and if ethier lose there season looks is doubt and its away days at coverntry and petobourgh look likely on the other hand a win chould kickstart a season especially as its a local derby.